Mono and Python

[Tim Peters]

[Don Tuttle]
> It's clear that Miguel de Icaza believes .NET solves important
> development issues.
> ...
> That seems to be born out by the better than expected support the
> Mono project is receiving from developers outside his company.
>
> Sure would make me feel better to hear from the Python-dev community
> that Python can and will be a player in this new ball game.

Sorry, I've heard nothing to that effect either.

> Because, quite frankly, the silence of the past few months has been
> deafening.

Unsure what this means -- Python-Dev is as active as ever, but most cycles
are consumed by dealing with bug reports and patch submissions.  I don't
think anyone in that crew has the bandwidth to take on a non-trivial new
project, and I doubt PythonLabs could get a green light to work on Mono
specifically.  If I had spare cycles, I'd devote them to pushing Armin
Rigo's Psyco along -- but I don't.  Others would be more likely to give
Parrot a hand -- but probably won't.  Etc.  Alas, AFAICT all of "the usual
suspects" are overloaded already.

Note that python-dev is a small group of people -- there are rarely more
than 4 really active at any time.  We have hundreds of contributors for
small things, but big things rarely get tackled unless Guido personally
drives them.  The Unicode and SRE exceptions come to mind, and they were
enabled by external funding; ditto, I assume, ActiveState's Itanium port and
.NET work for Python.

if-an-area-attracts-neither-volunteers-nor-cash-...-ly y'rs  - tim