Alex Martelli (uber-tech-lead at Google) writes in a thread on Google’s use of Python. I’d heard before but it is nice to see it confirmed:
“YouTube (one of Google’s most valuable properties) is essentially all-Python”
and there’s a link to a short slide presentation on Making YouTube Scalable with Python. He makes the following point about their general philosophy:
“Python where we can, C++ where we must”
A jucier quote, referencing a nanovirus that might mysteriously drop from the sky and attack Google:
“if the mutant space-eating nanovirus should instantly stop the execution of all Python code, the powerful infrastructure that has been often described as “Google’s secret weapon” would seize up. “
Greg Stein (chairman of Apache, big-wig engineer at Google) also states in early 2006 that Python is used for:
“…A few services including code.google.com and google groups.”
It is always nice to hear that Python is used on the larger projects, not just behind the scenes.