Python should try to displace Java

[Alex Martelli]

A.M. Kuchling wrote:

> On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 17:00:13 GMT,
> Alex Martelli <aleax at aleax.it> wrote:
>> "happen" to be excellent for the job.  Not just my opinion -- e.g.,
>> Mitch Kapor and his OSAF chose Python as the application-programming
>> language for the Chandler system, and if you look at the specs for
>> that ambitious undertaking you'll see it WILL be quite a large-scale
>> system when it matures.
> 
> I don't find OSAF's choice of Python to be much of an endorsement.
> Given that most of the principals involved didn't seem to actually
> know Python at the time of the initial announcement, I can only
> conclude that they thought choosing Python would give them some
> credibility in the open-source community, and not because they did a
> careful comparison of Python with the alternatives.

I think you're doing them an injustice.  After all, enough open-source
work (by far!) is done in (e.g.) C, or Java, or C++, that choosing any
of these languages, say, would most obviously not have in any way damaged
their "credibility in the open-source community"!  Sure, by choosing
Python they have gained (e.g.) my personal sympathy, but by the same
token by choosing (e.g.) Perl they might have gained the sympathy of the
much-vaster hordes of Perl fans, no?

It WOULD be interesting to hear from the OSAF guys exactly why they
chose Python, what other alternatives they compared it to, and what
criteria they weighed by how much.  But clearly, one way or another,
they DID form the opinion that Python will be suitable to build the
ambitious, large-scale system they aspire to -- so, the fact that
"Python is excellent for this job" is NOT just my opinion is amply
confirmed... whether Kapor & friends made their choice by listening
to the opinions of others (Raymond, Berners-Lee, Eckel, whoever) or
(as they appear to claim on their pages) by doing their own
comparisons of the available alternatives.


Alex