Python--eclectic or ubiquitous

[Martijn Faassen]

Edward Wilson <web2ed at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Why is it that one can attempt the most daring tasks with Python, e.g.
> write image manipulation programs, steer super computing applications,
> write interactive games, parse XML, yet still can not perform the more
> basic tasks of hitting a database and generating a report.

See my reply in the other thread you started for actual useful
answers. Here I will give useful answers too, but more useful
to your survival, not your programming.

> After five years of following Python, I haven’t seen much
> improvement in the areas that seem to be the most natural fit for
> Python: Commercial quality database support and robust web server
> modules.

It's true. There has been a big PSU (Python Secret Underground)
conspiracy to prevent database support and web server modules to
be created in Python. It is a nefarious plot that plays right in the
hands of the PSU.

The PSU is very interested in the use of Python in the field of AI; 
advanced usenet robots such as the Timbot are one example, and the
very convincing androids like the effbot another (you'd think he
was a real Swede if you met him! really! at the last python conference
they even had a prototype of the timbot android, though it didn't work very
well yet). These androids and AIs will of course eventually used to
either save the world or take over the world. You never know with the
PSU.

Obviously, an advanced robot needs image manipulation programs (to
process visual data). Interactive games are an excellent simulation testing
ground for AI applications. It's obvious you need supercomputing to
make the robot process data enough. Finally, XML is good magic
pixie dust with a lot of enterprise power that will certainly make
any failing AI work. If you have a problem, throw XML at it, problem
solved (the AIs do this internally; they use quantum-substrate fuzzy
coherent XSLT engines to do n-dimensional annealing).

This is why the PSU has been steering the community away from 
relational database integration and web server applications. They 
*need* interactive simulations on supercomputers, they *need* image
manipulation software, and most importantly of all, they *need* XML.

Regards,

Martijn
-- 
History of the 20th Century: WW1, WW2, WW3?
No, WWW -- Could we be going in the right direction?