[CentralOH] Python Based Websites

[Douglas Stanley]

What about the fact that google employs the python bdfl? I'd say
that's pretty good evidence that they trust it...

Doug

On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 3:04 PM, Austin Godber <godber at gmail.com> wrote:
> Actually SWIG might be closer to what you want, rather than "Extending
> Python".  I think SWIG is better suited to interfacing with an existing code
> base.
> http://www.swig.org/tutorial.html
>
> Does anyone do this?  I used swig once in ruby for something somewhat like
> this, and it worked fine.  I am kinda getting the feeling I am overlooking
> something.
> Austin
> On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 2:46 PM, Austin Godber <godber at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Would it be acceptable to leave the "proprietary" component in C++ and
>> just wrap that in Python.  He maintains his speed and security but gets to
>> do the web stuff in python, where its going to be a bit easier.  Though
>> security wise, anyone with access to the code would implicitly have access
>> to the compiled module and be able to wrap it themselves in exactly the same
>> way.  Though I imagine he is most interested in just protecting the
>> algorithm since C++ programs can be copied as well.
>> See this example for embedding a C/C++ module in a python program.
>> http://docs.python.org/extending/extending.html#a-simple-example
>>
>> Austin
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 12:47 PM, Mark Erbaugh <mark at microenh.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I have a client who provides business training simulations. These are run
>>> as short term competitions among teams of competitors. Each team represents
>>> a company competing in the simulated marketplace. The competitors receive
>>> information about current conditions for a business quarter and make
>>> decisions (buy materials, hire employees, etc) for the next quarter. At the
>>> end of each round (a simulated business quarter), the decisions from each
>>> team are collected, processed and compared with decisions from other teams,
>>> performance is calculated and new quarterly data is provided to the
>>> competitors for the next round. This is usually done for 8 or so rounds
>>> (quarters) over either a two or three day competition or over the course of
>>> an academic term.
>>>
>>> When I got involved with the project, the data was transferred among the
>>> participants using USB memory sticks. The participants use a proprietary C++
>>> program that allowed them to view the data and make decisions. The original
>>> developer had put some hooks in the code to transfer data via the web, but
>>> never got that working. A web development company spent a year trying to get
>>> a web-based solution working and failed. I was able to get a Python-based
>>> (webpy) server working just a few weeks after figuring out the hooks in the
>>> original program.
>>>
>>> The current goal is to move the entire project to web-based, just using
>>> browsers for the client side. Despite my success (or maybe because it wasn't
>>> a perfect solution), the client is not interested in pursuing a Python
>>> solution, which is what I'd like. He still sees Python as a "toy" language
>>> compared to C++. Also, although he is not a programmer, he understands a
>>> little about C++, but seems unwilling to learn anything about Python (in
>>> contrast to another client, who although he doesn't know Python, found he
>>> can read the code well enough to make sense of it and suggest where it
>>> wasn't working properly).
>>>
>>> Another concern is security. The calculations done between rounds is what
>>> gives my client an edge over the competition and he doesn't want that to get
>>> out. His concern (and I partly agree) is that since Python is interpreted,
>>> it would be easier to reverse engineer than something compiled.  One of the
>>> scenarios of concern is that we would install the server software on a
>>> client's network for a single competition and that an unscrupulous client
>>> would reverse engineer things to run additional, unapproved competitions.
>>>
>>> Are there some examples of Python (DJango, TG, etc) websites out there
>>> that have a dynamic user experience that I could use to interest this client
>>> in a Python solution?
>>>
>>> Are there ways to address the security concerns?
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Mark
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> CentralOH mailing list
>>> CentralOH at python.org
>>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/centraloh
>>
>
>
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