On 2002.11.07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I think Tcl (or, rather, "single language support") is one of the big things > holding AOLserver back. It's nice that you're all convinced of your > godliness under Tcl ;), but other smart people like other languages, and > they're not going to switch to AOLserver if it means switching to Tcl, > however much you tell them they should. Less chauvinism on this front > would be much more welcoming, IMO; outright advertising could only help.
I might be putting my foot in my mouth here, but I always saw AOLserver /not/ as a "general purpose webserver with Tcl as the only server-side scripting language choice". Matter of fact, I've never thought of AOLserver as a "general purpose webserver" -- for that, I'll use Apache. I see AOLserver filling a very specific niche. It's there for very high-end but dynamic websites that must scale well both in terms of traffic and hardware configuration, and be reliable as well. To that goal, having a stable and very lean AOLserver is highly desirable. Now, if adding other scripting language support could be done without adding any baggage to the core -- as external modules -- I'm all for it. However, I would hate to see the core get bogged down with stuff to accomdate all sorts of languages if it means negative impact towards its ability to fit the niche I just described. My personal self-interest comes from developing a site in Vignette's application server product (which, up to version V/6, uses Tcl as its core scripting language). The site across the two major applications I've developed does approx. 1.4M hits/350K page views a day. Not a hell of a lot, but it's a respectable amount and scaling it up will be important. As of Vignette V/7, it appears they're dropping Tcl support in the core. It's the moment I've always been waiting for. I'm ready to evangelize AOLserver full-time as a low-impact migration path from Vignette. If I can get AOLserver to "emulate" Vignette well enough, I can start going around to every Vignette customer and try and sell them an AOLserver replacement implementation. This could be /big/ money. And, it's the niche that AOLserver specifically fits well -- high end, dynamic websites. I don't understand why people are looking for "wider adoption of AOLserver" or "as much publicity as Apache" or whatnot ... while it's nice having a large community of users, some of which might contribute back to the open source project ... having a piece of software that enables the right folks to meet business goals ... that's incredibly valuable already. -- Dossy -- Dossy Shiobara mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Panoptic Computer Network web: http://www.panoptic.com/ "He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)
