.NET and Python

[Alex Martelli]

"Van Gale" <cgale1 at _remove_home.com> wrote in message
news:g7%m7.226487$%a.8840828 at news1.rdc1.sdca.home.com...
    ...
> > I've looked into .NET and I hate to admit it, MS is
> > become more right lately.
>
> Microsoft marketing literature and hype has *always* been right.  For the

I disagree: I find Microsoft's marketing abysmal in its field.  One
of their favourite tricks, using the buzzword-du-Jour to name just
about every new product/technology/idea/... even when it really has
nothing to do with said buzzword, has become one of my pet hates.

Ever tried explaining to a poor VB newbie that what VB calls
'ActiveX' is NOT necessarily Active/X [a specific set of technologies
layered on top of COM] but can actually apply to COM in general,
for example?  And current servers *NAMED* "something.NET" which
really have nothing to do with the .NET Framework are more of the
same -- not to mention the confusion between Office/XP and
Windows/XP (neither of which relates to Extreme Programming:-).


I do agree that MS has often had SOME good products (Excel being
one example), SOME particularly good features in other products
(VB as a language has almost nothing but warts, but the tools that
make up the VB _product_ have long been first-rate), and even
some superb technology from time to time (COM being the only
area that readily comes to mind -- the real technical aspects
of .NET, as opposed to hype and Hailstorms, may prove able to
duplicate that success).  But I've never seen their marketing
do anything but sow confusion, be that to their advantage or to
their detriment doesn't seem to matter (confusion hiding the
defects of inferior products may be deliberate, but what about
confusion hiding the strength of superior stuff such as COM?!-).


Alex