[Web-SIG] Request for Comments on upcoming WSGI Changes

[Robert Brewer]

Armin Ronacher wrote:
> Thanks to Graham Dumpleton and Robert Brewer there is some serious
> progress on WSGI currently.  I proposed a roadmap with some PEP
changes
> now that need some input.
> 
> Summary:
> 
>   WSGI 1.0       stays the same as PEP 0333 currently is
>   WSGI 1.1       becomes what Ian and I added to PEP 0333
>   WSGI 2.0       becomes a unicode powered version of WSGI 1.1
>   WSGI 3.0       becomes WSGI 2.0 just without start_response
> 
>   WSGI 1.0 and 1.1 are byte based and nearly impossible to use on
> Python
>   3 because of changes in the standard library that no longer work
with
>   a byte-only approach.
> 
> 
> The PEPs themselves are here: http://bitbucket.org/ianb/wsgi-peps/
> Neither the wording not the changes in there are anywhere near final.
> 
> 
> Graham wrote down two questions he wants every major framework
> developer
> to be answered.  These should guide the way to new WSGI standards:
> 
> 1. Do we keep bytes everywhere forever in Python 2.X, or try to
>    introduce unicode there at all to at least mirror what changes
might
>    be made to make WSGI workable in Python 3.X?

I'm happy either way, since CherryPy abstracts it all away. Decide
already and I'll implement it.

> 2. Do we skip WSGI 1.X completely for Python 3.X and go straight to
>    WSGI 2.0 for Python 3.X?

+1 for skipping straight to unicode in Python 3. But call it "1.1" not
"2.0".

> I added a new question I think should be asked too:
> 
> 3. Do we skip WSGI 2.0 as specified in the PEP and go straight to
>    WSGI 3.0 and drop start_response?

No. We need more time to discuss and try to implement the large
architectural changes in that. I need to ship CP 3.2 soon and would like
it to have a better Python 3 story than the "bytes-everywhere" (or
"unicode pretending to be bytes") of WSGI 1.0. We have working code,
which uses unicode in Python 3. Maybe I'll call it "wsgi.version = (1,
'cp32')" and let the spec come later if we can't see the trees for the
forest.


Robert Brewer
fumanchu at aminus.org