Server/OS/Dev environment

[Ryan Paul]

On Sat, 22 May 2004 09:16:40 -0700, Jean wrote:

> Pm <Miklos at nowhere.hu> wrote in message news:<c8n2gt$4si$1 at news.epidc.co.kr>
>> Varietas delectat, Jean. ;)   
>> I suggest you spend a little time on exploring these and then 
>> you'll find out what you like best. (It's just like about girls: it'd be
>> awful if every guy would prefer the same looks...) 
>> 
>> To add to you confusion, maybe have a look at Zope as well (www.zope.org)
>> :-))
>>   Or how about Webware? (http://webware.sourceforge.net/) Or Albatross? 
>> (http://www.object-craft.com.au/projects/albatross/) 
>> 
>> Best,
>> Pm
> 
> Ok.  Great, Miklos.  Thanks a lot!  ;)
> 
> Really, there are 2 items I need.  Nice environment for rapid dev and
> keeping codes clean.  Of course, over a period of time, I will develop
> my own taste.  For now, though, I need to start a real project which
> will double as a learning experience.  I don't want to start down the
> wrong path, then have to change course 3-4 months down the line.
> 
> So, what's your "current" setup & why do you like it?
> 
> Regards,
> Jean

zope is like the panacea for an illness that nobody has, but everybody
has symptoms of. Zope is incredibly impressive, incredibly powerful, it
does everything, it is brilliantly designed, but it requires immense
amounts of time and patience to figure out how to employ it effectively,
and customizing it to fit your needs will usually take more time than it
would take to construct something from scratch. There are, however,
numerous content management engines constructed on top of zope that fit
more specific needs, and can be customized for what you want with
relatively little sweat/blood. Plone is an excellent example.

If you can find a Zope product that fits your needs, use it, but if you
cant, you probably dont want to invest the time it would take to make one
yourself. (i'm sure you have figured that out if you have glanced at the
zope documentation yourself.)

mod_python is great! I have had quite a bit of success using mod_python
and some xml/xsl related python libraries. I like to use xml and xslt for
my templating. I put python code in my xml files, and use a little
pre-processor I threw together to process it. You might want to check out
http://sqlobject.org/ which makes database access, construction, and
manipulation a lot more pythonic.

If you need an extendable web application framework (for writing
client/server apps etc) you might want to check out the Twistd framework.

As far as development environments are concerned, you have many excellent
choices. I use a version of VIM that has a python interpreter compiled
into it. There are a lot of graphical IDEs with graphical debuggers etc,
for those who dont dig the 'home-rolled' environment thing- I use Eric3
when I need a graphical debugger, but it is also an excellent editor.
Eric3 has a built in project manager and class browser as well, so it
helps with those slightly bigger projects.

If you are using somebody else's server make sure that it has the right
modules, and make sure that it has a relatively up-to-date version of
python (unless you enjoy not using the nice new features). Many hosting
services are willing to add modules and perform updates if you ask them
nicely.

Good luck with your project!
--SegPhault