Zope & Python

[Tom Krehbiel]

Take a look at the October 2000 issue of  "COMPUTER" (IEEE Computer Society).
On page 23 there is an artical "An Empirical Comparison of Seven Programming
Languages". The languages that are compared are C, C++, Java, Perl, Python,
Rexx, and Tcl. The same set of requirements were used by multiple developers
in each language and then the results were returned to the author. This is the
best
analysis I have seen in the past 20 years.
--Tom K.

Leon Booyens wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I asked one of our specialists if we should not consider using Zope instead
> of tomcat and Python instead of Java.
>
> His reply was as follows :
>
> Do you agree with all these comments ?
>
> Leon.
>
> The reply :
> Leon,
>
> I have had a look at the "Zope" application server at www.zope.org, and feel
> that it cannot be considered for use (on the server side) in an enterprise
> application because of the following weaknesses:
>
> The business-logic extensions must be written in Python, which is a fine
> "glue language" for whipping up scripts and small applications in as short a
> time and as few lines of code as possible, but is simply not robust enough
> for enterprise applications.  For example, it does not allow compile-time
> enforcement of interface specifications, as C++ and Java do.
>
> a) It does not even support the concept of private, protected and public
> instance variables and methods. The whole concept of "design-by-contract"
> relies on the availability of these features.  You cannot rely on
> programmers to have the discipline to comply with (nonexistent) interface
> specifications.
>
> b) If we develop web applications in accordance with the Java Servlet API,
> we can upgrade the platform from Apache+Tomcat running on Linux to Sun's
> Java Webserver, or IBM Websphere, or BEA Weblogic (BEA is the industry
> leader in OLTP middleware), or any number of other commercial
> implementations.  What is the upgrade path for Zope?
>
> c) Java allows a wide choice of compilers, debugging and profiling tools,
> modelling tools, middleware, and libraries for everything under the sun.  It
> is a mainstream language for commercial applications, with a relatively
> large pool of programming expertise and with support from most major
> industry players (besides Microsoft). Python may be gaining popularity, but
> is way behind Java.