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

[Aahz]

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.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"19. A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming,
is not worth knowing."  --Alan Perlis