[pypy-svn] rev 1960 - pypy/trunk/doc/funding

[lac at codespeak.net]

Author: lac
Date: Wed Oct 15 14:23:47 2003
New Revision: 1960

Modified:
   pypy/trunk/doc/funding/Z1_background.txt
Log:
modified the background.



Modified: pypy/trunk/doc/funding/Z1_background.txt
==============================================================================
--- pypy/trunk/doc/funding/Z1_background.txt	(original)
+++ pypy/trunk/doc/funding/Z1_background.txt	Wed Oct 15 14:23:47 2003
@@ -5,46 +5,41 @@
 ---------------------------
 
 Python is a portable, interpreted, object-oriented Very-High Level
-Language (VHLL).  Python has tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of
-active developers, which makes it one of the top ten most popular
-programming languages in the world. Some other languages, specifically
-C, C++, Java, Perl, and Visual Basic, have even larger user bases but
-they are either proprietary or rather low-level languages.  On the other
-hand, the languages which most excite the Computer Science Research
-community -- Self, Lisp, Haskell, Limbo, ML, and so on -- are nowhere on
-this list, yet they are the targets of most European academic research
-and innovation.  Thus European economic competitiveness suffers.  The
-innovative research lives in academia, trapped in languages that are
-rarely used for commercial development.
-
-Of the more popular languages, two, Java and Visual Basic are
-proprietary.  Sun Microsystems owns Java, and Microsoft owns Visual
-Basic.  Any company which writes its software in Java or Visual Basic is
-at the mercy of these large American companies.  This is a real, not
-theoretical, threat.  In 2002, Microsoft announced that it would no
-longer be supporting Visual Basic 6.0 after the year 2005.  All Visual
-Basic Developers have been told to convert their code to run under
-Microsoft's new .NET framework.  In 2001 Microsoft immediately stopped
-supporting its Visual J++ language, meant to be a direct competitor with
-Java, after settling a lawsuit with Sun Microsystems.  Microsoft is
-making these decisions because they make business sense for Microsoft,
-regardless of the effects on businesses who develop software using
-Microsoft proprietary software.
-
-Maybe even more important, proprietary licensing policies make it
-expensive and sometimes impossible to adapt these languages to
-specialized hardware.  
+Language (VHLL).  Python is believed to have nearly two hundred
+thosand active developers, which makes it one of the top ten most
+popular programming languages in the world. Some other languages,
+specifically C, C++, Java, Perl, and Visual Basic, have even larger
+user bases but they are either proprietary or rather low-level
+languages.  On the other hand, the languages which most excite the
+Computer Science Research community -- Self, Lisp, Haskell, Limbo, ML,
+and so on -- are nowhere on this list, yet they are the targets of
+most European academic research and innovation.  Thus European
+economic competitiveness suffers.  The innovative research lives in
+academia, trapped in languages that are rarely used for commercial
+development.  Instead, commercial companies have turned to offerings
+from closed-source American companies.  This is risky. 
+American companies must act in their own business interests, not in
+their customers interests, whenever they conflict.  Perhaps even more
+important, proprietary licensing policies make it expensive and
+sometimes impossible to adapt these languages to specialized hardware.
 
+Python is a successful attempt to built a commercially robust language
+(not an academic toy) that is an Open Source alternative.  
 
 European SMEs are moving to Free/Open Source platforms
 ------------------------------------------------------
 
-In the face of these threats and flexibility problems, European SMEs are
-moving to Free/Open Source languages such as Python.  In the year 2002,
-a group of SME's who rely on the Python programming language came
-together to form the Python Business Forum (www.python-in-business.org),
-at EuroPython, the European Python Community Conference
-(www.europython.org).
+In the face of these threats and flexibility problems, European SMEs
+are moving to Free/Open Source languages such as Python. This gives
+the Python language developers a larger user-base, with commercial
+concerns not seen in academia.  In order to properly present this
+concerns, and to leverage business acumen and cooporate on shared
+goals, a group of SME's who rely on the Python programming language
+came together to form the Python Business Forum
+(www.python-in-business.org), at EuroPython, the European Python
+Community Conference (www.europython.org).  The PBF is modelled
+after Lantbrukarnas Riksförbund - the non-profit Federation of Swedish 
+Farmers, and is registered as a Non-Profit.
 
 Advancing the Python platform
 -----------------------------
@@ -148,9 +143,9 @@
 Meanwhile Holger Krekel had joined the Python community in 2001. For
 some years he had designed the architecture for platforms and
 consulted for CEO's of some large banking centers in Europe.  While
-participating in two 'coding sprints' of the Zope3 web-platform (the
+participating in two 'coding Sprints' of the Zope3 web-platform (the
 to-be successor of the successful Zope web-platform) he realized that
-agile 'sprints' in combination with the rapid development language
+agile 'Sprints' in combination with the rapid development language
 Python provide an extremely productive way of communicating about and
 coding complex projects where traditional, slow-moving methods often
 fail.
@@ -161,13 +156,14 @@
 this a lot of fun, but it is a way to transmit knowledge and understanding
 throughout the group.
 
-Holger Krekel, seeing the opportunity to initiate the PyPy project with
-Armin Rigo and Christian Tismer organized the first one-week meeting,
-the 'Sprint towards a minimal Python'. Soon many interested developers
-joined and intense academical and practical planning ensued.  Just a few
-weeks later the Sprint took place at 'Trillke-Gut', a castle-like
-building in Germany, bringing together some key developers, among them
-Michael Hudson, the release manager of version 2.2.1 of Python.
+Holger Krekel, seeing the opportunity to initiate the PyPy project
+with Armin Rigo and Christian Tismer organized the first one-week
+meeting, the 'Sprint towards a minimal Python'. Soon many interested
+developers joined and intense academical and practical planning
+ensued.  The Sprint took place at 'Trillke-Gut', a castle-like
+building in Hildesheim, Germany, bringing together some key
+developers, among them Michael Hudson, the release manager of version
+2.2.1 of Python.
 
 Here is his german mail_ (a reply to Christian Tismer) that started this now 
 rapidly evolving project::
@@ -241,7 +237,13 @@
 in language and platform architecture who were interested in producing
 the Python interpreter which they needed.  Laura Creighton and Jacob
 Hallén from the PBF attended the sprint and began participating in the
-project.
+project.  As Board Memebers of AB Strakt, a Swedish company developing
+a novel Workflow application, entirely in Python, they were well aware
+that their main product would soon be pushing up against the
+limitations of the current version of the language.  Their question
+was - could this team actually deliver on a flexible, high-performance
+version of the language which would not have these limitations?  The
+approach taken was original.  Original solutions need to be tested.
 
 The group decided soon to test their proof of concept by developing a
 working prototype and to test their ability to work together.  They
@@ -264,7 +266,7 @@
 invited Guido van Rossum, the inventor of Python to attend.  He not
 only attended the Belgium sprint but announced a few days later at the
 EuroPython conference that PyPy had a high priority on his list of
-'dreams he hoped would come true' and he enjoyed sprinting with us a
+'dreams he hoped would come true' and he enjoyed Sprinting with us a
 lot.
 
 By the end of the third one-week sprint at the University in