Hi all!
If you go to http://www.python.org/
you'll see at the top-right corner a
picture of an astronaut with the title "NASA uses Python...". Now, to the
layman or beginner it might sound more impressive, but let's get our facts
straight.
Yes, NASA uses Python. However, that doesn't surprise me because NASA,
being a
large, old, hetrogenous, government organisation, with a huge budget, and
many IT needs uses a lot of technologies both new and old. I'm pretty sure
they also use Perl (at least that's what Damian Conway implied in an
interview with him about Parse::RecDescent). They use Windows, Linux, VMS
and
many other UNIX flavours and OSes. (There was a Linux-running device on
the
Columbia).
<Pseudonym> NASA still uses Fortran on their VAXen.
<Pseudonym> Hell, they still use VAXen.
NASA wrote a great deal of their satellite software in Forth. And this JoS
item links to an article about the fact that they are still using a 1970's
vintage launch-control computer system:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/news/20020918.html
So while the fact that NASA uses Python may sound impressive to
relatively-clueless people, it is by no means truly indicative of how
really
good and unique Python is.[1] That's why I'd rather not say something
like "NASA Uses Perl" on http://perl-begin.org/
. It may be true, but
saying
this would be misleading due to the nature of NASA.
However, I'd still like to see this removed from the Python homepage,
because
it's a statement that is misleading to the uninitiated and lacks
integrity. I
thought about consulting you people on my own turf about the best course
of
action from here.
I could post a rant about it on one of my blogs and hope that reddit,
digg,
etc. catch it and a flamewar (probably completely tangential to the issue
at
hand) ensues. Or I could try contacting the Python advocacy list (is there
any) or the python.org webmasters. The latter seems a more civil course of
action to me, but I may be met with apathy or antagonism.
What do you suggest?
Regards,
Shlomi Fish
[1] - I'm not saying that the technologies that NASA use are necessarily
crap,
just that they use a lot of diverse technologies.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish shlomif@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.shlomifish.org/
I'm not an actor - I just play one on T.V.
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