[Web-SIG] [ANN] Aspen 0.3 -- a WSGI-rific web server

[Chad Whitacre]

Greetings, program!

I've just released what amounts to a dev snapshot of a project I'm 
calling Aspen. It's an attempt at a production-quality WSGI-centric web 
server, something to hang your WSGI on. Some of my goals with this are:

   - Don't write a framework.

     Aspen is a way to organize your existing WSGI apps, middleware, and
     frameworks into a website.


   - Support publication/hybrid websites as well as application websites.

     The frameworks that are out there generally treat application models
     as primary. Aspen gets back to the roots of the Web with a primarily
     hierarchical organization, into which applications (written with
     whatever WSGI-supporting framework) can be joined. Go filesystem!


   - Deeply drink the WSGI kool-aid.

     All direct extensions to Aspen are WSGI callables. (Actually,
     they're a slight super-set of WSGI [see also: httpy], but that's a
     bug I want to fix. I decided to release early though.)


   - Keep it Stupid, Stupid

     I like to use the same server for development and deployment. Aspen
     only exposes a few knobs on the command line, with further config
     and extension via simple plain-text config files in a UNIX-style
     userland hidden within your site hierarchy.


The core extensibility code is pretty well tested. The plugin examples 
and the configuration/UI code are a bit rougher. Basically, anything 
documented is ready for scrutiny.

I've got a couple sites using proto-versions of Aspen. This is a 
complete rewrite based around WSGI, but the basic publication-centric 
pattern hasn't changed. Paste is the closest thing I've found for wiring 
up WSGI. I think Aspen might be a stripped-down, publication-centric, 
production-intended Paste Script.

Anyway, I would love any feedback you've got. To get started, just:

   $ easy_install aspen


And then check out the tutorial:

   http://www.zetadev.com/software/aspen/0.3/doc/html/tutorial.html


Thanks!





chad