WebApp Frameworks.notes

TITLE OF PAPER: PyWebOff: Mapping the Python Web Application Frameworks
URL OF PRESENTATION:
PRESENTED BY: Michelle Levesque (ml@cs.toronto.edu)
REPRESENTING:

CONFERENCE: PyCon 2005
DATE: Wednesday, March 23, 2005
LOCATION: GWU Cafritz Conference Center, Amphitheatre

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REAL-TIME NOTES / ANNOTATIONS OF THE PAPER:
{If you've contributed, add your name, e-mail & URL at the bottom}

Problem: So Many Web Frameworks, scary, intimidating
Enabler: I'll write my own, that'll solve the problem

When ppl keep reinventing the wheel, you block a lot of progress

PyWebOff: What frameworks support what, and what are they good for?
    Webware, Quixote, CherryPy, Twisted, Zope, Karigell, CGI (control set)

...more cute stick figures...

Start with a simple problem, Web Lending Library

What is not tested:
* Performance
* Security
* Robustness
* ...

The W. Richard Stevens approach to framework analysis - start from a new user perspective, write everything down, and save your final code in a public repository.

Everything blogged - lots of response

Not talking about Zope, Karigell or the CGI control in this talk

Webware:
    MiddleKit - Decide on objects
    UserKit
    WebKit - All pages are subclasses of the default page
     * Your pages can be subclassed as well

Quixote:
    Must conform to the Quixote-way of organizing your pages
     * Once you do, things work better.. :-)
    Best features: widgets
     * Fast way to create HTML forms
     * Provides an object which displays, and then captures the output
    Persistant layers: Durus
    Doesn't support session persistence: you do it yourself
    Thoughts
     * much cleaner code
     * took a lot of time to learn
     * Serious learning curve, but worth it

CherryPy:
    Lightweight, compared to other frameworks
    Standard 'form action is method name' paradigm
    Has a nice templating system, if you like that sort of thing
        Very clean
    Thoughts
     * Intuitive system
     * Template system: cool
     * Potential lack of documentation

Twisted + Nevow:
    The uber-framework, way overkill perhaps for just a web framework
    Useful for Practical Internet Groupware
    Powerful, complicated, templating system
        * (nbastin) Probably worse than just using XSLT directly

General issues with Python web frameworks
    Lack of support
        * IRC (not good way of giving support)
        * mailing lists (better, but still not the best)
        * documentation assumes you already know what they're talking about
            * not new-user friendly

Next steps:
* Finish the analysis of the frameworks still on the list
* Add more frameworks to the list...
* Need to have 'official' frameworks, or some sort of stamp that indicates the
   one with the best documentation and active development
* Put more effort into the winners
* Do Not create more frameworks
* Need to reduce the framework set to a few simple buckets
   * Speed, heavyweight, simple, etc.

Q & A Points:
* Difficult to install a lot of frameworks, also, tutorials are good, but
   should not be relied on

* Is it appropriate to add a web framework to the standard library?
   * no, but have some frameworks that are "Python-sponsored"

* Book promo spam for "Python Cookbook"

* Is there a mature Python alternative to Rails?
   * no single answer

* Is there one that interfaces well with a database (SQL)
  * Don't know how RoR does it, but they do all at least interface with a database


* Sean kills the Q&A period

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REFERENCES: {as documents / sites are referenced add them below}

ml@cs.toronto.edu (Michelle Levesque)
http://pyre.third-bit.com/pyweb (PyWebOff site)

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QUOTES:

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CONTRIBUTORS: {add your name, e-mail address and URL below}
Nick Bastin (nick.bastin@gmail.com) <http://www.nickbastin.com>
Linden Wright (lwright@mac.com)
Nate Silva (nate@northwe.st)

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