Python is gaining a lot of traction in many Mozilla projects. From the SUMO and AMO websites, to Socorro and the next-gen Firefox Sync server. I can fairly say that it becomes a mainstream language for building server-side software in our eco-system. This is making me really happy, since I am involved in the Python project.

I won’t blog here about the pro’s and con’s of Python versus PHP or Java etc., there are already a lot of good articles out there about it. I’d be biased anyways ;). The least I can say is that it makes a lot of sense for us at all levels, to use Python and its great libs and frameworks. To name a few:

Django, used by AMO and SUMO

WebOb and Paste, used by Sync (next-gen) to build wsgi-based Web Services

SQLAlchemy, used by Sync (next-gen) to work with our databases.

When I joined Mozilla, one thing that I really wanted to do was to start a “Python in Mozilla” informal user group. A space where people working on the various Mozilla projects could share about Python.

I started a mailing list here : MoPy Mailing List.

We also had a small meeting at Mountain View HQ. The WebDev team was in town so it was a good opportunity to do it. We talked about our various approaches to handle configuration files in our projects and that was quite interesting to share. We had people from WebDev, Labs and Services.

I’d love to share ideas about Python with the whole Mozilla community, and maybe try to organise more meetings in the future.

If you are involved in a Mozilla project, and use Python — or simply curious about Python — please join the mailing list and don’t be shy to post.

Semi-related: I have submitted a talk for the next Pycon in Atlanta about Firefox Sync, and will try to organize a Mozilla BoF there as well.