Open letter to Guido van Rossum

[Dan Grassi]

Hi Guido,

Well, I am rather ambivalent about 1.6.  See, I really like python and 
want to use it at work, a dot-com --- in fact I would like it to be the 
standard.  But I doubt that it will come to pass, there are to many 
stumbling blocks.

First and foremost is database support as a part of the languare 
_package_!  In particulay I need Oracle on ix86, a not uncommon database. 
 But that is no trivial task.  Thus python fails because it can not be 
used in a production environment that involves Oracle.

Then there is the mod-python/mod_pyapache mess, two competing versions 
both with major problems ranging from re not working in the module 
version of mod_python to memory leaks in both versions.  Memory leaks are 
a major problem in a shop that is serving over 1 million pages a day.

Also in the area of divergence is the MySQL database interface modules, 
there are at least two and I believe four current versions.

OK, but this is not python!  Well, technically that is true but these are 
problems when one tries to use python in production!

I suggest that you, Guido van Rossum, father and inventor of Python, 
"bless" some versions and thus get development behind single versions 
instead of diverging from each other.  Thjis in much the same manner that 
Linus blesses a release of Linux.

Oh well, this is just wishing upon a star. :-)  At least I do get to use 
python on occasion, thanks.

Dan Grassi