Which Python web framework is most like Ruby on Rails?

[Kent Johnson]

Steve Holden wrote:
> Paul Rubin wrote:
>> I'm trying to avoid flame wars too, but my take on this is that Kent's
>> reading is a little too restrictive and the GPL isn't really a problem
>> in this situation unless he's actually modifying Karrigell itself,
>> rather than writing applications that run under it.  I'm not trying to
>> advocate Karrigell (I browsed the docs for a minute and it looks nice
>> but I have no experience with it) but I don't see the GPL as an
>> obstacle to that type of usage.  All kinds of proprietary applications
>> are written and distributed all the time to run under the GPL'd Linux
>> kernel and Karrigell apps don't seem too terribly different from that.

You may be right, I honestly don't know. Would your interpretation change if I wanted to 
distribute an app built with py2exe that bundles Karrigell and my code?

> Indeed. But most software authors aren't lawyers and aren't likely to 
> trust their own judgment about these matters unless the situation is 
> pretty unambiguous.  

That really is the issue as much as anything. Paul has raised some good questions for 
which I don't have good answers. Maybe using Karrigell is analogous to writing an app to 
run on Linux. OTOH maybe it is more like linking to a library. I could ask the author for 
clarification - which I would then have to document in a form acceptable to my own 
company's lawyers. Or I could choose to use a product that doesn't leave any doubt that I 
can distribute it as I like in a proprietary product.

> I suspect this may be evidence that Microsoft's 
> "viral" propaganda has had some effect.

Not in my case, at least. I have been avoiding GPL products at work for many years, much 
longer than Microsoft has been telling me to do so.

> 
> In this case I agree there's likely to be a clear separation between 
> server and content that will allow Kent to distribute an unmodified 
> Karrigell and a separate proprietary content bundle without 
> interference, but it's too late (at least for that project) now.

Maybe next time...

Kent