PythonLabs Team Moves to ActiveState

[Tim Peters]

[Emile van Sebille]
> Guido and team:

Guido always runs away after posting one of these things.  So you're stuck
with me.

> I'm sorry things didn't work out with Digital Creations.

It was news to me too!  Quite a shock.  I had thought things were working out
great with DC, so long as they kept ignoring that we spent all our time on
Python.

> I had hoped that Python core development had found a natural home, and
> was looking forward to seeing the results of a combined effort.
> Somehow, imagining a future with enhanced acquisition is much more
> interesting than a future with curly braces.

Well, if Guido said that was needed for Python to become popular, I won't
argue.  A good whore goes where he's kicked.

> Can IFEND and DEFEND or even a fork be far behind? (stackless?) I
> think that the "build it and they will come" philosophy has worked
> nicely so far.

Luckily, __END__ is already a reserved name in Python thanks to the double
double underscores.

> Some clarification may help.  Perhaps you can reconcile the *optional*
> curly braces and the "from __future__ import" discrepancy.  It
> may just be my misunderstanding, but isn't __future__ designed to allow
> bleeding-edgers to write code for what will become python?

Yes, but also tied into a warning system to force non-bleeding-edgers to pay
attention to their code that *will* break.  This is covered in PEP 236.

> That is, won't all __future__ thingys become mandatory?

That's the presumption, yes.  It remains possible that a given __future__
gimmick will be withdrawn before becoming mandatory, though.

> I believe this is how it has been presented so far, and makes me think
> that *optional* curly braces won't be after a short transition period.

Correct.  If we're to believe Guido here, you'll get warnings for all code
blocks without curly braces in 2.1, and curly braces will become mandatory in
2.2.  However, I think there's more to this story than has been public yet!
Let's not jump the gun.

> It also occurs to me that ActiveState is already deep into .Net and
> python for .Net.  Couldn't you simply provide a 'python for perlites'
> obfustication mode?  ;-)

Since I'm told I'm now an employee of ActiveState, I'm afraid I can't speak
about their plans in public anymore.

> The good news is that I believe that ActiveState will do good things
> for Python,

Evidently Guido doesn't care what you think, so stuff it.

> and as you say, should provide a stable home for python development.
> You join a team of highly respected python people in this move, and the
> resulting products will be far from common, and that is exciting.

Emile!  I hadn't pegged you for such a shameless suck-up.  Good show.

> Good luck to you all,

who-needs-luck-when-you've-got-the-gross-national-product-of-canada-
    behind-you-ly y'rs  - tim