[Python-ideas] Official MySQL module

[Andrew Barnert]

On Mar 8, 2013, at 9:45, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 6:07 AM, Joao S. O. Bueno <jsbueno at python.org.br> wrote:
> 
>> 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.

Open source software isn't built by corporations for their own corporate interest, but by people for their own personal needs. The same people could be working on MySQL and Python, and there's positive synergy with no conflict of interest, and no implied exclusion of anyone outside the implicit partnership-of-one-person. This means there's no such word as "third party" in open source.

If this all sounds hand-wavy and hyperbolic and based on idealizations rather than reality, well, it's esr, what do you expect? 

But there is some truth there. Apple isn't going to support MySQL without first talking bizdev with Oracle and the competition. Python isn't a company, and doesn't have to think that way. So, "third party" doesn't have quite the same implications.