[ Thanks to Kellie
for this link. ]
“One year ago, if you were to ask an honest Python
evangelist if Python was missing anything important that Perl, for
example, had, the answer would most likely have been “yes”. It
wasn’t that Python lacked a breadth of module and package support
(both Python native and extension modules). It certainly wasn’t the
clarity of expression or clean object orientation in which Python
positively excels. What is Python? Python is a freely available,
very high-level, interpreted language developed by Guido van
Rossum. It combines a clear syntax with powerful (but optional)
object-oriented semantics. Python is available for almost every
computer platform you might find yourself working on, and has
strong portability between platforms.What Python was missing is what Perl developers describe as
“social factors.” But even here, the missing social factors were
not the absence of an active, intelligent, and supportive Python
community — Python abounds in that. What the Python of a year ago
sorely lacked was a sufficient programmatic infrastructure for
sharing Python code. Code sharing was ad hoc, decentralized, and
just plain too much work.The first step in improving the social infrastructure of Python
was probably Tim Middleton’s creation of the Vaults of Parnassus
(see Resources later in this article). For the first time, Python
developers had a single place to turn for (nearly) all contributed
third-party modules, packages, and tools. Still having its quirks,
making it possibly less advanced (but nicer looking) than the
Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, the Vaults merely point to
actual resources rather than mirroring them. Manually maintained by
Middleton, updates are sometimes slow; and Vex.Net (who generously
hosts the Vaults) has had intermittent outages. Overall, however,
the Vaults of Parnassus has provided an invaluable resource in
building the architectural prerequisites of a strong Python
community.”