[Zope] ANN: Perl For Zope

[Eric W. Sink]

Digicool's announcement of some Perl support for Zope obviously
surprised a lot of people.  I haven't seen much positive reaction here
on the list.

In fact, I daresay I have seen some concerns which I consider to be
quite valid indeed.  After all, a web developer who is a Python
fanatic chooses Zope for its underlying language.  [Sh|H]e is unlikely
to react warmly to the stench of Perl and the hideous possibility that
a customer might develop the expectation that Zope and Perl expertise
would go hand in hand.

[ Oops, sorry.  Did I accidentally let my personal scripting language
bias show through in the previous paragraph?  ;-) ]

Actually, I'm posting this note to offer another perspective, in
support of this news.  The following is just my opinion, formulated
largely out of conjecture and a desire to view this Perl-Zope
announcement in a more positive light:

In the bigger picture, maybe it's not about "Perl vs. Python".

Maybe it's about "scripting languages vs. Java".

Sad to say, a majority of IT people in the world think that the terms
"application server" and "Java" are nearly synonymous.  Next time you
have a chance to visit a major Internet tradeshow, look around at all
the Java-based application servers.  You can't swing a dead cat
without hitting one of them.

Zope is different.  It's certainly accurate to say that Zope is all
about Python.  However, it's also somewhat accurate to say that Zope
is about server-side *scripting*.

I don't see this announcement as a major shift toward Perl on the part
of the Zope developers.  Looking over the history of Digital Creations
and its team, it seems quite obvious that any of them could prick
their finger and see Python code flowing out instead of blood.

I *speculate* that this announcement is simply a consequence of 
Really Big Vision.

Right now, Zope is 'The Python Application Server'.

Let's suppose for a moment that Zope's ambitions are much bigger than
we think, and that its commitment to purity is slightly lower than we
think.  In other words, let's just suppose that Zope really wants to
be 'The Scripting-Language Application Server'.

If so, then why should it not invite the [enormous] Perl crowd into
its community?

-- 
Eric W. Sink, Software Craftsman
SourceGear Corporation
eric@sourcegear.com