Calling Python code from inside php

[Eric Wertman]

>  > A simple yet dangerous and rather rubbish solution (possibly more of a
>  > hack than a real implementation) could be achieved by using a
>  > technique described above:
>  >
>  > <?php
>  >         echo exec('python foo.py');
>
>  This will spawn a Python interpreter, and not be particularly
>  efficient. You could just as well have used CGI.

I'm  in a bit of a similar situation.  I decided to use python to
solve problems where I could, in a more regimented fashion.  For
instance, I have a set of functions in a script, table.py.  After I
set up mod_python to handle requests to a single directory with
python, I can call this with:

<?php include("http://localhost/py/table/nodes"); ?>

embedded in the page.  This is probably pretty hackish too, but at
least it doesn't spawn a new process, and I don't have to solve things
that aren't related to display with php.