Do you QA your Python? Was: 2.1 vs. 2.2

[Steve Holden]

<maxx at easynerws.com> wrote ...
> On Sun, 14 Apr 2002 19:36:27 +0100, philh at comuno.freeserve.co.uk (phil
hunt)
> wrote:
>
> >IMO until Python developers adopt a policy of being very reluctant
> >to do this, many IT managers will be wary of using it in anything
> >other thsan toy projects, and Python's user base will not grow as
> >quickly as (IMO) it should.
>
> Why?
>
> At my company we are stuck in the realm of Windows, and the IT staff must
> constantly patch the webservers to keep up with security and bugfixes. A
quick
> check of the IT media will show management's displeasure over this
continual
> process, but it does not appear to have hampered the deployment of Windows
> servers.
>
However, this is merely a demonstration of what I think of as Erlichman's
Principle: "When you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will
surely follow".

> As a matter of fact, what seems to be more reliable is that IT managers
will
> deploy more of what they already have, what their developers are most
> productive, or what their required component requires. If change rates
were a
> critical factor, no one would be deploying Microsoft's IIS.
>
I think it's more a matter of justifying their decision to back Microsoft
technologies in the first place, or simply knowing no better. Microsoft are
dominating because they have the same mindshare that IBM did in the 1980s,
and if they aren't careful they will go the same way.

Although I can't disagree that such market dominance does tend to ensure
that productivity aids are plentiful for the Microsoft environment. There
are signs that this won't last, though, as the open source/free software
movement(s) climbs up from the infrastructure towards the applications.

> As mentioned in elsewhere this thread, Java and VB, have and are
undergoing
> complete architecture restructuring, and they still are expanding their
> territories.
>
> Keep in mind, IT managers often do not think and act like developers.

Too true. But then, if developers had had the mandatory lobotomy they'd be
no good as developers anyway, would they?

i'd-rather-have-a-bottle-in-front-of-me-than-a-frontal-lobotomy-ly y'rs  -
steve