The definition of a component model I use below is a class which allows properties, methods, and events in a structured way which can be recognized, usually through some form of introspection outside of that class. This structured way allows visual tools to host components, and allows programmers to build applications and libraries visually in a RAD environment.
The Java language has JavaBeans as its component model which allows Java applications to be built in a visual RAD way. Microsoft's .Net has a component model built-in to its .Net class libraries as well as supported by CLR which allows .Net applications to be built visually using components created in any .Net supported language. With Python things are different. There is no single component model which allows Python developers to build components which will be used and recognized by the various RAD Python tools on the market. Instead a developer must create a slightly different set of Python classes for each RAD Python tool. This is the situation despite Python's having easily as much functionality, if not much more, as Java or .Net languages such as C#, VB, or C++/CLI for creating components, and for allowing visual tools to introspect the properties, methods, and events of Python classes. I believe that Python should have a common components model for all RAD development environments, as that would allow the Python programmer to create a set of classes representing components which would work in any environment. I want to immediately point out that components do not simply mean visual GUI components but what may be even more important, non-visual components. Having used RAD development environments to create applications, I have found such environments almost always much better than coding complex interactions manually, and I believe that visual development environments are almost a necessity in today's world of large-scale, multi-tier, and enterprise applications. Has there ever been, or is there presently anybody, in the Python developer community who sees the same need and is working toward that goal of a common component model in Python, blessed and encouraged by those who maintain the Python language and standard modules themselves ? -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
