[Web-SIG] Grail resurrection

[Michael C. Neel]

> If you all think such discussion belongs here, I will be happy to
> discuss it with anyone who's interested. ;-D  I have been hesitant
> to charge forward with this, because at the moment I don't
> have the time to learn the plugin API or write code.  But it's still
> something I hope to make time for in the future.  But if somebody
> has a close enough idea to this, and wants to work on it, maybe
> I can help?  I certainly have some ideas about design issues. And
> I'm disturbed to hear the comment about security problems
> with the rexec modules, as I had been thinking those were pretty
> solid (but then again, I haven't tried them outside of using Zope's
> Python Script objects).

I'm not sure if this is something Web-SIG tackles or not, this has to be
the broadest SIG there is!

This is something that has crossed my mind, esp. considering python
already handles the cross platform issues well.

Right now it looks like flash is setup to get a hold on the "applet".
Java has some strikes against it from it's past (most people still
assume it has performance issues, doubts on security) and is still
closer to C++ than scripting languages in terms of development cycles
(meaning it takes longer to develop in Java than Python/Perl/PHP).  Java
is also still controlled by Sun, and last time I checked they weren't
moving toward any type of ANSI standard, and Microsoft is trying to drop
Java from Windows.  If only Sun would have opened up Java when they
first started with it things would be very different today (so I'd like
to think =).

Flash is closed, but that has to be it's only draw back.  It's cross
platform, has good performance, and integrates well with other web
technologies.  Flash MX's XML abilities are really powerful, and flash
can also handle complex UI for user input (a place where HTML does
extremely poor).

Bringing python to this ring will be tough, and take some time I think.
In the long run it will be worth it however I think, because as flash
becomes the only choice it will tend to offer less and less (the normal
result of a monopoly).  Having some competition from python will
challenge both options to get better, and we the developers win out no
matter which one we use.

I'm interested to hear other's weigh in on this...

Mike