[python-advocacy] Proposal for Monthly podcast series

[Roy Smith]

>> * Django (Turbgears and Pylons are both great projects and *equally*
>> deserving of coverage - but would this be too much of a web-app focus)
>> Oh, and there is always Zope. ;-)
>
> How about a 2nd 'track' that is just web technologies?

If there is one thing Python is getting killed on, it's web apps. 
Specifically, Ruby on Rails.  We need to work on our image in this area,
so I'm not worried if we focus too much on that.

I've been pushing in my company for us to develop a Python scripting
interface for our product.  We already have both a home-grown scripting
language, and Perl.  There is wide-spread agreement that neither is
satisfactory.  I've been pushing Python, but it's been an uphill battle
against the Ruby mind-share.  Here's a quote from a recent discussion:

> Python seems to be one of those specialty languages that builds up a
> following but never makes it into the mainstream.  That doesn't make
> it bad - Lisp, APL, SNOBOL, and Icon are other examples that come to
> mind.  In fact, these language often are very well engineered and
> their followers appreciate that quality.
>
> Ruby seems to be gaining rapidly increasing "mind share" these days.
> Partly this is through the wide use of Ruby On Rails as a Web
> development environment.

Notice the point being made.  It's not about whether Python or Ruby would
be a better language to write the product in, but which would be perceived
by our customers as being more desirable.  And that perception is being
driven by Rails.  That's what we need to be fighting.