future of python vs java?

[Mylene Reiners]

Alex et al,

Yau definitely have a point here. But aren't you afraid that "Python",
"Jython" and "Nython" (whatever) will grow in different directions?
I mean, in Java as well as in Python I wrote programs / classes that existed
already, just because I didn't know they existed (my fault undoubtedly, but
because of the huge existing native and non-native libraries understandable
I guess).

Imagine: an existing Nython class written again in "core" Python because the
existence was not known...

How about that?

Mylene  

-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Martelli
To: python-list at python.org
Sent: 10/2/2002 12:12 PM
Subject: RE: future of python vs java?

Mylene Reiners wrote:
        ...
> But why would you use Java in .NET? We have J2EE. Let them be
competitors.

One can reasonably be of the opinion that Java is a more suitable
language for his/her application than C# or other "native .NET
offerings", and at the same time just as reasonably convinced that
the frameworks / libraries / tools of .NET are preferable to those
of J2EE, again for his/her application.  Whether such a person would
be right or wrong is irrelevant (you don't know his/her application,
so you can't really say).  The point is, it should be obvious that
one may prefer language A1 and libraries / environment B2, rather
than _having_ to use libraries / environment A2 as the price to pay
for the privilege of using language A1, or language B1 as the price
to pay for the privilege of using libraries / environment B2.

This crucial point -- that language preferences and preferences
about libraries and environments ARE quite normally decoupled -- is
often lost on Java fans, who seem to think of a language and a
huge set of libraries and environments as somehow welded.  Most
fortunately, they aren't.  People who prefer the Python language,
in particular, can freely and independently choose to use the set
of libraries and environments designed for Java (thanks to jython),
or those that Classic Python supports (i.e., with some wrapping
work, just about anything available for/in C or C++, plus Python
specials such as Numeric and the like).  It's a pity that people
who prefer Python can't just as easily choose to use the set of
libraries and environments that rely on .NET, but presumably if
and when effective demand (in an economic sense -- directly or via
the "programmers scratching their own itches" mechanism that is
often seen in open-source) emerges, so will "netython" or whatever.


Alex

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