Someone sent this question to their manager and included me on the CC: list.

"Would you consider tools like Django to quickly build web apps ?"

My suggestion is that a bald query like this can only get on of two possible answers: "No" (and a large number of unsubtle variations …

Why Python, indeed?

"It's clear that you find it easier and quicker to use Python, and that's fine. It's often quickest for people to use the tools that they know best."

As they say on Fark.com, "This".

However, the Python advantage doesn't stem from knowing Python better than Java …

Recently , I found out that my HTML parser was only a mere shadow Beautiful Soup . I invented what is -- essentially -- a similar core structure. I didn't carry it to the same level of completion. From what little research I've done, my invention predates Beautiful Soup.

It's one of those "collective …

The problem with Python is the vastness of the Open Source community. You may think you have something cool for HTML parsing , but then someone tells you about Beautiful Soup which already does it.

In my defense, I actually did a version of this HTML parsing back in '02. Indeed …

The mixed content model, defined succinctly in the XML standards, is pleasant enough for human communication, but leaves a lot to be desired. For example, mapping a mixed content model to a relational database is a hard problem.

The problem is made worse when the document is HTML. HTML doesn't …

When you start fresh (as I sometimes do), you create a Django project into which you create your first application. You use django-admin.py to spin up a project directory, and from in side there, use manage.py to create an application boilerplate.

The Django folks are very clear on …

Things I learned at PyCon 2007 .

1. In the Open Source community, men outnumber women 571 : 22. I guess that's why I'm married to a sysadmin instead of a programmer.
2. While I already knew that programming was literature, I never really connected it with Rhetoric until hearing R0ml's keynote. If programming …

Binstock does a quick compare and contrast between Ruby and NetRexx, showing how an active community promoted Ruby, and NetRexx's lack of a community left it languishing. I think that this analysis is only partly true, and misses part of the value of open source.

Specifically, IBM's proprietary NetRexx can't …

Here's a novel point of view on open source software.

'In fact, one of the things Google likes about open source software is that it facilitates secrecy. "If we had to go and buy software licenses, or code licenses, based on seats, people would absolutely know what the Google infrastructure …

What is the reward structure for open source?

If a corporate IT team builds software using open source components, CP insists, they've made a fundamental blunder. I forget CP's litany of concerns, but he worries that the software is unproven, untrustworthy, risky, etc., etc.

My argument that "you have the …