I find Paul Rubin's arguments compelling and convincing. As just a Python user (i.e., someone who has contributed nothing) let me add a few comments along the same lines.
On 03 Feb 2007 18:31:03 -0800, Paul Rubin <"http://phr.cx"@nospam.invalid> wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > Paul> Why would I expect your employer to solve my problems anyway, even > > Paul> if they relate to some module that you actually use? > > > > Your reasoning seems to be that Python should contain the functional union > > of everything at least in Java and PHP if not Perl, Ruby and Tcl as well. > > I wouldn't go quite that far. I think there are specific application > areas, such as web server apps, where the Python advocates here on > clpy pitch Python relentlessly against those other languages. Given > that context, Python's stdlib should try to match the libraries of > those other languages in those areas. There are other areas where > Python doesn't get pitched as hard and the other languages have > acknowledged advantages. So it's ok if Python's stdlib gets less > attention in those areas. > In fact, it is quite frustrating to operate under the impression that "Python is good for X, Y, Z, ...." and then realize "ooops, it is becoming a pain in the ass to do X, whereas language L does X just fine". It seems to me that Python advocates sometimes (often?) get carried away. DB "sure, no problem"; web-frameworks "who needs Rails, we have (lots of) frameworks that do it"; functional programming "Python can do all the functional programming anyone in his/her mind should ever try to do"; etc. Compare this to the, in my opinion, equanimous, fair, "advertisement" one finds in the Erlang page or the recognition by schemers that scheme is not the only game in town. > > > If you want to turn the Python distribution into a kitchen sink, > > make the argument on python-dev and be prepared to shoulder your > > share of the burden should your arguments sway the group as a whole. > > We've had this conversation before and I continue to think your > reasoning above is invalid. I'm not a Python developer, I'm just a > user, and my volunteer coding priorities are elsewhere, as I've > explained before. Python's developers and advocates have a declared > goal of reaching as many users as they can, and as a user I don't mind > offering suggestions about how to do that, but my responsibilities > don't go any further. R. > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > -- Ramon Diaz-Uriarte Statistical Computing Team Structural Biology and Biocomputing Programme Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO) http://ligarto.org/rdiaz -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
