[Zope] Re: language != newsgroup

[Tom Neff]

Bill Anderson <bill@libc.org> wrote:
> Well, I think I can comment on som eof teh 'revulsion' of many of the
> persons on the list. Some of us have/do hang out on c.l.python and
> c.l.perl. We have witness _ferst_hand_ this 'community's collective
> 'gargabe'. TO compare the two communities, you start with how they act/
> do not act as one. First place to look: usenet, the sewer. In c.l.perl,
> any mention of non-perl, or anything less than absolute praise for perl,
> will land you in a flame war the likes or which satan himself wears
> asbestos clothing for (and if you mention python, satan bows out due to
> heat). I have seen people _try_ to start flame wars on c.l.py, and fail
> 99% of the time. I have only once seen something close to a flame war on
> c.l.py in many years. And in that was due in a large part to the other
> person in it (those who witnessed it now who I am speaking of).

The fallacy here is simply that Zope is adding a language, not a newsgroup.
There are people who code Perl, Python and Zope every day and don't know,
care about, read or post to comp.lang.anything.  Bajillions of them in
fact - a healthy majority.  The decision whether to add a language should
NOT be made on the basis of what a few Usenet addicts think.  It should be
made on the basis (among others) of whether it adds desirable functionality
and "marketability" (for profit or otherwise) without fatally complicating
the product.  I think Perl methods will be very popular and not particularly
difficult to maintain as a Zope feature, although I do anticipate some
complications down the road as new Zope, Python and Perl releases see the
light of day and have to co-exist on various platforms.

> I can pretty much gaurantee that oce we start getting perl people on the
> list, doing stuff in perl, the following scenario will occur repeatedly:
>
> "I want to do this, how do I do it?"
>  "like this...<python code>"
> "I don;t want to use python, I want to use the all cool lnaguage of
> perl"
>  "Sorry, can't help you" ...

Actually what will probably happen is that someone will ask

"I want to do this, how do I do it"

and one or more Python enthusiasts will say "like this... <python code>"
and one or more Perl enthusiasts will SIMULTANEOUSLY say "like this... <perl
code>"
and the user will pick what suits them, and get back to work.

Only the professional arguers will have the time to fight over this stuff.