No Subject

[devnull]

On Thu, 2 Dec 1999, Deirdre Saoirse wrote:

> No, but almost all Linux installations (particularly Red Hat's) have
> Python installed already.

I've seen quite a few Linux boxen and have several at home, but I've never seen
Python installed on any of them.  Maybe that's one of those "if you install
the entire (redhat?) distribution" things?

If I were considering some great new program written in Python, I'd be 
annoyed at having to install Python first, maybe even enough so that I
would just do without.  Maybe I'm in the minority, but if not, perhaps
the "universality" of whatever this is written in should be considered.
(You can't go wrong with good old C :)

Another thought... I've never done any porting of software, but I would
imagine that it'd be easier to design software to work on multiple
platforms from the beginning rather than porting it later.  Why limit
this to Linux?  If you could enlist #BSD/Solaris/whatever other 
programmers from the onset, you might end up with a finished product
that's useful to a much broader audience.  Maybe my outlook is different
from others on this list, but I don't care which OS you throw in front of
me as long as it's *nix. ;)

My comments may sound critical, but they're not intended to.  Just throwing
ideas around.  Please reply to the list because this address will bounce --
I object to having my email address archived on the web.

JM


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No Subject

[devnull]

On Thu, 2 Dec 1999, curious wrote:

> I find language wars to often be uneducated, trivial, and misleading..
> below is an example... basically s/he is saying "I don't know about this..
> so it must be bad"

Chris, I agree that language wars are usually worthless.  You've totally
missed my point.  I wouldn't bother replying, except that maybe others
have to and I think what I said was valid.  Basically it just boils down
to "if you use tools that are commonly installed on the vast majority of
machines to begin with, you will make it easy for prospective users to
take advantage of what you've created"...  Nobody wants to spend a lot of
time and effort constructing something that won't be used.  I was simply
presenting one possible factor that MIGHT turn people off.  If it doesn't
seem like it would deter many people, then ignore what I've said -- I just
thought it would be better to consider the pros and cons as thoroughly
as possible *before* people put lots of time and effort into something.


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