Python is a gem ,another successful day ....

[Nick Vargish]

steve at ferg.org (Stephen Ferg) writes:

> I'm trying to promote Python within the Federal government, and my own
> agency, the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Right now, the chief
> alternative at BLS to Python is Java, but not too long ago it would
> have been VB and PowerBuilder.

Sounds like the situation here at the <Federal Agency Where I Work>
where I'm trying to promote Python as a viable alternative to Java or
Visual Basic.

I'm currently seeing the most resistance in these areas:

  * Who makes Python?  A lot of the culture is still mired in the idea
    that a corporate entity is required for a product to be fully
    supported, or viable in the long term.  I like to remind them how
    well Sun's stewardship has "served" the Java community, but I need
    more than negative counterexamples.

  * Who provides training?  I mean no disrespect to my coworkers, and
    present company is of course excluded, but a lot of the federal
    workforce has no incentive to learn on their own. Unless a
    training course is provided, with certifications and free tote
    bags, there is very little motivation for people to learn new
    technology.

  * How do we deploy Python?  Until we upgrade all the systems here to
    recent versions of Redhat Linux (joke!), installing a Python
    environment is an extra step.  I can point out that finding an
    appropriate JRE is a worse nightmare, but as above, I need more
    than negative counterexamples.

We're currently in something of a holding pattern while a bit of
reorganization takes place in the IT departments, but things will
probably be changing rapidly (as rapidly as any change occurs in a
government institution) once the organizational situation is
stabilized.

There was some talk of forming a SIG for Python in the US Government,
did that ever go anywhere?

Nick

-- 
# sigmask.py  ||  version 0.2  ||  2003-01-07  ||  Feed this to your Python.
print reduce(lambda x,y:x+chr(ord(y)-1),'Ojdl!Wbshjti!=obwAqbusjpu/ofu?','')