Getting a Grip on Google Code

netbuzz writes "Niall Kennedy reports on his blog that Guido van Rossum, author of the Python programming language, has begun showing off his first project since joining Google last year. 'Mondrian is a Web-based code-review system built on top of a Perforce and BigTable backend with a Python-powered front-end,' Kennedy writes. 'Mondrian is a pretty impressive system and is currently in use across Google.' Kennedy's description of Google's current code-review system sure makes it sound like it was in need of an upgrade. 'The Mondrian tool creates a much better workflow by creating task-specific dashboards, in-line commenting, well-tracked statistics, and more,' he writes. 'The application is built on top of Python open source libraries such as the Django framework, smtpd.py mail service, and the wsgiref Web server software.'"

Re:I can see why Google stuck with Python.

[Peter Cooper]

8 bit characters is exactly what it /does/ support. It's multi-byte characters that are often seen as the problem, although UTF-8 is also supported (Unicode generally, however, is a different matter). Ruby can also support load balancing and HTTPS.. although since those aren't relevant to a programming language per se, it's intriguing why you bring them up (unless I've fallen for a troll, in which case.. well done ;-))

Codestriker is the same thing

[Anonymous Coward]

Codestriker [sourceforge.net] does the same thing. Except it is in perl + GPL, on source forge.

Re:I can see why Google stuck with Python.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the problem WITH Ruby is that its making the same mistake as Smalltalk. Everything has to be a object, but this isn't always true. Some things are better modeled with generic functions, or other Functional style paradigms. Python is picking from both worlds. I think my ideal language would be a blend of Haskell and Python in some form. Ocaml comes close, but has it's own weirdness, with '+' and '+.' etc etc.

IE:

Why do numbers need to know about iteration? From Smalltalk:
1 to: 3 do: [ Something ]

There are several other examples as well of this kind of impedance mismatch. Objects get CLUTTERED with cruft, because that's the only place you can stick behaviour.

Objects are nice, but not everything fits in that paradigm. I think blended languages are the way of the future. Perl developers flock to Ruby because it has objects with a few Perlisms, but Smalltalk was rocking that world 20 years ago.

There are some exciting developments on the horizon, but they aren't mature yet.

Google

[synx]

This is why working at google is awesome. Internal code reviewer is big news.

I use the tool in question, it's good.

Also I've used perforce at a previous company. Generally most people who talk about SCMs and reference CVS as a potential replacement/alternative to P4 really do not know what they are talking about. P4 has it's problems, granted, but if you are looking to maintain a massive code base, there really are few choices. Atomic change lists, they are fantastic.

Re:Google

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm somewhat surprised that Google is using P4 instead of BitKeeper, given that BitKeeper's author was employee #3 or #4 at Google.