Software archeology (was Re: Developing Commercial Applications in Python)

[Stephen Waterbury]

Aahz wrote:
> In article <mailman.348.1105159582.22381.python-list at python.org>,
> Stephen Waterbury  <golux at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
>>Aahz wrote:
>>
>>>In article <mailman.260.1105025818.22381.python-list at python.org>,
>>>Stephen Waterbury  <golux at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>>Also see Python Success Stories:  http://pythonology.org/success
>>>>
>>>>A notable example is Verity's search engine -- see
>>>>http://python.oreilly.com/news/PythonSS.pdf
>>>
>>>Actually, your statement is slightly inaccurate.  The Verity search
>>>engine is more than fifteen years old in its core technology; it was
>>>started as a LISP project at IIRC MIT.  (At one point I was much amused
>>>to look at the C source code and find car() and cdr() functions.)  As of
>>>my last information, Python isn't used at all in or with the Verity
>>>search engine.  What you're referring to is the Verity Ultraseek engine,
>>>originally written and owned by Infoseek before getting transferred to
>>>Verity through a series of dot-bomb transactions.  The Ultraseek engine
>>>doesn't use Python, but Python is used to control the engine, and I think
>>>much of the spider is written in Python.
>>
>>Actually, Aahz didn't add anything useful that wasn't explained better
>>in the article itself, pointing to which was the purpose of my post,
>>but he is correct:  Python was *not* used to write the Verity search
>>engine ... how the hell do these stupid rumors get started anyhow?? ;).
>>Just read the article, dammit! :)
> 
> You're quite correct that I added little useful information, but seeing
> as I used to work at Verity, I couldn't resist adding some hopefully
> interesting and/or amusing trivia.  Especially the LISP bit.

Well GEEZ, you should've mentioned that you used to work there!
All the trivia *were* amusing ... sorry if I harshed!  :)

Cheers,
Steve