Python evolution: Unease

[Alex Martelli]

Robert Kern <rkern at ucsd.edu> wrote:
   ...
> >> I love eric3, but if you're an eclipse fan, look at enthought's
> >> "envisage" IDE -- it seems to me that it has superb promise.
   ...
> > Is it available for download somewhere?
> 
> Alex is, I think, jumping the gun a bit. Envisage isn't quite ready for
> prime time as your day to day IDE. It might be useful to you right now

I apologize if I gave a misleading impression: I did not mean it was
ready to use, or _already_ here; I suggested "looking at" in the sense
of "paying attention to", and specifically mentioned "promise".

Since the subthread was about future IDE developments, I thought it was
appropriate to mention envisage, in the context of comparisons with
eclipse's plugin-centered architecture.

> as a platform to build a dynamic GUI application (Envisage's intended
> use) if you are willing to get your hands dirty and help us build 
> Envisage. Hence, it is not being advertised widely.

I saw a Pycon proposed talk about it, so I didn't stop to consider the
"not advertised widely" issue.  Thinking about it, I realize Pycon is
almost 3 months from now, so wanting to enthuse about envisage then
doesn't imply already wanting to widely advertise it now; sorry.

> But Alex is right; Envisage does hold a lot of promise.

The very concept of an architecture based on a spare skeleton and
copious plugins is intrinsically excellent, and I think that by now
eclipse has proven it's also practically viable for real-world powerful
IDEs/platforms/frameworks.


Alex