Zope & Python

[Jeff]

Plenty of people have used Python for "enterprise" app's:
    http://www.pythonlabs.com/success.html.  (I find Infoseek/Go and
Microsoft especially interesting.)

I can think of a couple of advantages that Python has over Java:

    Learnibility -- Java takes quite a bit longer to learn, and good Java
programmers are fairly rare. While there aren't a lot of "good python
programmers" out there right now, almost any competent programmer can become
a competent Python programmer in a couple of weeks. It takes quite a bit
longer for almost any competent programmer to become a competent Java
programmer.

    Flexibility -- Python code is much more flexible--you are much less
likely to code yourself into a dead end.

   Productivity -- Python is a much faster language to code in. If
time-to-market is an issue, Python wins, hands down.

    Code Translatability -- Python is a great base from which to begin
developing prototypes. It give the programmers a great chance to fully
understand the problem before really committing to a solution. The Python
code translates naturally into Java. Java code tends not to translate too
well into other languages. So python is, perhaps, an option as a prototyping
language. Personally, I find a good approach for web app's is to develop a
Python solution, show it as a demo, make the (inevitable) changes, and
_then_ start on the Java coding. The truth is, the Java part is often, in my
opinion, unnecessary, but make the business types a lot happier.




"Leon Booyens" <leon_booyens at xsinet.co.za> wrote in message
news:39c208eb$0$231 at hades.is.co.za...
> Hi,
>
> I asked one of our specialists if we should not consider using Zope
instead
> of tomcat and Python instead of Java.
>
> His reply was as follows :
>
> Do you agree with all these comments ?
>
> Leon.
>
> The reply :
> Leon,
>
> I have had a look at the "Zope" application server at www.zope.org, and
feel
> that it cannot be considered for use (on the server side) in an enterprise
> application because of the following weaknesses:
>
> The business-logic extensions must be written in Python, which is a fine
> "glue language" for whipping up scripts and small applications in as short
a
> time and as few lines of code as possible, but is simply not robust enough
> for enterprise applications.  For example, it does not allow compile-time
> enforcement of interface specifications, as C++ and Java do.
>
> a) It does not even support the concept of private, protected and public
> instance variables and methods. The whole concept of "design-by-contract"
> relies on the availability of these features.  You cannot rely on
> programmers to have the discipline to comply with (nonexistent) interface
> specifications.
>
> b) If we develop web applications in accordance with the Java Servlet API,
> we can upgrade the platform from Apache+Tomcat running on Linux to Sun's
> Java Webserver, or IBM Websphere, or BEA Weblogic (BEA is the industry
> leader in OLTP middleware), or any number of other commercial
> implementations.  What is the upgrade path for Zope?
>
> c) Java allows a wide choice of compilers, debugging and profiling tools,
> modelling tools, middleware, and libraries for everything under the sun.
It
> is a mainstream language for commercial applications, with a relatively
> large pool of programming expertise and with support from most major
> industry players (besides Microsoft). Python may be gaining popularity,
but
> is way behind Java.
>
>
>
>
>