[Edu-sig] Future of CP4E after CNRI?

[Tim Peters]

[Dinu C. Gherman]
> ...
> It was at IPC8 this January that I got the strong impression
> that Guido was putting an *increasing* amount of effort into
> CP4E.

He was.  He was actively pursuing his DARPA proposal then, and, after it was
accepted, he was actively applying the grant money to fund the visible
activities you later described.  The quick ramp-up and contagious enthusiasm
may have caused over-optimism.

> ...
> If you add to this the apparently *increasing*, not decreasing
> efforts behind IDLE during the last months it won't take much
> of a great analysis genius to conclude that CP4E was *gaining*
> importance, despite the fact that it was financially rather
> unsecured.

Yes.  And now that the money is no longer "rather unsecured", but
"completely gone and with no clear prospects for getting more", he can't
afford to continue working on it.  And, as Guido said, he doesn't believe
anyone at CNRI is working on it anymore either, for the same reason.

> With the (ongoing) shift to BeOpen and in the absence of
> an implied or expressed commitment of BeOpen in favour or
> against CP4E and much more with Guido's (previous) CP4E
> commitement as least as I perceived it on IPC8, I consid-
> ered it a legitimate question to ask about the future
> support for this movement.

Certainly legitimate questions, but I think they were answered a few msgs
ago.

Whatever future support there may (or may not) be is something that varies
by participant.  Guido clearly said it's at best a "spare time" thing for
him now in the continued absence of funding, and we can't guess whether
BeOpen will be able to attract funding for it -- or whether anyone else
will.

Do you really think Guido would have moved to BeOpen if they were *opposed*
to it?  You have may have noticed that the very first day
http://www.pythonlabs.com/ went online, we were already seeking an educator
to join our group (note to Art:  yes, Guido is quite aware of not "having
any particular insight into implementing it effectively as an educational
tool" <wink>).  But the current reality is that we don't have funding for
it.  That's all there is to it.

ask-whether-beopen-is-in-favor-of-cp4e-is-like-asking-whether-at&t-
    is-in-favor-of-life<wink>-ly y'rs  - tim