As an update: Python 3k solves the namespace issue you mention. (And I hope more and more dev's will finally move on, I love it and only can say it is 100% wort

As an update: Python 3k solves the namespace issue you mention. (And I hope more and more dev's will finally move on, I love it and only can say it is 100% worth the switch! I'll never again code in pre-3k if not forced to.) And no, I am not saying that Python outperforms Java, obviously. But it can provide very decent performance at very low LOCs. And then you can identify the bottlenecks and implement that part in C. Overall, a much faster approach than writing in Java (and, obviously, than writing in pure C) with final performance rates beating a JVM easily. EDIT: No, that is actually even too complicated than what I mostly need to do: For the real bottlenecks I usually just need to find the C library that solves that hard part (e.g., some number-crunching stuff I am doing) and already has a Python wrapper, or you generate one (hello SWIG), or, worst case, you really have to write one (yet have to find that case, although).