[socal-piggies] Bumming that I missed Google AppEngine Demo

[Todd Cranston-Cuebas]

I can't believe that I missed the Google App Engine Demo! As some of you may
know, I was working over at Google all last year on a contract which,
unfortunately, came to an end. I've been tied up quite a bit getting used to
my new gig and missed the last meeting. Although I'm not currently with
Google, I'm incredibly excited over the prospects for python and the Google
App Engine.

For years I worked with companies who were mostly perl shops and having met
with the leadership of the perl foundation I clearly pointed out that they
need a better way to reach the masses. Without that mass appeal and a simple
scaffolded way of introducing a language any language will begin to suffer.
Ruby shows what can happen if you provide a relatively standardized,
scaffolded framework (although if RonR has legs is still to be decided).
Java doesn't have to worry about this since most colleges force the language
as the defacto "standard." Another critical factor is web-enabling your
application. In the past, python wasn't that easy in the sense that you had
to go to special hosting services etc. to get a python account, and if
you're not totally web savvy setting up your own system seemed like
overkill. Let's face it, every cheap hosting account had PHP ready to roll
and python was beat out there.

App Engine gives a nice, simple, yet relatively powerful way for people to
introduce themselves to python. I'm sure that all of the other languages out
there are dying from jealousy. I have to admit, I'm completely excited about
this in a way that I haven't been in some years. I'm not a full time
programmer but I really like to dabble. Having App Engine take some of the
rough edges off for me and abstract enough so I can simply focus on my goals
is exciting. I'll let you know how my experiments work out ;)

Todd
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