Ask HN: What Web frameworks exist around Python?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=613759

by deane • 17 years ago

28 30 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I know about Django, but what other frameworks exist to make it straightforward to process Web requests with Python? Anything non-MVC, just for the sake of argument?

tialys• 17 years ago

I'm not really a Python guy (I love my Ruby/Rails...) but I've heard good things about Pylons. http://pylonshq.com/

coconutrandom• 17 years ago

http://webpy.org/

  import web
  
  urls = (
      '/(.*)', 'hello'
  )
  app = web.application(urls, globals())

  class hello:        
      def GET(self, name):
          if not name: 
              name = 'world'
          return 'Hello, ' + name + '!'
  
  if __name__ == "__main__":
      app.run()

marcocampos• 17 years ago

Yep, it's pretty cool. But I would say it's more like a library and less like a framework.

rabidsnail2• 17 years ago

It's great for writing small one-offs (the sort of thing you might use PHP for) and web interfaces for non-web applications. But for large projects it's really not suitable.

irrelative• 17 years ago

I don't know about that. I've written some fairly large programs in webpy lately.

Our latest site, http://sitecanary.com/ has the UI completely written in webpy.

mcantelon• 17 years ago

Juno is a minimalist, Sinatra-like framework: http://wiki.github.com/breily/juno

spooneybarger• 17 years ago

don't forget the grandaddy of python frameworks: http://www.zope.org/

FraaJad3• 17 years ago

zope is no longer a monolithic framework, but a large collection of libraries, most of which can used outside the main zope framework or even create your own framework. You can use what you want -- the `pay for what you eat` principle.

Repoze - http://repoze.org and Grok - http://grok.zope.org are some of the derivative frameworks that use best of zope libraries without going the whole hog.

Today, zope (specifically zope3) is arguably ahead of other popular frameworks in terms of its reusability, deployment stories, extensive testing.

Combine WSGI + Paste + Zope Component architecture + SQLAlchemy and a choice of other libraries to create a robust framework of your own.

emmett• 17 years ago

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=python+web+frameworks&l=1

sundeep• 17 years ago

Maybe the OP wanted the opinions of savvy , knowledgeable users of python web frameworks as well.

vthakr• 17 years ago

So here (http://fewagainstmany.com/blog/python-micro-frameworks-are-a...) is a post that lists some micro-frameworks for Python, such as web.py. Many of them are similar to Sinatra for Ruby (if you are familiar with that framework) and basically allow you to create very simple web applications in a single file if that is what you desire. While these are not inherently MVC, they can be used as the underlying foundation for your very own MVC framework.

As for MVC, the other big ones for Python (other than Django) are Pylons and TurboGears. Of course there are some other very heavy weight ones as well, such as Zope and Plone, but my knowledge of these is very limited, so I'll leave them for someone else to comment on.

Finally, you can could always use the WSGI spec directly and just slap together all the other "best of bread" pieces to make your own simple framework. It's actually pretty easy to do so, and the best tutorial I've found on doing just that is on Joe Gregorio's website (http://bitworking.org/news/Why_so_many_Python_web_frameworks). Check it out, it's definitely worth running through once to at least get an idea of what other frameworks are doing under the hood.

dazzawazza• 17 years ago

I'm a big fan of Turbogears. It's big enough to do a lot of work for you but not big enough that it forces your hand.

plaes• 17 years ago

Werkzeug - the anti-framework. It is more like a library and that's good as it allows you do things the way you like...

http://werkzeug.pocoo.org/

mtrichardson• 17 years ago

Werkzeug is fantastic. We used it with jinja2[1], SQLAlchemy[2], and flatland[3] with great success.

[1] http://jinja.pocoo.org/2/ [2] http://www.sqlalchemy.org/ [3] http://bitbucket.org/jek/flatland/overview/

koenbok• 17 years ago

I like webob a lot: http://pythonpaste.org/webob/

Also more a library then a framework.

marram• 17 years ago

I like WebOb+Google App Engine.

buster• 17 years ago

Easy to use, one-file thingie: http://wiki.github.com/breily/juno

Can do everything thingie: http://www.twistedmatrix.com

aheilbut• 17 years ago

cherrypy http://www.cherrypy.org/ keeps things simple

russell• 17 years ago

The reason that there are so many frameworks is that writing one used to be a rite of passage for Python programmers. It was so easy to write your own.

FWIW Guido settled on Django. I dont know if he has changed his mind since.

derwiki• 17 years ago

I started diving into Django a few months ago for a side project, and haven't looked back. I know a ton of Django programmers in the area, and there's a great community for Django devs online.

simanyay• 17 years ago

You may find interesting a web frameworks discussion started by Guido: http://www.artima.com/forums/threaded.jsp?forum=106&thre...

At work we use Django and somewhat happy with it. In past I used to use web.py and I liked it.

JereCoh• 17 years ago

Pylons is awesome.

rabidsnail2• 17 years ago

Web.py is great for small projects.

web2py is the new up-and-comer.

zope is the grey-bearded veteran that nobody uses anymore.

twisted is more of a networking framework but people sometimes use it for web apps.

FraaJad3• 17 years ago

By zope, i assume you mean Zope2.

Nobody uses zope? really? Plone, arguably the best Open Source CMS out there is built on Zope2 and continues to be used in ever increasing numbers..

Zope3 is not just a "framework". Its a mindset that allows people to think about solving problems in a robust way, which will remain useful for software's lifecycle.

Zope people realized the danger in building monolithic frameworks after the experiences of Zope2. When they started zope3, they kept the goal of reusability the number one design goal, even at the risk of appearing over-engineered at times. Today, there is no Zope3 and Zope3 is everywhere. Zope lives in Plone, Repoze, Grok and myriad of python libraries.

Lot of good ideas from zope like Zope.Interfaces and Zope component architecture are being outside the zope community.

Django is the Zope2 of 2009.

How many software stacks are still being supported and catered for after 10 years? Zope is a greybeard but saying that nobody uses it implies lack of actual knowledge of python frameworks and how they play together.

iamelgringo• 17 years ago

Straight up WSGI: http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2006/09/27/introducing-wsgi-pythons...

Django, Pylons, Cherry.py, Turbogears, web.py, Zope, Plone (more of a CMS than a framework, though), Juno, itty, djng, mnml, itty, newf...

I'm sure there's others that I forgot.

Sal• 17 years ago

This kind of question smells of lmgtfy.com

FraaJad3• 17 years ago

Python developers have tried to move away from the framework thinking for some time.

The emergence of make-your-frameworks (Pylons), lightweight(juno, web.py) frameworks, and pay-for-what-you-eat frameworks (repoze)

Choose libraries based on what serves you best, combine them together using WSGI.

flashgordon• 17 years ago

out of curiosity, what is bothering you about django?

apoirier• 17 years ago

Nagare (http://www.nagare.org) is really different. Not yet-another-MVC-framework clone but based on a true components architecture and using continuation, like the Seaside framework, to free the developers of the Web constraints.

mdipierro• 17 years ago

http://www.vimeo.com/3703345

Ask HN: What Web frameworks exist around Python?

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