[Python-ideas] Official MySQL module

[Guido van Rossum]

On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 6:07 AM, Joao S. O. Bueno <jsbueno at python.org.br> wrote:
> On 8 March 2013 08:01, Eric V. Smith <eric at trueblade.com> wrote:
>> We include webbrowser, but no web browser. imaplib, but
>> no imap server. Etc.
>
>
> Picking only this point - becuase it highlights what is bothering me:
> In my lectures, I use to justify Python not including (up to now)
> bindings for MySQL or PostgreSQL , in contrast to offering
> ways to interoperate with imap, http, and pop, because the former
> are "products" and the later are "standards" - and it would not be
> well for a language standard library  to include "other's products" in
> it (and yes, on my lecture I talked about this in contrast with PHP).

That sounds rather an idealized opinion, and not a very useful
attitude. Some "standards" represent commercial interests. The
"products" you mention are in fact well-respected open source
projects.

But anyway, Python's standard library (unlike GNU) does not have an ax
to grind about what software should or should not be supported from an
ethical perspective. It is all about what is useful to a large enough
number of Python users, and what is feasible given the available
volunteer power and the technical properties of the software in
question.

> So, I do feel a bit uncomfortable with the idea of  including bindings for
> 3rd party databases in the stdlib - but I think that is an emotional thing
> only , and can easily be rationalized away with
> "practicality beats purity"  - and the mention somewhere else that
> in Free Software environment, saying "3rd party"  can be
> misleading.

I do not understand this last phrase.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)