Pythonic way of web-programming

[Will Stuyvesant]

[Courageous]
> At the risk of boldly tossing incidental mud up in the face of
> the entirety of all Pythonistas, I really don't think our community
> has enough cohesion or clout to put together a uniform .NET/Web Services
> style package with standards-establishing authority. We're not Microsoft,
> after all, with a cool $billion to dispose of at a sneeze.
> 
> What you'll have to do instead is wait for the competitive feeding
> frenzy to end and allow the technically superior platform to present
> itself. This is both the bane and boon of open software in action,
> IMO, and at a guess it very much applies here.

Well said.  Or written.  Whatever.  I wish english was my native
language.  I would like to add something.  The major problem I face
when I want to use Python for web applications or services, is that
the host or internet provider just does not have Python installed, or
they have the old Python 1.5, like even sourceforge does.  Or no
``#!/usr/bin/env Python`` or something like that configured for CGI
scripts.  Running your own webserver is often just not allowed.

I feel we should concentrate, whoever of us can do such a thing, on
getting Python into *nix distros, especially the kind internet
providers use.  And talk to Apache so they change their default
configuration script or something (I am not sure about the
technicalities here, there is something like mod_python also but how
about support?) so it will not only allow #!/bin/sh but also Python. 
And for the rest of use mere programmers, we can kick ass producing
better tools for web environments.  For example: I have not seen a
good, easy to use, web application that works well with RDF.  How
about setting up a website with Python where you can input your RDF
file and it displays the tree with nice colors and URLs and so forth? 
There are plenty possibilities using Python for things like this, but
you have to show it, working examples, *on the web* or nobody will see
it.

I think CGI is the only standard that will last some time, maybe
better concentrate on that.

-- 
As in Protestant Europe, by contrast, where sects
divided endlessly into smaller competing sects and no
church dominated any other, all is different in the
fragmented world of IBM.  That realm is now a chaos of
conflicting norms and standards that not even IBM can
hope to control.  You can buy a computer that works
like an IBM machine but contains nothing made or sold
by IBM itself.  Renegades from IBM constantly set up
rival firms and establish standards of their own.  When
IBM recently abandoned some of its original standards
and decreed new ones, many of its rivals declared a
puritan allegiance to IBM's original faith, and
denounced the company as a divisive innovator.  Still,
the IBM world is united by its distrust of icons and
imagery.  IBM's screens are designed for language, not
pictures.  Graven images may be tolerated by the
luxurious cults, but the true IBM faith relies on the
austerity of the word.

                -- Edward Mendelson, "The New Republic", 
                   February 22, 1988