abqarc

I bypassed the library problem by calling Python from Arc and returning the results as s-exps. It took 40 lines of Python code.

Why not? Have you used a language other than Arc to write a web app recently?

If writing web apps in other languages isn't still painful where have other languages/frameworks caught up?

One can get libraries for cheap.

Calling Python from Arc with wrappers that return Python data structures as s-exps seems like a workable hack to get libraries in Arc, at least the ones written in a functional style.

Most libraries needed for web apps might be in Javascript.