[Fwd: Re: [Uuu-devel] languages] <-- Why Python

[Mike Meyer]

Arich Chanachai <macrocosm at fastmail.fm> writes:
> Mike Meyer wrote:
>>Arich Chanachai <macrocosm at fastmail.fm> writes:
>>>These last two points kind of diverge from the point, no?  What I mean
>>>is that we want to present the argument of why Python is the best
>>>choice as THE built-in programming language for the revolutionary uuu
>>>operating system.
>>
>>A new operating system shouldn't be picking "THE" built-in programming
>>language. It should instead be providing mechanisms to allow arbitrary
>>programming languages to be used wherever they are required. Tying the
>>users of the OS - or of some application - down to a specific language
>>is a disservice to the developers and users of that OS or application.
>>
>>While Python is an excellent language, and has a nice implementation
>>for embedding/extending applications, it's not necessarily the best
>>choice for all problems. You're be doing much better for your users to
>>allow them to choose the right language for the problem than to
>>dictate the language that has to be used.
>>
> There is no intention to dictate, but instead to provide
> out-of-the-box, built-into-the-architecture support for a single
> language or a wide array of languages.  For now, this will begin with
> a single language and the question is merely which one.

Whatever the intentions may be, the *act* is one of dictation. Since
the point of the underlying OS is to increase the interconnections
between applications (assuming I've found the correct web page and
interpreted it correctly), the underlying architecture should be
language-neutral. That allows as many applications as possible to play
in the environment.

I did this with CORBA (see http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/scripting/ )
just to show that Unix can play in this arena as well as various
desktop OS's. Plan 9 provides a much better mechanism that allows any
programming language that can do file I/O to be used for building
interconnections.

        <mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.