Help with choice of suitable Architecture

[Tomasz Rola]

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On 28 May 2005, Rob Cowie wrote:

[...]
> I'm totally new to web programming. I have been looking into the best
> way to proceed. CGI is of course an option but it seems slow, clunky
> and outdated. Twisted provides a rich architecture but might be
> overkill. Nevow seems to be very popular.

You know, "slow" from 10 years ago, when this opinion formulated, is not
the same "slow" nowadays. Imho, CGI is more straightforward and you can
learn it faster. After all, you have not only to make a web output but
also some mechanics under the hood - manipulating data etc. BTW, does it
have to be stored in xml file? The SQL database could be easier. You can
add import and export to/from xml file if this is really needed.

Whether it is too slow - well, how many times do you expect people will
open this page? I mean, how many times a second? I think this is the most
important question when deciding about CGI.

You may also consider mod_python:

http://www.modpython.org/

> I suspect I could achieve what I want using PHP but I would really like
> to get to grip with Python.
> 
> I'm not asking for a comparison of each architecture per se.... that
> seems to be well covered in this group. I would like to know how you
> all would set about creating this realtively simple application.

Personally, I would rather use Python. Right now, this app may seem to be
simple but I think it will grow over time. I'm not very used to PHP but
those simple things I did in it make me think Python may help me more as a
language, to program a page. PHP is probably more popular in web desing
circles, and there are some nice packages written in it, that you can drag
from the web and drop into your server, and have all those blogs and
webmails the easy way.

But for programming, and later on for maintaining such project, I'd rather
go with Python. Personal reason: it is cleaner, I like looking at it.

Of course you should decide for yourself. I've just pointed to few things
but it is up to you to taste both languages and decide which one is better
in your case.

Regards,
Tomasz Rola

- --
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home    **
** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened...      **
**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **

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