PyOpinion: Does Python Programming Marginalize You?

[Moshe Zadka]

On Tue, 6 Jun 2000, Richard P. Muller wrote:

> And yet, I worry that using Python marginalizes one. Python is hard to
> beat for writing applications that run on a single computer. But
> that's yesterday's computing model. The future of computing, heck, the
> present of computing, is in writing programs that run through a web
> browser.

Ummmm....it seems the more high-end web applications are more server-based
then client-based. And in that area Python's got one *huge* killer app --
Zope. There is only one (big) problem with Zope -- it's woefully
undocumented. One thing that would boost Python acceptance almost
overnight would be better documentation for Zope. I hear Zope developers
are working on it, but I don't know the current status.

JPython is yet another killer application, at least in principle, for some
of the server-side scripting. The big problem here seems to be maturity --
and that can only improve with age.

In short, my view of the future is not as bleak as yours -- I see
companies that crop up and stand by Python, I see Python mentioned more
and more in developer-oriented web-sites, etc. Just last week I gave two
Python lectures here in Israel.

--
Moshe Zadka <moshez at math.huji.ac.il>
http://www.oreilly.com/news/prescod_0300.html
http://www.linux.org.il -- we put the penguin in .com