long-term release schedule?

[Ray Smith]

Peter Hansen <peter at engcorp.com> wrote in message news:<3EE93161.1DD519B at engcorp.com>...
> Ray Smith wrote:
> > The worrying aspect is that Python (or any development tool a company uses)
> > becomes unsupported and "no one" is around (paid or unpaid) to continue
> > development.
> 
> But *why* would a company need to have Python development continue?
> Is this hypothetical company for some reason depending on _future_
> enhancements to the language?  What damage would result to that 
> company or its products or tools based on Python if Python development
> were to freeze at the current level?

That was my actual question ... if Python devlopment stopped right now
(with the odd bug fix) what would it actually mean to developers using Python??
I suspect not much since the core is so solid, as long as the external 
libraries that are used to connect Python to other technologies exist then
"all"? tasks should still be achivable.
 

> Feel free to contact me by mail if you have specific questions I might
> be able to answer about this sort of thing.  We adopted Python exclusively
> about three years ago and I have a variety of experiences with its 
> applicability in a corporate environment (non IT though... but R&D).

Thanks for the offer Peter,

I'm about half way through re-writting a small system in Python and estimate 
it will be about 1/25th the size (line count) of the original and giving more 
features and "hopefully" less bugs.  
The old system was designed poorly but that just makes my new Python system 
look better!!! :)
I'm doing this outside of work hours and will present it to management as an 
example of what can be done.
I'll do some broader research for this presentation such languages features,
avialable libraries, case studies and the usual "Open Source means choice" type
of arguments.  I'll have this ready in about a month.
 
 
Thanks for everyone's feedback.

Regards,

Ray Smith