Found a product for running Python-based websites off CDROM -have anybody tried it?

[Paul Boddie]

David Wishnie wrote:
>
> We've looked at XAMPP, and it has the following disadvantages compared
> to Stunnix:

I've only read the Stunnix Web site, and I've only seen XAMPP in
passing. However...

> * it's not targeted for putting to CDs at all (it's "unzip and run apache and
>    stuff"    type of thing). This means it probably can't autochoose port numbers
>    for mysql and http. It has no functionality for easy stopping of webserver
>    and stuff from inside a script (that allows to release media on Linux and
>    OSX). It's seems not to be tested for running from read-only media. It has
>    no "showing logo at startup" functionality.

I guess XAMPP isn't what you're looking for. But then, if it's just an
issue of having Apache in a filesystem on a CD, the distance between
convenient installation/unpacking of an Apache instance onto a normal
disk and the preparation of a ready-to-run instance isn't that great:
the two activities overlap, with the former perhaps providing the
means to enable the latter. I do wonder how database writes are
handled, though, or are bundled databases read-only?

> * XAMPP for Linux and OSX is considered beta

It shouldn't be too hard to work with anything UNIX-like. CD-ROMs are
just read-only filesystems, and we're not even talking about live CD
magic here.

> * XAMPP is unsupported as a whole
>
> * XAMPP for Linux and OSX seem not to support Tomcat and mod_python

Yes, but do we really care about Tomcat? ;-)

> * XAMPP for OSX won't work on OSX 10.3
>
> * Even if one will be able to somehow create a CD with XAMPP, the database
>   files and content of document root needs to be replicated for each platform.

Doesn't everything understand ISO-9660 plus various extensions these
days?

> The only advantage of XAMPP is the price. But given a time needed for
> highly-skilled enginer (with good programming skills) to spend on XAMPP
> to make it ready for creating commercial CDs for Windows, Mac OSX -
> cost of Stunnix tool is very attractive, and don't forget about updates and support.

It's up to everyone to decide themselves how they spend their money,
but remember that software like Apache doesn't require rocket science
to set up in arbitrary locations, and database systems aren't that
difficult to install in various places either. Perhaps the most
difficult bit might be binary compatibility, and there'd be some
discipline required in making sure the library dependencies could be
satisfied on the target systems. Either that or you could give up and
distribute a virtual machine image - there was a Python Web
development image publicised a while back, in fact.

Paul