.NET and Python

[Ken Egervari]

> I think it would depend on the programmer(s), which is the case with any
> python application.  So, your next question might be, if it was the same
> programmer doing both sites which would run faster?  In that case, I would
> say there's still other factors, but I doubt either would be *much* faster
> than the other.  You can build scalable high-traffic sites with either
> approach, not to mention you might want to put either one behind
distributed
> squid servers anyway.

Well, the programmers in our group are excellent and I'm sure the system
will be good in terms of being programmed correctly, both for it being
maintainable and for performance as best as possible.

> Side note: there are other approaches as well.  Speedy Aolserver with
PyWX,
> or WebWare, or several other Python web interfaces mentioned in this
> newsgroup.

I will have to look into those.  I've been looking into mod_python as well.

> Microsoft marketing literature and hype has *always* been right.  For the
> most part, Microsoft products eventually catch up to the marketing.
>
> That's just wrong, they've always had at least *some* good products.  I've
> always considered Word one of the best in that class (yeah... I liked
> Interleaf and Framemaker better, but didn't have the huge bucks to buy
> personal copies, so that made *them* uncompetitive).  Excel has always
been
> good.

Yeah, I get the same impression.  This time, though, where I meant quality,
was that better software is being produced by MS programmers.  Word and
Excel 97 are somewhat buggy.  The definately improved them in their 2000 and
XP releases.

> Are there any live working sites using this framework?  I don't know,
which
> is why I'm asking, but frankly I would be surprised if there were.  It's
> just too soon.

There is a few done by some entheusiasts.  Obviously there isn't any
commercial sites.  www.ibuyspy.com is a site that MS programmed using .NET.
There is various other websites that take advantage of .NET's 'web services'
too but nothing widely used.

> My point is this... when you're talking Microsoft products don't believe
it
> until you see it.  The same holds true for any products of course, even
open
> source, but at least with open source it doesn't cost anything to "see
it".

I think Python is probably better for us since we obviously don't want to
spend the same amount of money to get good performance.  Having to purchase
several licenses of windows advanced or datacenter server, sql server 2000,
exchange and whatever else would cost a lot of money and the hardware is
something else..

> The .NET framework might rock someday, but do you want to implement your
800
> class system now?  Or wait till .NET is past at least the initial stages
of
> maturity.

The good thing is that we can use put Python code (hopefully) with .NET
through active state's efforts.

> You can build your system now on top of Zope, or Apache+mod_python, or
> Apache+WebWare, or Aolserver+PyWX, or a Java application server, and
you're
> working from a known solid foundation.  That's how I would look at it if I
> wanted to sell an 800 class system as a reliable product.

Of Apache/Mod-python, Apache/Webware or aolserver/PyWX, which would
recommend?

Ken