Could a single web framework popularize Python?

[Robert Brewer]

Alan Little wrote:
> > I see no real likelihood of python ever eating a 
> significant chunk of
> > the  corporate big systems market - there's too much 
> already invested
> > in J2EE (not to mention older architectures that are still heavily
> > used like CORBA and CICS). Java is more than good enough for the job
> > and the skills are readily available. Why would anybody risk their
> > company and their job on a completely unproven environment just
> > because it happens to use a nicer programming language?

Well, I did both; risked my company and my job. I worked for two years
to get management to agree I needed to rewrite our core business app: a
web app written in VB4!! I was then told to "do it in ASP". I refused,
and am now rewriting it in Python. I risked my job because I felt, given
our IT management history, that betting our systems on ASP or .Net would
be a medium-to-long-term disaster from which we would not recover.
Granted, we are a smallish business, developing our own software for our
own use. However, you did ask. ;)

Ian Bicking wrote:
> Of course, as a Free Software advocate in general, I (we) shouldn't 
> really celebrate their loss.  Java would be a more appealing 
> opponent.  
> Or more appealing yet, if we could be the alternative for people who 
> might use ColdFusion or ASP.

Glad to appeal. :)

> Eh, I don't worry too much about that.  As long as the 
> framework isn't 
> insular (which might rule out Zope and asynchronous Twisted 
> programming) it's easy to translate knowledge into another 
> framework.  
> Python is Python, and that's really where your application is written.
> 
> But if there was some sort of standardization, I personally feel 
> strongly it should support the current frameworks running on top of 
> that standard.  The early adopters don't deserve to be jilted, and 
> that's no way to build confidence in the standard either.

FWIW, I am writing my own framework. I have to integrate with a third
party's proprietary CRM product, and I simply felt better about adapting
my own framework to it than trying to add components onto Twisted or
Zope or the framework du jour. Regardless, I make every effort to give
others the freedom to use my code and *easily* replace/extend what
doesn't work for them. It may never have another developer, but it makes
my future brighter to be so maintainable. I like to think I could rip
out a good chunk and replace it with Twisted, etc. in a short time if
the need arose.

Had to provide an anecdote.


Robert Brewer
MIS
Amor Ministries
fumanchu at amor.org