[python-advocacy] The python way to write web applications

[Cameron Laird]

On Fri, Oct 12, 2007 at 02:12:08PM +1000, Tennessee Leeuwenburg wrote:
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> I've got a problem. Please, hear me out in case I've got it jumbled. Then
> feel free to criticize my understanding of things -- I declare Crocker's
> rules.
> 
> There seems to be no Pythonic way to write web applications. There are
> python web application frameworks, but these stacks still require a lot of
> javascript expertise. It doesn't look as though I can write a cross-platform
> RIA with Python, authored from a linux development environment.
> 
> I can write flex applications, but apollo isn't ready for linux yet. I can
> write Moonlight applications, but the authoring process is poorly
> documented, requires compilation of mozilla from source (!) and isn't
> up-to-date with respect to Silverlight. If I'm happy to constrain my widget
> set, I can use some javascript toolkits to hide away the javascript to some
> extent, but certainly for my purposes, and probably for all purposes, I just
> know I'll be up to my elboys in javascript in no time.
> 
> I could try swigging mozilla and interacting with the browser directly, but
> this is a jungle of old documentation and is clearly not a well-supported
> process.
> 
> The premier web toolkits like GWT and YUT appear to be totally
> Java-oriented.
> 
> There just doesn't seem to be a Python solution to a modern web application.
> The best I can now imagine is a decoupled system with Python on the backend.
> Frankly, in this situation I don't see the point. The whole point of a web
> application is to present a cross-platform user interface using a deployment
> model which allows good control over the environment. It is, essentially, a
> UI decision. To give up Python on the UI seems to be giving up the very core
> of what it means to write a web app.
> 
> Please, somebody, tell me I'm wrong!
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This is a different way of thinking about RIA than I have;
I recognize mine is rather old-fashioned, though ...  What
languages do you see as properly supporting development of
modern Web applications?  Java?  Surely not Ruby ...