Mono and Python

[Paul Prescod]

Don Tuttle wrote:
> 
>...
> 
> Economic conditions haven't been good for over a year.  So you realize  this
> just begs the question, "Then why did ActiveState ever start it?  What did
> they hope to achieve?"

Financially, it was a joint project with Microsoft. Strategically,
ActiveState also wanted to push the scripting world toward .NET for the
reasons that you have discussed. But eventually the scripting world
needs to get interested and involved.

>...
> 
> As to the Mono project I agree with you.  But does anyone doubt Microsoft's
> commitment to .NET?  

No, but the transition to .NET may take years and the COM interop is
useful in the meantime.

>...
> As to why some young code slinger, eager to make a name for themselves,
> hasn't already taken on the Python.NET project-- Could it be...ahum...that
> it is because ActiveState said THEY would tackle the project, that said hero
> never tried?

That slinger would download ActiveState's start and finish it. There is
significant intellectual value there. Furthermore, ActiveState did its
part before the code slinger would have had access to the .NET
documentation. So they should consider the code a running start.

But .NET has not touched real programmer's lives yet, so people don't
care. Open source programmers work on scratching itches.

>...
> Finally, many  *nix users of Python my not realize that Python is about to
> become less functional on Windows without the .NET tagged on.  (No ASP.NET
> or .NET Web services.)

You can access .NET web services using any SOAP implementation. You can
create .NET-compatible web services using any SOAP implementation, too.

 Paul Prescod