status of Programming by Contract (PEP 316)?

[Russ]

Alex Martelli wrote:

> Russ specifically mentioned *mission-critical applications* as being
> outside of Python's possibilities; yet search IS mission critical to
> Google.  Yes, reliability is obtained via a "systems approach",

Alex, I think you are missing the point. Yes, I'm sure that web
searches are critical to
Google's mission and commercial success. But the point is that a few
subtle bugs cannot
destroy Google. If your search engines and associated systems have
bugs, you fix them
(or simply tolerate them) and continue on. And if a user does not get
the results he wants,
he isn't likely to die over it -- or even care much.

Online financial transactions are another matter altogether, of
course. User won't die, but
they will get very irate if they lose money. But I don't think that's
what you are talking about
here.