short of programmer(compare with java cpp)
Not really bear in mind it takes most programmers a couple of days (at most) to be productive in Python and learn 90% of the language. It takes a lot longer in other languages.
and short of elite programming environment (like MS visual studio).
What vim, emacs? There are plenty of expensive IDE's that support Python. Visual Python for example: http://www.activestate.com/Products/Visual_Python "Visual Python is the high-productivity Python plug-in for Visual Studio .NET. Powerful, Python-specific features within the familiar Visual Studio environment provide ease of use and accelerated development cycles"
Some articles explain why the zope can't port from CPython to JPython. But how about a rebuild in pure java/cpp/c#? is it possible and deserved?
Because IMHO the best thing about Zope *is* Python. Take away Python and it would be much less powerful. The thought of writing a product in C# gives me the willies ;) There is a PHP port of some bits out there if you are curious BTW :) -- Andy McKay