Python does not play well with others

John Nagle nagle at animats.com
Tue Jan 23 20:50:37 EST 2007


   The major complaint I have about Python is that the packages
which connect it to other software components all seem to have
serious problems.  As long as you don't need to talk to anything
outside the Python world, you're fine.  But once you do, things
go downhill.  MySQLdb has version and platform compatibility
problems.  So does M2Crypto.  The built-in SSL support is weak.
Even basic sockets don't quite work right; the socket module
encapsulates the timeout mechanism but doesn't get it right.

   In the Perl, Java, PHP, and C/C++ worlds, the equivalent
functions just work.   That's because, in those worlds, either the
development team for the language or the development team
for the subsystem takes responsibility for making them work.
Only Python doesn't do that.

   Python has been around long enough that this should have
been fixed by now.

					John Nagle



More information about the Python-list mailing list