[Tutor] Strange Question

[Danny Yoo]

> First, I think this is a wonderful list.  I always see great advice and 
> great attitudes about helping.
>
> My post is not about evaluating code but instead trying to get a 
> reasonable judgment as to whether or not python is the best choice for 
> what I am trying to do.  I have not learned Python yet.  In point of 
> fact, I have not, as yet learned any programming language much to my 
> dismay.
>
> I post the process I need below.
>
> So, here goes the work flow I need to support on my job.

[problem cut]

> Does anyone see a problem with Python doing this?

Hi Ralph,

This should be perfectly doable in Python.  The majority of the popular 
web frameworks out there aren't exactly designed for newcomers, so you'll 
want to learn a bit of Python before tackling this.

But I think all of the subproblems here sound perfectly doable.  For 
example, one of the subproblems here:

  7. The Python code (cgi script?) calls another application (server
     resident) that performs processing on the graphics file.

may be a combination of the 'subprocess' python module to drive the 
external application:

     http://www.python.org/doc/lib/module-subprocess.html


Just as counterpoint: actually, any good language and envrionment should 
probably do the trick.  Python is appropriate, but so are other languages 
and frameworks.  (Caveat: I do have my doubts about Java + J2EE because 
that environment seems too focused on low-level details...)

I've heard good things about Ruby and its "Ruby On Rails" web framework, 
so if you have the time, you may want to look at that too. So if you do 
take a look at another language, and decide it fits you better, that's 
perfectly fine, and we won't ostracise you.  *grin*

The particular kind of control flow you're describing --- a multistage web 
application --- is actually not too fun to do from scratch.  Thankfully, 
other people have worked on this problem, so you'll want to stand on their 
shoulders.  For example, I've heard very good things about Turbogears and 
Django for web development:

     http://www.turbogears.org/

     http://www.djangoproject.com/

I have to admit that I have not used either of them yet, but if I starting 
another web project in Python, those will be the frameworks I'd seriously 
look at.


Good luck to you!