Python framework questions

[johnzenger at gmail.com]

mp wrote:
> Hello, I have a couple general questions.
>
> First, how do most web frameworks serve html? I'm coding in python and
> I want to keep all my html seperate from my python stuff. I can serve
> these html files from a mysql database or just from the file system, do
> people use both these options? Are there other options?

The basic idea of templates is that you write something like:

<h1>{{ HEADLINE }}</h1>
<p>by {{ AUTHOR }}</p>
<p>{{ STORY }}</p>

and the web framework fills in the blanks.  No need to store templates
in a SQL database; they are just files.

>
> Second, is a cgi-bin directory really necessary? Are there security
> issues with configuring Apache to allow cgi-bin execution in other
> directories?

Not only unnecessary but unadvisable.  It's very 1995, quite out of
fashion now. Read Tim Berners-Lee's article on "Cool URIs."  URIs
should just describe content.  They are for the user's benefit, not
yours.  They are not a place to remind yourself where you stored code,
or what language you write in (hello, .php, .asp, .pl, and .py), or how
your web server gateways with your code.