Python CGI and Jave Server Pages (JSP)

[Alex Martelli]

"Sam Penrose" <sam at ddmweb.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.997904238.12402.python-list at python.org...
    ...
> It seems impossible to have a discussion about CGI without bringing up
> performance issues, although almost no one making the comments seems to
> have had an actual performance problem (Alex?). My theory is that this
    ...
> The only people I have ever heard complain about actual Python CGI
> performance limits encountered with production code are those running on
> Windows.

Yep, on Windows -- and not a production system, just a test set-up where
a local client program was generating the hits and measuring (mod_perl
beat CGI perl hands-down, running the same scripts; the script needs a
lengthy login-procedure to another running application, so I strongly
suspect that being on Windows made little real difference -- as to why I
was using perl for the timing tests... don't ask...).

No doubt CGI is just fine for a majority of cases, performance-wise, but
I think it's good to keep alert for cases where each new run of a script
requires a lot of potentially-costly start-up activities.

Much the same reason as, say, not running sshd under inetd: sshd has
a LONG start-up time (must generate keys), so you don't really
want to have to start a fresh run each time somebody's using ssh...
(I'm told it's doable if you're willing to compromise your security by
having sshd use shorter keys -- no first-hand experience, sorry).


Alex