`traiter' [was: Re: Is Python Dead?]

[François Pinard]

[Gerhard Häring]

> PHP is IMHO even worse a programming language than Perl [...]

When I needed dynamic Web pages, I took a few days to see things available
in Python, and many things I found indeed.  From simple things (sometimes
quite clever) to the ambitious ZOPE.  I also looked at SSI, and various other
avenues.  Despite PHP has many good ideas, I was rather rebuked by the
aspect of the language.

I merely decided to make an ad hoc tool for my Web designers, inspired
from Python for the overall flow of preprocessing conditional and loops,
but also allowing tight Python for more serious tasks, database access,
and such.  I called my tool `traiter', short of a better name; I wrote the
first draft in half a day.  I polished it afterwards as needed, probably
a few weeks overall.  It has been very satisfying to us so far.

Since the tool was essentially simple, I did not thought about publishing it,
as I presumed others could also do similar things as fast as I did this one.
In fact, I acquired the opinion at the time that Python is just the proper
tool for implementing dynamic Web pages simply, and that it was probably
not worth debating the virtues of similar tools, nor harassing potential
users with such debates.  (I keep ZOPE aside as a notable special case, as
it is a whole framework, not just a quickly made tool like mine and others'.)

Yet, sometimes, I wonder if I should not document `traiter' and make it
available, just as a kind of reply to those who seem do consider Python
bad if they have to write a few lines of it to get their Web job done! :-)
Documenting `traiter' does not attract me much, as my actual users do not
read English.  I should at least write French documentation.  Currently,
my users just walk in my office when they have a question or a need...
Documenting `traiter' would be more about its setup, and the good tricks that
make it so useful, as these are usually not apparent solely from its code.

-- 
François Pinard   http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard