WhatWhyHowPython
I asked Tres Seaver before he joined digital creations, "Why do you use Python, why not Java?" He answered, "because I can do the same thing in Python in 1/3 the time and with 1/4 amount of the code." I use Java at work (not by choice) and can vouch for the time taken to develop java projects, especially software development using anything inside of the J2EE specification. Python development does take much less time, in my limited experience with the language. Here are some links to supporting evidence:
- Python website
- Guido's (Pythons creator) comparison of Python to Other Languages
- Python FAQs
John Ousterhout's white paper Scripting: Higher Level Programming for the 21st Century explains why scripting languages are so successful. it is biased towards Tcl, but the argument works for Python just as well.