[Tutor] Python and Apache (OT)

[Allyn Weaks]

On 25/4/2003, Isaac Hall wrote:

>he states something to the effect that he thinks
>python is not very widely used for cgi scripting, however it is my
>understanding that python works very well for cgi scripting, and is
>widely used for that purpose.

As a python beginner who wants to do some cgi things, I have to agree
with the author on this point.  Perhaps python is widely used for cgi,
but if so, those programmers aren't sharing their work.  I'm not
talking about frameworks here, I have no desire for frameworks, just
simple everyday cgis.  Last month I went out looking for examples to
study, and while I could easily find thousands of cgis written in perl,
the available python cgis were in the tens.  Not even the hundreds.
Many of those were years old, and badly needed fixing and/or
modernization.  I realize that most of the thousands of perl cgis are
garbage (buggy, no security, etc), and many of the rest are near clones
of each other, but for any type of web task (form manager, log
analysis, chat room, database, search engine, etc) there seem to be at
least three or four excellent ones to choose from.  Python has a long
way to go to fill in those gaps.

A plea for those of you writing cgi scripts, even simple one-offs if
they work--submit them to the standard repositories!  There isn't even
much in the vaults of parnassus, let alone the big indices such as
<http://www.cgi-resources.com/> (perl: 3029, python: 13, visual basic:
43).

By the way, I'm constantly amused by anyone not liking indentation and
lack of braces on first sight.  It was largely that that made me want
to drop my tussling with perl for python about 30 seconds after
accidentally running into some python source.  It was only afterwards
that I found the even better goodies, such as decent list manipulation.
-- 
Allyn Weaks    allyn@tardigrade.net   Seattle, WA  Sunset zone 5
Pacific NW Native Wildlife Gardening: http://www.tardigrade.org/natives/
"The benefit of even limited monopolies is too doubtful, to be opposed
to that of their general suppression."  Thomas Jefferson