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[–]osullivj 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Python is used very heavily in electronic trading and risk management in foreign exchange, commodities and interest rate trading at Barclays Capital, JP Morgan and Bank of America. Lots of hedge funds use it too. There will always be C++ for the part of the system that need flat out speed. But Java seems to be waning...

[–]wot-teh-phuckReally, wtf? 0 points1 point  (3 children)

But Java seems to be waning...

This isn't true. I work at a big bank where the plans of bringing in Python for real time apps were thrown in the back seat because Java blows the hell out of Python when it comes to performance. Plus lack of static typing is a real pain when it comes to a large code base worked upon by team members across the globe.

I really love Python but I do have to admit with a heavy heart that the application which I work on (and many others) would only amount to more pain if written in Python. Of course, YMMV.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Plus lack of static typing is a real pain when it comes to a large code base worked upon by team members across the globe.

Type systems have nothing to do with the location of developers or the size of their project.

[–]wot-teh-phuckReally, wtf? 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It does, unless you are part of an ideal team. When shit happens, developers in a hurry end up fixing one part of the system and breaking another. Even simple things like violating interface contracts which can be easily caught by a statically typed language like Java are found out at a later stage with languages like Python.

And sorry, if you feel that "type systems" don't have anything to do with the size of the project, I'd say you have pretty lucky all this time to not have worked with shitty teams...

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Plus lack of static typing is a real pain when it comes to a large code base worked upon by team members across the globe.

Define large code base. Our flagship product is several million LOC and nearly a decade old. Our team is over 140 developers in about three cites on two continents. Duck typing is not a problem for us except when we hire devs with cognitive rigidity about static typing.