Re: Another try at a Python Web SIG?

On Thursday, September 11, 2003, at 03:53 PM, Bill Janssen wrote:
> I know this was just discussed a few months ago, but I'm very
> interested in getting a Web SIG together or reinvigorated or whatever
> it takes.  The current Web support in Python is somewhat embarassingly
> patchy, given the neatness of the rest of the system.

There is a list at [email protected] -- though woefully quiet the last 
couple weeks, it does have a significant subscriber list.  It was 
specifically created to consider server-side Python.  I would encourage 
you to join that list, and hopefully start up some new activity.

> My specific thinking is about three things:
>
> 1)  Add SSL server-side support to the "socket" module.  This will
>     include some way of managing certificates.  Probably modelled
>     strongly after the way we did it in ILU, if I do it :-).
>
> 2)  Update the "httplib" module to include all of the client-side
>     functionality available in the Linux "curl" program (a reasonable
>     checklist, I think, but am open to better suggestions).

Client-side web programming seems like a very different situation than 
server-side, though of course there's overlap.  But maybe less overlap 
than it would initially seem.

> 3)  Replace/extend the BaseHTTPServer and SimpleHTTPServer modules with
>     an extended webserver module which provides at least the
>     functionality in Medusa.

The HTTPServer modules distributed with Python stdlib have never been 
very serious.  Any development on server-side libraries should really 
look closely at the wider set of software available.  And then there's 
several levels -- lower-level stuff like Medusa and Twisted, and 
higher-level stuff (far too many to list).

There's a lot of people interested in this, I think -- but it's 
challenging because it's somewhat political, and cooperation probably 
isn't likely in some areas (specifically the aesthetics of implementing 
a web application).  But I'd really like to see more cooperation and 
commonality on lower-level Python web programming, where there's a lot 
fewer people with strong opinions.

   Ian


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