Python component model

[Fredrik Lundh]

Paul Boddie wrote:

>> Aw, come on.  The Python web programming standardisation wars are over, for now.
>
> Well, that's just another way of saying that the scene remains
> stagnant, because I don't see any winners.

one, two, overflow ?  or are you saying that the lack of a monopoly means
market stagnation, no matter how innovative the three big ones are ?

> For a long time people expected to get this coherent message by looking for
> solutions provided with the Python distribution itself - after all, the standard
> library has provided other useful "batteries" over the years - but all
> we had was the cgi module and some barely maintained servers. Indeed,
> the standard library looks pretty incoherent itself these days.

the standard library has never included non-trivial applications (and the three big
ones are configurable applications, not libraries).  I'm not sure anyone has ever
looked to the standard library for domain-specific applications or toolkits.

> The thing is that people want a coherent message about Python and Web
> programming.

the message is out there, for anyone who wants to listen.  and they are listening.

> why else do people still ask CGI-related questions on comp.lang.python?

because CGI works well for simple applications where you don't want to waste
any time whatsoever on hosting and deployment issues ?  heck, I spent parts of
last weekend hacking on a light-weight CGI-based publishing system for portions
of the effbot.org site, using Python 2.2 on Solaris.  loads of fun.

>> (as for WSGI, it's plumbing. You can of course build fun things from spare parts and
>> plumbing, and there are really interesting things going on in certain research labs, as
>> usual, but if you want turn-key stuff, pick one of the big three.)
>
> After seeing WSGI being elevated to non-plumbing (since plumbing is
> just stuff that helps other stuff to work, not something you mess with
> on a daily basis), I think the current strategy with respect to
> "floating more boats" is to pretend that WSGI is all you need.

I've never seen anyone besides Ian Bicking make that argument (and he's using
WSGI plus a zillion ready-made building blocks when doing that).

</F>