This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Python Buzz by Jarno Virtanen. Original Post: Some ad hoc thoughts on Python and mobile phones Feed Title: Python owns us Feed URL: http://sedoparking.com/search/registrar.php?domain=®istrar=sedopark Feed Description: A weblog about Python from the view point of Jarno Virtanen. Latest Python Buzz Posts Latest Python Buzz Posts by Jarno Virtanen Latest Posts From Python owns us

I do not think that "Python for Nokia" would be cool just because the nouns in the phrase are "Python" and "Nokia". Rather, I think Python would be almost a perfect fit for development on mobile phones. While I can see that Java has advantages over Python (say, standardized application servers) in the so called enterprise development and in large scale software development, I think that Python could be superior on mobile phones.

Java is all about complex, flexible, (over-)engineered, and powerful object oriented architectures. Python is all about simple, straight-forward, readable and (somewhat) flaky get-things-done modules.

Give me

[(entry.name, entry.number) for entry in phonebook if
entry.number.startswith('040')] 

over

ArrayList zeroForties = new ArrayList();
Iterator it = phonebook.iterator();
while (it.hasNext()) {
    Entry entry = (Entry) it.next();
    if (entry.getNumber().startswith("040")) {
        zeroForties.add(entry);
    }
}

any time.

Python is more of "ad hoc development" whereas Java is more of "design up-front". (And I am not saying that design up-front is bad.) Sure, not everything in Python is "ad hoc" nor everything in Java is "design up-front", but you get the point. Development on mobile phones can be a little ad hoc, because you won't be doing projects lasting a year or two with more-than-one team members. You can try things out, you can fiddle around. You can even do dirty little quick hacks, or you can glue some temporary work-arounds. And when it comes to getting from an idea to a working prototype, there is nothing faster than Python in the whole wide world for me.