ANN: Snakelets 1.1 (simple-to-use web app server with dynamic pages)

[Irmen de Jong]

Karl Scalet wrote:
> the reason why I asked for CGI was that I potentially
> will hold a course about python/webprogramming (very
> newbie level) and was thinking about an easy way to set
> up an environment of such.

Well, setting up Snakelets is as simple as untarring the tarball
and starting serv.py. Presto, a running web server with
several demo applications ready to go.
Adding your own app is as simple as creating a directory
and stuffing some .html files (or .y files) into it.

But it depends on what you want to *achieve* with the web
app in your course. If it is a few simple pages, CGI is
good enough. But if you want to do stuff with sessions,
or more complex pages or page interactions, IMHO CGI
is quickly becoming too cumbersome.

> Previously I was thinking
> about twisted, but did not yet investigate about the
> CGI capabilities there. Why CGI at all: Simple because
> if I introduce some simple web-applications in the course
> the attendees could take them and most easily transport
> them to a common web-hoster. I know about CGIHTTPServer
> and might end up with it.

FWIW, it is trivial to create a Ypage in Snakelets or
a true Snakelet that 'calls' your designated "cgi" script
with the current request environment. But one thing is
certain: the web app you're creating won't easily be
transported to a common web-hoster, while plain old
CGI scripts would. It seems that going with CGIHTTPServer
(or even a pre-configured apache server that can run
your python cgi scripts) is your best option.

--Irmen