Hi all! If you go to http://www.python.org/ you'll see at the top-right corner a picture of an astronaut with the title "NASA uses Python...". Now, to the layman or beginner it might sound more impressive, but let's get our facts straight.
Yes, NASA uses Python. However, that doesn't surprise me because NASA, being a large, old, hetrogenous, government organisation, with a huge budget, and many IT needs uses a lot of technologies both new and old. I'm pretty sure they also use Perl (at least that's what Damian Conway implied in an interview with him about Parse::RecDescent). They use Windows, Linux, VMS and many other UNIX flavours and OSes. (There was a Linux-running device on the Columbia). <Pseudonym> NASA still uses Fortran on their VAXen. <Pseudonym> Hell, they still use VAXen. NASA wrote a great deal of their satellite software in Forth. And this JoS item links to an article about the fact that they are still using a 1970's vintage launch-control computer system: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/news/20020918.html So while the fact that NASA uses Python may sound impressive to relatively-clueless people, it is by no means truly indicative of how really good and unique Python is.[1] That's why I'd rather not say something like "NASA Uses Perl" on http://perl-begin.org/ . It may be true, but saying this would be misleading due to the nature of NASA. However, I'd still like to see this removed from the Python homepage, because it's a statement that is misleading to the uninitiated and lacks integrity. I thought about consulting you people on my own turf about the best course of action from here. I could post a rant about it on one of my blogs and hope that reddit, digg, etc. catch it and a flamewar (probably completely tangential to the issue at hand) ensues. Or I could try contacting the Python advocacy list (is there any) or the python.org webmasters. The latter seems a more civil course of action to me, but I may be met with apathy or antagonism. What do you suggest? Regards, Shlomi Fish [1] - I'm not saying that the technologies that NASA use are necessarily crap, just that they use a lot of diverse technologies. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Shlomi Fish [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://www.shlomifish.org/ I'm not an actor - I just play one on T.V.
