Chas Emerick wrote: > This may seem like it's coming out of left field for a minute, but > bear with me. > > There is no doubt that Ruby's success is a concern for anyone who > sees it as diminishing Python's status. One of the reasons for > Ruby's success is certainly the notion (originally advocated by Bruce > Tate, if I'm not mistaken) that it is the "next Java" -- the language > and environment that mainstream Java developers are, or will, look to > as a natural next step. > > One thing that would help Python in this "debate" (or, perhaps simply > put it in the running, at least as a "next Java" candidate) would be > if Python had an easier migration path for Java developers that > currently rely upon various third-party libraries. The wealth of > third-party libraries available for Java has always been one of its > great strengths. Ergo, if Python had an easy-to-use, recommended way > to use those libraries within the Python environment, that would be a > significant advantage to present to Java developers and those who > would choose Ruby over Java. Platform compatibility is always a huge > motivator for those looking to migrate or upgrade.
While you might have a point with easing the transition for java developers might favor them python over ruby, you seem to mix a few things here, and forget about others: - ruby has no notion of java-library support. So if anything lures java developers from J2EE-land to rails, its the framework itself. Which, by my standards, is at least met if not excelled by TurboGears and Django. So it's marketing, but of a different kind, we need. - jython, after a period of seemingly inactivity, makes huge progress towards python2.2 and python2.3. Which will open up new possibilities just the other way round: use existing, powerful python libraries written in post-2.1 from jython, neatly integrating java and python. Now there is jRuby trying to do the same for ruby - but I never heard of it before (googled it for this post), so it seems not to be as important as jython certainly is Diez -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
