Is Python Dead?

[Arnaud Fontaine]

In article <mailman.994049882.30354.python-list at python.org>, "Chris
Gonnerman" <chris.gonnerman at newcenturycomputers.net> wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Edward B. Wilson II" <ed at ewilson.com>
>> Python still doesn't have good database support,
> 
> What exactly is "good database support?"  I haven't had a problem.

I just want to add my voice here : I use Python with databases everyday and
don't have any problem (maybe because I NEVER work with poor MS
products)

> mod_perl is unlikely to be useful to me since I can't stand the mess
> that Perl programmers call source code.  I suspect that many Python
> programmers would agree.

One of the reason I left Perl away for Python.

> I'm not a Zope user myself, but from what I've read about both PHP and
> Zope, it appears they are pretty much even in capability (hopefully an
> expert on the subject will comment here).

I use both in production.
Zope alone (not as CGI) is a great product, really good for most web based
application and its asynchronous approach makes it really efficient on the
IO aspect. Add to this its caching feature and you have one of the best
web product around.

PHP is, to my eyes, easier. Maybe because I've been using it for years
(it was still called PHP/FI and just hit version 2). You have a bunch of
lib with PHP so you can interact with most of the major products onthe
market. It handle nicely the load and is really well embeded in Apache.
But PHP as a langage is not as good as Python.

So, use the product you like ... but remember PHP is just a langage and
most of its power comes from Apache. Zope is more than that.

I've been running some benchmarks using ab to compare PHP/Apache/Mysql
with Zope on a simple application (a simple ppl directory : 1 static home
page, a database with contacts, 1 form to query the DB). I haven't kept
the numbers but both compared. Apache was a little better to serve the
static page but Zope handled the load better querying the database
(thanks to its caching feature). 

-Arnaud