Python Was: [Mldonkey-users] getting frustrated

[Ken Bradshaw]

Andre Hinrichs wrote:
> when we can expect a next (nearly) stable release. At least there should be 
> an official hotfix release if something strange happened 

I think that a lot of this stems from mldonkey using a really 
non-mainstream language, so too few people can contribute.

Especially when the "specifications" of the protocol are... C++ emule 
code. It is difficult to just grab the emule additions and port them to 
mldonkey. (I tried, and while ocalm is quite readable, writing it is a 
whole different game... every little detail is different from mainstream 
languages. And I designed and implemented a functional language in my 
previous work so I am not really a novice on these matters)

So, a better situation would be to have mldonkey recoded in a language 
easier to manage for most people, but keeping the good points of ocaml:
   * Cross platform
   * Non-"core dumpable", easier to debug (no memory corruptions)
   * With a GC
   * Supporting clean coding
One good candidate is... python. It combines expressive power, stability 
and a good community. (Bittorrent is in python BTW). It is runtime-typed 
whereas ocaml is totally statically-typed, but otherwise it may offer 
the same level of confort.

So, why not just recoding mdlonkey in python? Actually, an effort 
already has started, pydonkey, see:
http://www.nongnu.org/pydonkey/

What do you think, folks? Why not have all the mldonkey community switch 
to helping pydonkey?