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Python Development Team Moves to BeOpen.Com

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the movin-up-and-out dept.

Clyde Zellers writes: "The Python development team's leader, Guido Van Rossum, has just announced in an open letter that he is moving with his team to the Open Source startup, BeOpen.com. Guido and his team will now be devoting their full energies to Python developement and continuing with such innovative projects as Python 3000. "

6 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. The Larger Trend by LaNMaN2000 · · Score: 5

    It seems to be fairly common for authors of well-known utilities to either form their own start-ups or be absorbed into existing ones. If the ideology of OSS is to develop code "for the good of humanity," I am more than a little curious why Slashdot's absorbtion into Andover.net, L0pht's absorbtion into @stake, and now Python's absorbtion into BeFree has not spawned criticism. Since I view myself as somewhat of an outsider in relation to OSS, I see it as the natural evolution of OSS into the marketplace at large. In my mind, it legitimizes OSS more than it reflects on the founders' desire for material possessions.

    How do you feel about OSS companies becoming part of for-profit ventures?

    --

    ByteMyCode.com: A Web 2.0 code sharing community.
  2. About Damn Time... by Tildedot · · Score: 5
    Harumph. It's been _years_ since the Python development team last sprung into action. Ever since Cleese and Idle took their poofter arses out of the mix, there's been less and less Python each and every year. Oh, I know what you're thinking: "Yes, it is spelled Python, but it's pronounced Throat-warbler Mangrove".

    Poignantly, it is now time for the Penguin on your telly to explode...

  3. Re:Whitespace-sensitive by tuffy · · Score: 5
    Python is whitespace-sensitive, but I think it's a misconception that this will cramp your style unecessarily. As long as you remain consistant, Python doesn't care if your blocks are indented 1 space or 10. There's still a lot of leeway for individuality.

    As for the usefulness, a semi-consistant style makes reading other peoples' code easier and it means less characters onscreen (such as { and }) for marking the starts and stops of blocks - leaving more room for code.

    It's not for everyone, I'll admit, but it didn't take me long before I'd forgotten about the indentation rules entirely. Now I don't even think about them unless someone reminds me.

    --

    Ita erat quando hic adveni.

  4. Re:Perl vs. Python by mattdm · · Score: 5
    I think a better analogy is:

    Perl is like English. It's got lots of words and concepts borrowed from other languages. Sometimes spellings are confusing and even irrational. There's irregularities everywhere you look. It's not particularly hard to learn the basics, but picking up all of the nuances takes real effort -- many people who use it daily are still confused by some of the grammar. It's also very flexible, and a favorite language of many for writing poetry.

    Python is like Esperanto. It's designed from the beginning to make sense, and to be easy to learn. Spelling is phonetic, and "unnecessary complications" have been removed. It's still a fully-functional language in which any concept can be expressed -- being a planned language doesn't automatically make it Orwellian -- but there isn't the flexibility found elsewhere.

    The Esperanto approach has its advantages, especially for programming. (Let's hope Python has more success in the real world!) In an alternate, more sensible universe, international documents are written in Esperanto. Likewise, it makes sense to design big collaborative projects in Python. On the other hand, I really enjoy the flexiblity and room for creativity provided by the English language -- and by Perl.

    --

  5. focus on simplicity by jetson123 · · Score: 5
    What makes Python a great language is its simplicity, both at the level of implementation and at the level of the language.

    What I hope to see for Python 3000 is mostly cleanups that weren't possible in earlier versions because of backwards incompatibility: a simpler, leaner implementation with a "nicer" interface to C++ code, lexical scoping rules, and a simple full garbage collector in place of reference counting. Moving the NumPy numerical array type into the core would also help with creating numerical extensions. But that's largely all I would like to see in the next major release of Python.

    I'm not sure that the transition to BeOpen.com of the development effort is altogether a good thing. If this results in extra resources and they are focussed on enhancing Python, Python may become too complex and featureful; a number of other languages that started out like Python have gone down that road and become marginalized. Or Python may simply end up being a side-line for some other business, just like what seems to have happened with Scriptics and Tcl.

    Python is Guido's baby, and it's his to decide where to take it. But I hope he'll keep these kinds of concerns in mind.

  6. A Response From BeOpen.com by advtech · · Score: 5


    BeOpen.com would like to thank the Slashdot community for generating such volume of conversation on the Python issue. Because some rumors have been flying around today, we would like to let the community know a little more about BeOpen.com as a company, as well as answers some of the questions that have been raised.

    BeOpen.com is a venture-backed Silicon Valley start-up based in Santa Clara, CA. We are an application publishing company fully committed to Open Source and the community surrounding it.

    We did, in fact, receive funding from individuals who were the founders and deal makers behind Exodus Communications and AboveNet. We are not, however, "owned" by AboveNet. We feel that having access to these successful and highly intelligent business professionals is an asset to our company.

    BeOpen.com has acquired LinuxDEV.net, Geeks404.com, and GNULinux.com, providing content and community around these sites. We have also interviewed a number of Open Source luminaries on the BeOpen.com site, including Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation, Jordan Hubbard of FreeBSD, Inc., Matthias Kalle Dalheimer of the KDE Project, and Beau Vrolyk of SGI. As well, we have produced a number of documents relating to Linux and its usage, which inform and aid the community as a whole.

    BeOpen.com has also been in contact with Richard Stallman concerning an equipment donation to the Free Software Foundation, one of our many community outreach programs.

    The Core Python development team has joined BeOpen.com. We have signed an agreement with Guido and his team stating that we will always release our Python products as Open Source, ensuring that the community's rights are protected.

    We continue to employ members of the community to produce content and develop software. We also support several projects on SourceForge, paying the salaries of the developers in charge of these endeavors.

    We hope the community will recognize through our actions the strong commitment to giving back and promoting the Open Source and Linux movements that BeOpen.com has displayed and will continue to foster.

    Thank you all for your interest in BeOpen.com and in Python. We look forward to working closely with the community to promote Open Source and Linux.


    Domenic R. Merenda
    Director of Strategic Business Development
    BeOpen.com