j2ee vs. python (and what our evil competitors are saying about python)

[Anthony Baxter]

On the plus side, if these people are your competitors, they're obviously
so completely stupid that you should be able to easily put them away.

I think you need to name and shame these morons. 

Some fun can be had tearing them apart - ah hell with it, it's fun.


> Summary
> Python is often used as pseudocode to conduct rapid development. 

Yep, pseudocode is all it is. Man, I'm glad I've got that 12K or so
lines of pseudocode to rewrite in a Real Man's Language. 

> Its
> major users are web sites that do not reuse code and often conduct
> “throw away” development to meet internet development time
> tables. 

What a complete and utter load of shite.

> It is a very new language and has very little support compared
> to the Java development community. 

Erm. Python 1.0 release date? Java 1.0 release date?

> It is also not J2EE compliant.

Shock. Horror. It is also not:

Visual Basic.
Fire retardent.
A small fluffy bunny.

> Platform Drawbacks
> As a new relatively untested development platform in the licensed
> software community, Python has certain deficiencies with which all
> users and developers should be aware.

Unlike, say, Java. Sorry, _which_ JVM were you using? Oh, that feature
only works on a different JVM.

Or C++. Man, I _hate_ it how every time I move to a new platform, I
don't have to spend days fighting compilers, or fscking around with
header file. It means I get to do productive work.

>  Issues and concerns 
 
> ·         No integrated GUI (Graphic user interface) support.

Yeah. Where's my AWT in python, dammit! I _demand_ a crappy windowing
toolkit that makes all my applications go slow.

> ·         No compiler to the native code.

And?

> ·         No automatic garbage collection.

2.0. So it's only over a year out of date.


> ·         Does not have vast number of libraries as that of Java,
> Perl, C++; etc.

And, unlike Perl it doesn't have a vast number of multiple
implementations of every single possible interesting library. 
Worse yet, python actually ships with libraries that are debugged
with test cases and documentation. And sometimes you can even 
use a library without having to download 14 other different packages
and the latest minor point release of the core language.

> ·         Since Python is an interpreted language, it requires
> frequent run-time checks and thus does not provide the speed,
> performance and efficiency of compiled languages like Java, Perl and
> C++, which is a major issue.

I think the inclusion of 'Perl' here says a large amount about the 
clue level of the author of this piece.

> ·         Python does not provide multiple ways to perform tasks as do
> most other languages.

You know, you're right! I _demand_ Guido add 14 new ways to spell

if option1 or option2: 
   do_stuff()
   do_stuff2()

preferably using some form of obscure punctuation based source code markup
to denote structure. Of course, to prove what l33t c0derZ we all are, the
markup should work most of the time even if you get it subtly wrong.

> ·         It takes a lot of time for Python to adjust to the
> indentation style of the structuring code.

Hours, at least.

Compared to the days required to adjust to the mind-warping horror of a 
new C++ compiler release.

> ·         Since Python is relatively a new language, there are only a
> few resources available for information on its latest developments.

*snicker* 

> ·         Limited documentation- only two English language books exist
> which provide tutorials or a library reference for Python.

First website I tried (barnes&noble)

Computers: Programming Languages: Python
Below are 1 - 25 of the 27 titles sorted in bestselling order.

> ·         The language is restricted to fewer code modules.

I don't even know what this means.

> ·         Lacks native threading capabilities.

Threading support first appeared in 0.9.7, around late 1992. The 
threading support of python uses the OS, rather than trying to implement
it's own. This means you can actually port python to new platforms without
having to sacrifice a child to an elder god to get threading to work.

> ·         Lacks basic tools such as integrated source level debuggers.

Again, complete nonsense, as there's several of these.

> ·         No packaging methods for software distribution.

Woo. Greg Ward's going to be upset that all that time he spent on distutils
obviously didn't produce anything. Or, more seriously, see every release
since 1.6.

> ·         Lacks tools to solve typographical and type mismatch classes
> of errors.

pychecker. or write a decent test suite. Oops, sorry, this breaks the 
whole "it compiled, didn't it - ship!" mindset.

> ·         Python cannot write docstrings in C++.

Again, I don't know what this means.

> ·         Python is difficult to read.

????? This is probably my favourite one of the lot. Obviously this person
finds C++, Java and Perl to be the peak of readability. I assume they'd
also be right in with the APL crowd.

> ·         Dynamic loading is not available on all systems, requiring
> that a developer use static loading.

Java is not available on all systems at all, requiring that a developer
use a better language.

> Application Areas
> ·         Prototyping and development
> ·         Platform independent graphic user interface applications
> ·         Internet scripting/applications
> ·         Automated test harnesses
> ·         System administration applications
> ·         Shell scripting/OS Scripting
> ·         Text processing
> ·         Database Interfaces
> ·         Application Extensions
> ·         Distributed Programming

So what's this list? a bunch of features of python?


> Python users
> ·         Yahoo
> ·         Infoseek

mm. that'd be the only people to use it, too. no-one else does, ever.
Those wacky """web sites that do not reuse code and often conduct
"throw away" development to meet internet development time tables."""

Anthony