PyWX 1.0b2 release (Python for AOLserver)

[Titus Brown]

We are pleased to announce the release of PyWX version 1.0b2.  This is
our second beta release; it is known to be fairly stable.

PyWX can be retrieved from SourceForge,

        http://download.sourceforge.net/PyWX/PyWX-1.0b2.tar.gz

The PyWX homepage is

        http://pywx.idyll.org

What is PyWX?
-------------

PyWX is a Python module for AOLserver.

AOLserver is a free, open-source, enterprise-class, multi-threaded web
server whose performance on dynamic content is reputed to beat Apache.
It is used at many large web sites including AOL and ArsDigita.  It
includes an internal database API that allows persistent database
connections.

Python is a clean, object-oriented scripting language with excellent
support for complicated data structures and great libraries for web
programming.

PyWX embeds a Python interpreter into AOLserver, allowing threaded
execution of Python scripts--even CGI scripts--within the server
process.  It also allows the Python script to access almost all of
AOLserver's internal API via a C extension module.  PyWX supports many
other features, including

 + Threaded execution of CGI scripts within emulated CGI environment.
 + Cross-connection data-persistence.
 + Access to AOLserver's persistent database mechanism.
 + Internal Webware and Quixote adaptors.
 + Pretty good documentation.
 + Object-oriented Python wrapping of AOLserver's C API functions.
   Almost all of AOLserver's facilities are available to Python
   scripts.
 + Full access to AOLserver's Tcl interpreter from Python, and vice
   versa.
 + Optional compiled-script caching.

What's new in version 1.0b2?
----------------------------
 + configuration script now works properly, documentation updated.
 + Fixes for gcc 3.x.
 + Fix for a memory leak (the last detectable one!).
 + Several fixes for handling POSTed multipart/form-data.
 + Fix for uncaught exception.
 + Cleanup of internal HTTP header handling.
 + Extreme simplification of internals, fix of a crashing bug.
 + Update for AOLserver 3.5.
 + Added a handler for the Quixote application server.
 + Fixed unnecessary proliferation of end-of-connection callbacks.

Version 1.0b2 is a bug fix version for 1.0b1 that has been tested over
the past year and a half.  It is currently used in several stable projects,
and there are no known bugs remaining.

As a rough measure of its current performance, without optimizing the
machine PyWX can deliver a trivial Python script at roughly 230-310
pages per second on a single-processor Pentium 3/500MHz under Linux,
and a trivial Oracle database-querying script at about 75-90 pages/s.
(The range depends on PyWX configuration.)

Please check out our home page at

        http://pywx.idyll.org

and our SourceForge project page at

        http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywx/

for more information on PyWX, including mailing lists, development
archives, and several example pages.  You may also be interested in:

        http://www.aolserver.com       -- AOLserver
        http://www.python.org          -- the Python programming language
        http://webware.sourceforge.net -- Webware toolkit
	http://www.mems-exchange.org/software/quixote/ -- Quixote toolkit

Cheers,
Titus Brown for the PyWX team.