Python -- (just) a successful experiment?

[Kay Schluehr]

Eric Pederson wrote:
> Raise your hand if you think the best technology wins!

Who is interested in such a matter? Is this a forum dedicated to some
programming language or a popularity contest?

If Python dies in a few years / looses attention but the Python Zen
survives in another language I have nothing to complain.

> For those of you with your hands in the air, tell me: if Python is so good,
> why has PHP achieved such greater adoption and mindshare?

PHP, Ruby and all this stuff is just the fashion of the day. If the
flow of money takes another direction away from Web programming I
believe there will still be C, some successor of Python, some members
of the ML/Haskell family rooted in CS, a deviation of C++/Java/C# and
some Lisp offspring and of course the new fashion of the day.

And in the end if the success of any language becomes dangerous somehow
it will be cloned and *improved* by Microsoft.

Kay