Python is a gem ,another successful day ....
Nick Vargish
nav at adams.patriot.net
Tue Jul 8 09:57:27 EDT 2003
steve at ferg.org (Stephen Ferg) writes:
> I'm trying to promote Python within the Federal government, and my own
> agency, the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Right now, the chief
> alternative at BLS to Python is Java, but not too long ago it would
> have been VB and PowerBuilder.
Sounds like the situation here at the <Federal Agency Where I Work>
where I'm trying to promote Python as a viable alternative to Java or
Visual Basic.
I'm currently seeing the most resistance in these areas:
* Who makes Python? A lot of the culture is still mired in the idea
that a corporate entity is required for a product to be fully
supported, or viable in the long term. I like to remind them how
well Sun's stewardship has "served" the Java community, but I need
more than negative counterexamples.
* Who provides training? I mean no disrespect to my coworkers, and
present company is of course excluded, but a lot of the federal
workforce has no incentive to learn on their own. Unless a
training course is provided, with certifications and free tote
bags, there is very little motivation for people to learn new
technology.
* How do we deploy Python? Until we upgrade all the systems here to
recent versions of Redhat Linux (joke!), installing a Python
environment is an extra step. I can point out that finding an
appropriate JRE is a worse nightmare, but as above, I need more
than negative counterexamples.
We're currently in something of a holding pattern while a bit of
reorganization takes place in the IT departments, but things will
probably be changing rapidly (as rapidly as any change occurs in a
government institution) once the organizational situation is
stabilized.
There was some talk of forming a SIG for Python in the US Government,
did that ever go anywhere?
Nick
--
# sigmask.py || version 0.2 || 2003-01-07 || Feed this to your Python.
print reduce(lambda x,y:x+chr(ord(y)-1),'Ojdl!Wbshjti!=obwAqbusjpu/ofu?','')
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