Mono and Python

[Paul Prescod]

Don Tuttle wrote:
> 
>....
> 
> I'd like to know if ActiveState's apparent abandonment of this project was
> because it proved to technically difficult (imposable?) or simply because
> they felt the ROI wasn't there.

That's an easy question to answer. Whether or not the problem is
difficult, ActiveState would go out of business if it didn't focus on
ROI.

My personal opinion is that it shouldn't be harder than Jython but then
there are thousands of person-hours of work in Jython. Jython could not
have been done by a business of ActiveState's size in the current
economic climate.

> And truth be told, I'm scared CLI is going to be a multiplatform hit and
> Python isn't going to be invited to the party.

Think of it the opposite way. The CLI hasn't proved its importance as a
platform yet so the Python community is taking a wait and see approach.
When it becomes a clearly important target some new enthusiast you have
never heard of (to this point) will take it on as a means of carving out
their corner of the noosphere.

As far as Microsoft and future incarnations of .NET: Microsoft has
always been very interested in having the scripting languages "run well"
on their platforms. Until now their platform was win32. In the future it
will be .NET. He is probably right that the first incarnation was in
large part a marketing exercise but as Microsoft's core platform shifts
from win32 to .NET, I suspect they will be more and more anxious to that
the scripting languages interoperate with it. After all, this is an
important part of their strategy to move developers from Linux to
Windows.

Of course, if Microsoft could get everybody to their languages, they
would. But getting people onto their *platforms* is much, much more
important than getting them to use their languages. Still, scripting
languages are to Microsoft as hobbits are to wizards. I wouldn't expect
them to offer much help or to go out of their way to make our lives
harder.

 Paul Prescod