Making the rounds today is a perceptive mailing list posting from Rasmus Lerdorf explaining how simple Ajax really can be. I particularly like this bit:
Before you blindly install large “AJAX” libraries, have a go at rolling your own functionality so you know exactly how it works and you only make it as complicated as you need.
Python for the Nokia Series 60 tempts me to get a Nokia phone. Meanwhile I stare at my Palm and mourn the once-amazing, now moribund Pippy.
Larry commented on Mon Nov 14 19:02:17 2005:
Yes, a small palm-specific subset of python with appropriate palm extensions, like plua. Too bad plua’s not ppython. Doesn’t PalmSource understand the marketing boon a professional quality (free on palm os) python interpreter would be to them. -l
According to their blog, the Open Source Intiative (OSI) is holding a public meeting at OSCON on Thursday July 3 at 7:30pm. I’ve been wondering what has transpired since they issued their statement on license proliferation back in April:
Interference between different open-source licenses is now perceived as a sufficiently serious problem that OSI has become as a victim of its own earlier success… The day of the open-source license as tribal flag or corporate monument will have to come to a close.
In a couple days I leave for Portland, Oregon and the O’Reilly Open Source Convention. In the tutorial sessions I’ll be mainly on the Python track (including one session with Alex Martelli, uber tech lead at Google and author of Python In a Nutshell). I’ve heard good things about the conference, and the list of people who will be there is impressive. I’ll try to post regular reports here.
Ruby on Rails has inspired a lot of admiring imitators. In theory you can keep on using Python, Perl, PHP, Java, or C# while reaping the benefits of the Rails model. Ruby fanatics will tell you that the language’s intrisic qualities are part of the bargain, which may be true, but all this activity is not just faddishness – Rails is essentially doing evangelism for a structured style of rapid development that is unfamiliar to many people.