PyOpinion: Does Python Programming Marginalize You?

[Cameron Laird]

In article <393D3948.821E1DB6 at prescod.net>,
Paul Prescod  <paul at prescod.net> wrote:
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>> I'm aware of CGI scripting with Python. It's great. But JavaScript
>> pages load faster than CGI pages, and are easier to program, to
>> boot. Plus, JavaScript can directly call Java Applet methods, enabling
>> it to do functions that are simply impossible with CGI scripts.
>
>Actually, Java applets were last year's programming model.  In fact,
>Java applets are something of an endangered species.
>
>Java is almost entirely used on the server side these days and Python is
>just as good there as Java is. In fact, with Zope, Python is better.
>
>Client-side Javascript is quite popular but in terms of volume of code
>it is a drop in the bucket compared to what is going on on the server
>side.
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My colleague Paul is known for inciting (virtual) riots
over Python.  I wonder what that makes me, because I find
his words here far too mild.

The corporate developers I see have, if anything, taken to
UNDERappreciating JavaScript.  They simply abandon it,
rather than deal with browser incompatibilities.  Client-
side is all toys, they agree (I don't, but it's not worth
fighting about).

The server is where the action is--ESPECIALLY for conventional
notions of performance.  The way organizations juice up their
perceived performance is to scale servers.  They are *much*
better at spending money on bigger boxes than on replacing
a jillion client desktops, or improving client-side code.

And what software has the biggest buzz on the server side?
Python-based Zope.  Not Beans, not even AOLServer or mod_perl,
and certainly not JWS.

Were these "set-up" questions?  The other thing I get from
big organizations is that the Web isn't good enough for them,
and they need to deploy stuff that works both over the Web
and in better versions as client-server.  Scripting languages
are *great* for that kind of development.  The Java vision
and marketing are good, but ... well, I'll just say that
Python has nothing for which it should apologize (apart from
a few technical quibbles on which I'm working).
-- 

Cameron Laird <claird at NeoSoft.com>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net
Personal:  http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/home.html