== Why replace PHP with Python? ==
We believe we can attract more developers if we change from PHP to Python.

PHP is not a good language for building large, maintainable applications:
http://www.ukuug.org/events/linux2002/papers/html/php/index.html
 * especially when using it to write out complex Javascript (the syntaxes are always tripping you up)
 * doesn't enforce Object Orientation
 * poor separation of Presentation & Code

Python is fully Object Oriented ('everything is an Object')

Python is an interpreted language, similar to PHP & relatively easy for developers to adapt to.

Java would be a reasonable choice, but the barrier to entry with Java is much harder - setting up the compiler environment, etc
 * this doesn't fit the RAD needs of the project.
 * we can still access any useful Java libs via Jython: http://www.jython.org/

Ruby-on-Rails might be a good choice, but that's primarily for Web2.0 apps still & Sahana is more than just that.[[BR]]
Performance is also worse than for Python: http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=python&lang2=ruby

Python also supports a wide range of libraries for adding extra functionality, including in the GIS space:[[BR]]
(There are no PHP libraries for GIS)
 * http://trac.gispython.org/lab/wiki
 * http://featureserver.org
 * http://tilecache.org
 * http://mapfish.org

Python is also the language in which the Trac support infrastructure is written.

 * ESR's take on Python: http://pythonology.org/success&story=esr
 * Python as an Agile language: http://agiletesting.blogspot.com/2005/02/python-as-agile-language.html
 * Python is fun!: http://xkcd.com/353/
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