About
Google App Engine is a service that allows developers to deploy web apps that are then run on Google resources utilizing the expertise Google has in scalability and servers.
Language wishlist
Currently Google App Engine supports Python. There is speculation and hinting from Google that more languages will be added. It will be interesting to see which languages will be added first and which ones simply will not make the cut. Personally, I'm not surprised that Python is the flagship language, there has been well documented preference to Python from Google. (Random Google support page shows a .py extension indicating the Python language being used http://www.google.com/support/talk/bin/topic.py?topic=1186)
As it is little surprise that Python is currently supported, it leads to the question of which languages will be supported and in what order will languages be brought under the Google App Engine umbrella. My speculation is that Ruby will be the next language adopted followed by Perl. After that, I struggle to determine what will be logical. My personal wish list goes as follows:
In reality, I don't think Erlang will be brought on. I love the language, but I doubt it will be part of the App Engine stack. One of the major benefits of Google App Engine is the fact that Google is going to manage scalability for you. As a result of this control by Google they prohibit you from doing it yourself. Although used by a different name than threading, Erlang's processes would probably be out of the question as well.
What would I create
Honestly, I don't have an idea. I do not yet have an active account. (I hope that changes soon.) As I understand at first, developers are given 3 apps they can create and are unable to delete an app should they change their mind. In other words, choose carefully. If anyone has any suggestions for potential apps, please let me know.
Wrap up
While much more can be said, and has if you track appengine on twitter, that is all I'm going to say at this time other than my opinion. I do believe that Google App Engine is a very significant milestone in cloud computing. I believe it enables people who may have had limited resources but good ideas an opportunity to show the world what they can offer. I'm excited to see what happens.
Would you like to work with me on an app?
What I have in mind is a simple "activist" site where people can show their support for peace in Zimbabwe with a single click (no email addresses recorded.
I have a picture in my mind of a heading with brief information, a map on the left and a graph on the right.
What I am thinking is that someone clicks on the map to say where they are, the app adds a pin in the map, and updates the graph showing the number of people who have clicked (date on horizontal, number on vertical).
The idea will be to fill up the map while seeing where the clicks come from AND to reach a target on the graph.
The graph will be made more interesting by having a moving target of the current price of bread in Zim (100 million dollars). As we only get 5 million page views a month, we will value a click at ZWD100 and see if we can ever get enough clicks to buy a loaf of bread (we will update the price as it increases at the shops).
The social goal is to raise awareness of the plight of Zimbabweans.
The professional goal to get a simple app going.
As I understand it now - we would have x functions.
Read position off the map & store.
Update graph and display it (template and some sort of permanent image??)
A counting routine.
A graph (with template)
A small data store for the price of bread.
I do have an account. I would love to work with someone.
Interested?
Contact me directly and we'll talk about it. I'm on vacation until Monday 05/05. I'll give it some thought between now and then. My email is a gmail address with the username of expecting.rain.