[Zope-dev] Extending Zope with Eiffel

[Eric Roby]

Ok ... don't laugh (too hard) yet.  I know this sounds of blasphemy but let
me explain.

I spent many years as a meteorologist in the Navy.  One tool that would have
been invaluable to me (to provide better predictions and warning
capabilities) is an expert system.  I am sure NOAA probably has one but the
Navy doesn't.  And they are the ones that would benefit from such a system
the most because their forecasting responsibilities are global in nature
where NOAA has a much smaller yard to watch over.

I have pondered how to build such a system for over 10 years.  Things began
to fall into place this year when I stumbled upon Zope and when the Navy
decided to get serious about Web Services.

I like Python ... but I don't think (as a scripting language) it is up to
the challenge of an expert system.  A language that I feel is up to the
challenge is Eiffel (especially in conjunction with ISE EiffelStudio .. an
awesome modeling and development environment). So a question for the Zope
guru's out there.  Since Python is such an adept "glue language" and Eiffel
systems are distributed as C-packages, from a technical perspective, would
it be absurd to develop the system in Eiffel and integrate it into Zope as a
product (or better yet a Web Service in the future).

Am I way off base here ?  Or am I wrong about my assessment of Python's
ability to build an expert system ?

Thanks (in advance) for any insight...