Lambda the Ultimate

There is not much happening in the Python community regarding language design, but there is quite a bit implementation-wise (IronPython mostly, silverlight comes in mind as a new dimension of python usage).

Thanks. But still, wouldn't you say that bleading edge hackers moved elsewhere (Ruby comes to mind, obviously)?

I think (very personally, as I use mostly python on a day-to-day basis) that Python's focus moved into libraries (there is tones of development in web frameworks, object relational mappers and so on), which indeed might moved bleeding-edge developers to something else, for example ruby. So yes, from the perspective of language design, there is not too much happening on the python front, but if we also consider that language is not only syntax, but as well semantics, there is some developement, although quite quiet (in example recently, there was introduction of proof-of-concept of sandboxed python in pypy). But as I said, this is a very personal perspective.

I'd say that Python has become fairly stable and the future direction of the language is fairly well mapped out in Python 3000. Some of the buzz surrounding Python has gone out as the bleeding edge realizes that Python is not a Scheme or Smalltalk wannabe (with a more friendly syntax). The bleeding edge is as much about future expectations as it is about current capabilities.

On the geek market I only see Haskell has momentum right now ( to a lesser extend also Erlang ), but I'm sceptical it survives the initial curiosity and will become part of the daily workplace. But anyway, these are the languages with big coolness factors.

Ruby had momentum due to Rails. Omigod, Rails was even mentioned to challenge Java! It was a very good time, Rubys summer of love.

So the discussions were centered around webprogramming and webframeworks and what is typical for any kind of pop culture: style, attitude and fashion.

Since the webapplication domain is so important in the public perception, it might be relevant to note that Python unifies efforts under the sign of WSGI, which is the pervasive meme. It is the protocol layer, not the platform or the framework that serves as the big integrator. That's where the music plays at the moment. Few people are in trouble about reduce being moved to functools or not being able to write 10.more.days and pretend domain specific languages.