How I ended up selecting Python for my latest project

It's interesting to see how people choose languages for projects, but it's also important to realize that "one" isn't necessarily the best choice. I think of programming languages as targeting tasks, not whole projects.

I've successfully merged multiple languages many times. You can save a lot of time if you know the strengths of each language and have learned how to combine them (e.g. SWIG bindings, wrappers around Objective-C modules, process invocations to run scripts).

In addition to benefits in exploiting languages for what they're "best at", it is great for bringing people into your project. Invariably the code will be partitioned into a more advanced "core" (e.g. C++) with some significant things in higher-level languages like Python. So the probability increases that a newcomer will see something familiar, and be able to understand major parts of the code quickly.

If he ended up choosing PHP, this thread would be full of hate. Since his choice is python, everyone is happy :-)

It's funny - I went through this exact same process a few weeks ago (similar background to the author's too) and also ended up choosing Python.

This is a great posting about how the author determined what he was most comfortable with and what worked for his needs.

Do what works best for you and what you are comfortable with.

Good choice.