python based tools for developing web-based apps

[Alex Martelli]

Joost van Rooij wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> For business purposes I would like to develop several web based
> application,
> all based on the the same foundation.  I looked at several options like
> zope, mod_py, webware, skunkweb.
> 
> Based on the information I found,  I now basically considder two options
> 1. writing a xml-rpc server in Python which provides all the logic. And a
> seperate frontend in php which reads the data from the Python xml-rpc
> server and presents it in nice html. (Won't this be a performance hog?)
> 2. write it on top of a application server like webware or skunkweb. (Are
> these projects mature enough?)

I would consider Webware for Python very mature and stable, quite suitable 
for any kind of production-level deployment.  Personally, I'm trying out
CherryPy these days, and I love what I see -- but I have as yet no idea
about the stability, scalability, and so on.  With Webware, you're going
for the most solid and proven solution.  I don't see any advantage with
doing the presentation in PHP -- Webware supports excellent templating
(Cheetah), servlets, AND if you insist "embed Python in HTML" too, and you
can mix-and-match if you need to.

> 3. any other good idea, I haven't thought of.... :)

Twisted -- a great solution if you have the option of deploying a
self-sufficient server rather than having to run on top of Apache or
the like.  I think Webware is easier to program at the application
level, and it gives you many more deployment options, but Twisted's
performance and scalability are nothing short of amazing -- and if
you need to add more and more protocols, not just HTTP, Twisted's
flexibility is gonna pay for itself.


Alex