@array Python gets used by a lot of non-programmers, (Data-scientists) and the like, because it's easy to write stuff in, so I think that is a part of it. It also early got good bindings to Machine Learning Suites, which did propel it forward, I think python's popularity has a lot to do with the libraries that is available to it, it's the thing that makes me want to try it out again some times :)