Using Python for my web site

[Paul Boddie]

Cliff Wells wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-08-02 at 23:13 -0300, Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
> > Another one is that it seems (here I go again :) that there is something
> > like a marriage between Python and PostgreSQL (or in other words, that
> > Python fans that develop web apps have a tendency to favor PostgreSQL). Is
> > there something like this? (Here is the question :)

Take a look at Harald Armin Massa's EuroPython talk abstract for
evidence of "something like a marriage":

http://indico.cern.ch/contributionDisplay.py?contribId=0&sessionId=41&confId=44

Where are the slides, Harald? ;-)

> I don't think so.  If I had to venture an opinion, my impression has
> been that the MySQL/PostgreSQL division lies more along the line between
> web applications and other types of apps.  For some reason, web people
> seem to either prefer MySQL or (more likely) fall back to it as a
> default.

I'd argue that since MySQL was reportedly easier to install on Windows
than PostgreSQL until relatively recently (ie. until a few years ago),
and that MySQL appealed to the lightweight database system niche that
mSQL occupied a few years before that, people didn't hesitate to
install it in situations where just considering installing something
else might have put them off. Meanwhile, PostgreSQL has been around for
so long that it probably has a place in the hearts of people who
remember the era when you'd use UNIX for serious research or enterprise
endeavours and where PostgreSQL was the best open source tool for the
task. Of course, most GNU/Linux distributions have packaged both of
them for some time.

> If there's a bias toward PostgreSQL in the Python crowd, I
> suspect that's due to the fact that Python's presence seems to be more
> weighted toward non-web programming relative to other languages (this
> being due to Python's general applicability, not an implication Python
> isn't suited for the web).

I'd like to hope that it's because Python people stop to consider the
established alternatives rather than following the stampede to the
latest "hot product".

Paul