[Web-SIG] Re: Just lost another one to Rails

[Todd Grimason]

* Shannon -jj Behrens [2005-04-29 15:55]:
 
> Is it just me or does the Python Web application framework world seem
> about as obstinate a problem as the Palestinian mess? ;)

ack! no real world problems please. i might be the only one here who
hasn't written my own framework, but as a sample customer, i'm coming to
the conclusion that what's lacking most on any of the number of
existing, good frameworks is just "spit & polish". 

In other words, good docs, good tutorials, sample applications (beyond
10-liners), and yes, as much as many coders seem to distain it,
good-looking websites. If someone coming to web programming from X or Y
language (X or Y not being python or ruby), and looks at the Rails site
compared to almost any of the python frameworks, they'd very likely
conclude it [Rails] is a more mature, widely used, and professional
toolkit -- even though in many cases that's completely not true. 

There is probably more sample code (test apps, example sites) on the
Rails site in teh past 6 months than a bunch of the python kits all
combined over years. And for a lot of people, "you can go ahead and just
plug in whatever you like for the backend or templates at this point"
isn't enough instruction or guidance. I agree maintaining the
flexibility is important, but even better is showing at least one common
way of tying things together. And whenever possible, getting users of a
framework to publicly admit it helps - witness the attention on python
by Google, NASA, et. al admitting to their usage, as well as Rails'
drawing attention with Basecamp and 43things (regardless of your
opinions of those, they draw attention). Of course not all companies are
willing to publicly admit to things... though jj did spill the beans on
his company ;-) That should be on the Aquarium site!

Of course these are broad sweeping statements but I think they're fairly
accurate. Now how to get any of the projects more people and polish and
docs... well I guess that's the rub. But in summary what's needed *is*
"marketing" to expand awareness and usage of the good frameworks already
existing in python. A common platform on Paste will only make things
even better - but at this point the lack of Paste isn't the main
hinderance.

I hope this point of view is somewhat helpful and not just annoying(!)

-- 

______________________________
toddgrimason*todd-AT-slack.net