Python does not play well with others

[Ben Finney]

Paul Rubin <"http://phr.cx"@NOSPAM.invalid> writes:

> Since Python is being touted as good for web apps as a competitor to
> PHP

Python is being touted as a good language for *many* purposes, not
just web applications. Python is also a "competitor" to Java, to Ruby,
to Perl, to many other languages. They all have strengths and
weaknesses.

> it should offer the same db connectivity in its stdlib that PHP
> offers in its.

That doesn't follow at all. Many consider the humungous function
library of PHP to be a significant downside of the system, which
criterion leaves Python ahead. More is not necessarily better.

> I'm paying the hosting company for access to a computer that's
> connected to electricity and to the internet and which has a
> straightforward OS, language package, web server, and db installed.

In which case, there should be no problem with *you* installing
whatever software you need to use the system for what you want.

> They shouldn't have to deal with dozens of interdependent modules
> downloaded from different places just to support one language.

Either they are providing far more than the minimal set you describe
above, or this is entirely outside their domain. Make up your mind.

You can't claim both that the hosting company should have to maintain
a comprehensive set of functionality, *and* that they should not have
to.

-- 
 \       "Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best |
  `\          way to predict the future is to invent it."  -- Alan Kay |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney