Python is a gem ,another successful day ....

[Skip Montanaro]

    Nick>   * Who makes Python?  A lot of the culture is still mired in the
    Nick>     idea that a corporate entity is required for a product to be
    Nick>     fully supported, or viable in the long term.  I like to remind
    Nick>     them how well Sun's stewardship has "served" the Java
    Nick>     community, but I need more than negative counterexamples.

Is Apache used by your organization?

    Nick>   * Who provides training?  I mean no disrespect to my coworkers,
    Nick>     and present company is of course excluded, but a lot of the
    Nick>     federal workforce has no incentive to learn on their
    Nick>     own. Unless a training course is provided, with certifications
    Nick>     and free tote bags, there is very little motivation for people
    Nick>     to learn new technology.

There are people (like Mark Lutz and Wesley Chun) and larger organizations
(perhaps ActiveState?) who do Python training.

    Nick>   * How do we deploy Python?  Until we upgrade all the systems
    Nick>     here to recent versions of Redhat Linux (joke!), installing a
    Nick>     Python environment is an extra step.  I can point out that
    Nick>     finding an appropriate JRE is a worse nightmare, but as above,
    Nick>     I need more than negative counterexamples.

It should be a small extra step.  If you can't use Sean Reifschneider's RPMs
directly, you can probably build RPMs for your version of RH Linux using his
spec files, then install that across your organization.  Similarly, for
Windows users the installer is easily run.

Skip