[mod_python] mod_python Live examples

David Geller dg at sponsera.com
Mon Aug 16 22:57:23 EDT 2004


To me, templates and frameworks are two different animals! And you 
should be able to use one without the other!

For what it's worth, here has been my experience:


I. Templates
--------------

1. I used (and still do, in one application) simpleTAL from owlfish, 
which implements zope's ZPT. It works fine, and I had no problems with it.

At first, I thought I liked the ZPT way of doing things: it is a 
flexible templating language which uses "pure" HTML. This would be good 
for things like WYSIWYG html editors, and the like.

However, after using it for awhile, I found several limitations:

a. ZPT can *only* be used for html (or xml): NOT for javascript, style 
sheets or, more generally, anything else.

b. while you can do it, the idea of "building up" a complex page 
comprised of smaller snippets isn't really what ZPT was designed for. It 
  seems like it is designed to build an entire page at once. For some 
things this is fine; for others, not quite.


2. I discovered Cheetah, and must say, it has met all of my needs. For 
now, at least, it is my python templating engine of choice.

a. Extremely flexible - can be used for *any* text templating, not just 
pure html/xml code

b. Although I haven't benchmarked it, I would suspect it would be quite 
"fast" - i.e., run at basically python speeds if you pre-compile the 
templates. I haven't yet had the need to do this - and it seems to work 
fast enough for my purposes using the cheetah templates directly.

c. Cheetah's facilities are way beyond what I have used - basically, I 
do the bulk of processing in python, and pass very simple variables to 
the template. In some cases, the template needs to do a little 
processing  (for complex formatting like alternating styles for lines in 
a table and the like), but for the most part I use it just to substitute 
variables. The obvious rule: process the actual data in python; display 
logic, etc. in cheetah, so there is almost a total separation.

d. While the cheetah language is not strictly python, it meshes with 
python in a very natural way. This theoretically makes the designing of 
templates easy for non-programmer types. Just keep the logic in the 
templates SIMPLE.

3. There are ****many**** other templating engines out there. I just 
came across a new one (on me) yesterday: "empy" which is something like 
a python version of m4 (I think it is slow, though, and not meant for 
dynamic situations)


II. Frameworks
--------------

I have checked out several python frameworks. So far, to be honest, I 
have not found the "one for me". There are some that are obviously very 
good, but for one reason or another, have problems for my way of doing 
things. So, I have basically written my own (at least for the time 
being), which is very very simple, but gets the job done. And it's easy 
to debug!

What I have found for many things out there - they are too complex for 
their own good! It believe in KISS, and in modularity to the extreme - a 
framework should not require you to do "everything" their way.

The frameworks I have checked out:

1. slither - I really liked this, but doesn't have a "critical mass", 
and the developers of it don't seem to want to create an environment so 
it can be supported. Too bad, because with a few changes, I meets my 
criteria of: simple + powerful.

2. webware - quite good, and quite extensive. Maybe a little complex for 
my tastes. What I really don't like about it is the need for a separate 
process - we at the mod_python group believe in apache, so why not have 
webare run via a mod_python handler directly under apache control, with 
apache threading, etc? To me, this would make it a far more desirable 
and reliable system.

3. mod_python servelets - looked at this, and it might be worthwhile, 
but haven't tried it yet

4. cheerypy - cool, but an entire "religion", requiring a special 
compilation phase, etc.

5. albatross - might be ok, but it seems to require the use of its own 
templating language.

6. quixote - I didn't like the "inside-out" approach of embedding html 
in python.

7. twisted - isn't a framework! But really cool toolkit if you want to 
do sophisticated web-enabled applications.

CONCLUSIONS:

1. Python is wonderful! BUT

2. The world of Python for the Web needs alot of work. Other than Zope, 
there doesn't seem to be a consensus for what the best way of doing 
things is! Now, that is a good thing (if "choice" = "good"), but it is 
also daunting to the newbie, and makes it hard for someone who knows a 
little more to convince a newbie that Python is the way to go for the 
web (which it IS, in my opinion, for many situations).

3. I think the python community needs a ..."plan" of some sort, to try 
to come up with recommendations, tools, basic elements, etc., so new 
folks might have a much better idea of at least how to get started 
building web apps in python with a minimum of grief....

My 2 cents...

Cheers,
David



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