Currently, the 2 most popular languages for web programming are PHP and Ruby
Do you have any hard numbers supporting this? IMHO the most popular languages on the web are PHP, Perl, C#/VB.NET and Java; and Python is more popular than Ruby (at least according to the TIOBE index). But Ruby definitely has the most hype :)
While GAE has a lot of problems, Google did the right thing releasing it in the language they are most familiar with. Python is extremely easy to pick up and feature-wise it's comparable to other dynamic languages like Ruby. I'd rather Google spend time working on the features GAE is still missing (background tasks, SSL, datastore stability, etc), it just gives more value to the platform than supporting additional languages.
Do you have any hard numbers supporting this? IMHO the most popular languages on the web are PHP, Perl, C#/VB.NET and Java; and Python is more popular than Ruby (at least according to the TIOBE index). But Ruby definitely has the most hype :)
While GAE has a lot of problems, Google did the right thing releasing it in the language they are most familiar with. Python is extremely easy to pick up and feature-wise it's comparable to other dynamic languages like Ruby. I'd rather Google spend time working on the features GAE is still missing (background tasks, SSL, datastore stability, etc), it just gives more value to the platform than supporting additional languages.