Web templating/db tool with best designer/coder separation?

[Bengt Richter]

On 22 Jun 2002 18:43:50 GMT, bokr at oz.net (Bengt Richter) wrote:

>E.g., if you were hoping for an improvement over current practice,
>which do you consider to be the tool(s) to beat, and what would
>the killer improvement(s) be? TIA.
>
Thank you all (alphabetically:  Ian Bicking, Paul Boddie, Tim Churches,
Dave Cole, Max M, and Jon Ribbens ;-) for your thoughtful responses and
links to relevant resources.

For the Python aspect of things, Albatross seems very similar to
(though more elaborate than) what I had in mind, but ZPT is more to my
liking in the HTML markup area. 

I looked at stuff at the links offered (and browsed a bit):

    http://jonpy.sourceforge.net/
    http://www.object-craft.com.au
    http://www.object-craft.com.au/projects/albatross/albatross/fig-presimpexec.html
and I Googled for Cheetah:
    http://www.cheetahtemplate.org/

No one mentioned ZPT (Zope Page Templates),
    http://www.zope.org//Wikis/DevSite/Projects/ZPT/FAQ

and from the description, this would seem to have a real advantage over all of
the above, in that it uses attributes of html tags as opposed to special tags
that browsers or design tools won't generally understand and render usefully.

This is touted as enabling the "round trip" from graphic designer to template logic
programmer and back using the same html source. I assume this is the "round trip"
Paul was referring to. To me, it seems a winning point for ZPT, though I don't know
how ZPT works out in practice.

They have a list of design tools that apparently pass through the ZPT markup they
don't understand. According to the FAQ:

   "Q8: What HTML editors work well with ZPT?
        We are still compiling a list, but on the commercial (industrial strength)
        front, GoLive and Dreamweaver 4 work well with ZPT. Recent versions of Amaya
        work well in HTML mode."

Opinions on ZPT?

BTW, which is the most appropriate Python version to assume everyone's servers
will be converging on? 1.5, 2.1, 2.2, or ? Could I reasonably plan on using 2.2?
E.g., I think 2.1 is being included in most newer linux distributions. But more
to the point, what version will most likely be available via server cgi etc.?
I'd like the answer to be 2.2 ;-)

Regards,
Bengt Richter