Dang, Dropbox is stealing talent from every direction.
They not only steal but steal at very good timing. Since Google will give their focus to javascript and go from now on :)
Dropbox Hires Guido Van Rossum
101–110 of 213 posts
Re: Dropbox Hires Guido Van Rossum
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not if we're talking about the real world (implementation), rather than the theoretical capability of a language in itself. Perl and Ruby don't see much love on Windows, particularly with GUI toolkits and the like. Python is the only one of the three that feels comfortable using on Windows, from the skeleton of the app down to actually distributing it. Java is really good at cross platform apps though. This is one of…
This is what I was wondering about, because I have so far failed to install a single Python package on Windows without it breaking on some Unix dependency.
What Python package you tried to install that comes with "Unix dependency"?
I have 163 packages in my local pypi, and they work fine on Linux, Windows, and OS X.
Re: Dropbox Hires Guido Van Rossum
#103Why Guido left? That's the question.
Speaking as an ex-Googler, when I left, Python was largely relegated to glue code, scripts, internal projects, and App Engine -- consumer-facing frontends were written in Java, and backends in C++. He probably wanted to move to a company where Python was more pervasive, and he felt like he could have more of an impact, given that he _is_ the BDFL.
Why is Python being phased out?
Re: Dropbox Hires Guido Van Rossum
#104I'll be very interested to find out what role Guido will take up at dropbox. When someone like Matz/ Guido/ etc gets hired, what do their job responsibilities, for the community include exactly? Are language writer hires such as this purely symbolic?
Having worked with Guido on App Engine, I believe I can answer this. Just because someone wrote a language doesn't mean they have no other talents as engineers. I will say that apart from being a good language writer, he is also a good Engineer. For us having so much invested in Python, Guido has been an important part of App Engine. But even if that wasn't true (as it may be for Dropbox), having well-known programme…
I'm not sure how I can see Guido having the effect at Dropbox that he had at Google. Dropbox's engineering difficulties, while large, are not near that of Google's. Is this more of a Matz being hired by Heroku scenario, in name only sort of thing.
Re: Dropbox Hires Guido Van Rossum
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is what I was wondering about, because I have so far failed to install a single Python package on Windows without it breaking on some Unix dependency.
What Python package you tried to install that comes with "Unix dependency"? I have 163 packages in my local pypi, and they work fine on Linux, Windows, and OS X.
Perhaps I'm just unlucky. To be fair, I've only tried to run like 3 python packages.
Re: Dropbox Hires Guido Van Rossum
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a genuine question. To my mind, a startup has a small number of employees and not very much money. This is hardly the first time I've heard of a company with >100 employees described as a startup, so I'm interested to know what people's definitions are.
I once interviewed with a company that maintained a staff of According to Paul Graham, "a startup is a company designed to grow fast." By this definition, they didn't fit the bill. Dropbox might, depending on whether or not they're still in a rapid growth phase.
It seems like you're taking the term "fast" to refer to the number of employees. I think it refers more to revenue, or maybe user acquisition for those "we'll figure out how to make money later" companies.
Re: Dropbox Hires Guido Van Rossum
#107" the adventure found at a nimble 250-person startup like Dropbox becomes more tempting " What is the definition of a startup these days, anyway?
PG's well-known definition is "a company designed for growth".
Re: Dropbox Hires Guido Van Rossum
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I heard that this tool was not well received at Google; anybody else hear this?
Git is not well received at Google either.
This is not true. I use git practically every day, working within the main source tree. Google's a big company with thousands of engineers and multiple ways of doing things. Some use git, some don't. You use what works best for you.
Re: Dropbox Hires Guido Van Rossum
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pretty sure someone like Guido is, at this point, not motivated by money. If there was a challenge he wanted to undertake at Google, I'm sure they'd give it to him already. He probably wanted to participate in growing another new tech company that has a lot of potential. That's an opportunity Google would find hard to counter.
Sorry, my statement was more generic. I wasn't trying to say that Guido is motivated by money, just that these are common ways to get someone to stay if that is indeed the issue that makes them want to leave. On the issue of challenges, maybe Guido has more pull on this, but there were recently some articles/discussion on HN about Google's hiring practices. They might hire you based on your PhD in databases, and then…
If you want to move to another team at Google, it's really up to that team if they want you. As long as they have budget for you, and they want you working with them, then you're free to move.
The problem with new hires is that no other team has any idea whether you're any good, so it take a bit of tenure to prove yourself and make yourself known to others.
I'm quite sure Guido would be doing whatever he wanted at Google
Re: Dropbox Hires Guido Van Rossum
#110Why Guido left? That's the question.
Speaking as an ex-Googler, when I left, Python was largely relegated to glue code, scripts, internal projects, and App Engine -- consumer-facing frontends were written in Java, and backends in C++. He probably wanted to move to a company where Python was more pervasive, and he felt like he could have more of an impact, given that he _is_ the BDFL.
+1. Google is a C/Java shop, and App Engine doesn't have a motivated team behind it (some App Engine apps make a lot of money for Google, but the GAE folks don't provide them with adequate support, much less external customers). When I stopped working on Google projects there were large parts of what would have been in the SDK provided by random teams in Creative Lab.