[Edu-sig] Future of CP4E after CNRI?

[Tim Peters]

[Dinu C. Gherman]
> I just wonder what to expect for the future of CP4E given
> the most recent developments, with people leaving the CNRI
> for an new environment at BeOpen or joining from other
> places?
>
> If anything, I guess we can at least expect the core Python
> development activities to be determined by comercial inter-
> ests from now on.

Well, everyone at PythonLabs had a salary before the move too, and the money
didn't come out of thin air then either <wink>.  I don't think any of us
have suddenly become opposed to accepting government grants for interesting
work.  CP4E's initial DARPA grant didn't get the project very far, though,
and my understanding is that the grant money has been exhausted.  Guido
hoped to attract *more* funding by "going commercial"; but too soon to say
whether that works out.

> A first sign of this is the renaming of Python 1.6 to 2.0 based
> more or less on marketing reasons.

I've been arguing to do that for years, btw.  I've actually had upper
management ask me why we should use Python instead of Perl, becuase "Perl is
on its fifth release already, but Python is still on its first!  We should
go with the mature language."  One *good* meaning of "marketing" is
accurately communicating with your intended audience, and "Python 1.x" was
perceived in an unintended way too often.

> Maybe there are good reasons to believe that CP4E will have
> a bright future, now more than ever, and I'm just unable to
> see them?

CP4E has no active funding now, but would not have any now had the move not
occurred either.  So far, it looks like a wash to me.  "The community" could
be doing a lot more with it, though, don't you think?  Both Python and IDLE
are Open Source, so *anyone* can run off and do just about anything they
like with them.  Nothing was held back by CNRI, and nothing is being held
back by BeOpen.

> Maybe there are good reasons to believe that BeOpen as a rather unknown
> new player has a real interest and concrete advantage in promoting Python
> and CP4E that are simply not obvious to everybody?

Indeed, maybe there are <wink>.

watch-what-we-do-ignore-what-anyone-says-ly y'rs  - tim