[johndcook]

I suppose there are degrees of how free your choices are. Do people choose to use JavaScript for client-side scripting? Technically you have other options, but most people write JavaScript whether they like it or not.

I often write R, not because I want to, but because I'm working with people who don't know any other language. In that case I choose to write R, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it.

[sasha-dv]

I agree.

I was just pointing out that what you said about Python I could say about Ruby or Perl, some other guy about C++, ...

For example, I hate significant white space and if I had to use Python I would be miserable, but for you it's the best language in the world.

Sure, we can argue about what percent of the total users of a given language would use it if they had a freedom to choose a different one.

[johndcook]

Another way to put it would be to say that some languages are easier to avoid than others. I claim that it's easier to avoid Python than it is to avoid, for example, JavaScript.