Having used Zope (python based) as our WEB server of choice since 1998 I am 
urged to express my opinion that if you do choose to use python in your 
projects then use a service designed for python use such as Zope, Django, et 
al.  Zope is normally run in front of Apache as a virtual host.
 
If you are going to use python then Zope is an excellent choice for 
interacting with databases and using python to massage/manipulate results if 
you need complex results from the database data.  I like that you can write 
sql queries  just like you might use on the command line and save it as an 
individual object for use by any number of other objects.

What may be a simple example to some is a tutorial quiz I wrote for the WEB.  
There are categories and each category has any number of questions along with 
the answers in the database.  In the management portion, the administrator can 
choose which categories are active and how many questions out of the total 
available to pull from each category individually.  When the quiz page is 
generated the correct number of questions are pulled randomly from the total 
active questions for each category, some questions can be set as inactive.

There are "database connectors" for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, odbc, and 
others so you can choose any popular db or write your own connector.  And 
there are python libraries written for these databases which prove very 
useful.

The main thing I like about python is that the syntax pretty much forces your 
code to be readable by others because indention is part of the syntax rather 
than semicolons, parens, etc.

I don't know PHP in detail but am learning more quickly because the University 
is "forcing" all departments to move to Drupal and we will be running our site 
on Drupal within a year probably although some administrative tasks will still 
be running on our Zope server.

Thomas

ps: remember my point is that "IF" you choose to use python this supports its 
use with databases and scripting.





On Wednesday 27 October 2010 20:49:06 you wrote:
> Olá, como vai?
> 
> Luciano Ramalho <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Actually, Python is a general purpose programming language. It was not
> > created specifically for server side scripting like PHP was. But it is
> > very suitable to that task.
> 
> I'm not sure talking about what something used to be is as interesting
> as talking about what it is. Both Pyhton and PHP can share whatever
> moniker we choose (scripting-language, programming language,
> real-time, half-time, bytecoded, virtual, etc.).
> 
> >> Not seen any scientific packages, but I've seen a few ray-tracers,
> >> although they're all demo apps and fun toys (although I think that
> >> applies to Python, too).
> >
> > No, that does not apply to Python. Python is widely used for hardcore
> > scientific computing.
> 
> I was referring to the ray-tracing part.
> 
> > It is also the most important scripting language in large scale CGI
> > settings
> 
> Yes, Python is widely used for scripting up interfaces into other more
> complex systems. But rarely is the core of the thing written entirely
> in Python.
> 
> >> Maybe your Google-foo is weak. :)
> >
> > Or maybe he's just realizing that outside of server side web
> > scripting, PHP is just not so widely used.
> 
> Absolutely, and fair enough.
> 
> > Having used both languages, I discovered that Python is easier for
> > most tasks, and one reason is that the libraries that come with Python
> > are extremely robust, well tested and consistent.
> 
> Hmm. PHP is extremely robust and well-tested, but yes, it's not all
> that consistent, especially not before version 5.2+. However, things
> have moved on, and with release 6 around the corner things will be
> tighter still. Just like the first versions of Python were
> interesting, so was PHP's, but where the biggest problem with the
> evolution of PHP was the very fact that it was the most popular
> language for rapid web development by far.
> 
> > PHP is very
> > practical for server-side web scripting, but it's libraries are
> > unfortunately full of gotchas, traps and unexpected behaviour.
> 
> There's gotchas in every language, even Python.
> 
> > A key reason for that is the fact that Python has always had an
> > exception-handling mechanism while PHP has grown something like that
> > only a few years ago
> 
> True enough. But earlier versions of any language are less desirable
> than the latest versions, so I'm not sure this is a prevailing
> argument for the horribleness of PHP or any language. These things
> evolve. PHP 5.3+ and soon 6 are looking very good, indeed, but yes, we
> will just have to live with a poor reputation brought on by the big
> number of users and the pre 5.2+ era.
> 
> > So, I my opinion, PHP is great at what it does best: enabling quick
> > server-side Web scripting on almost any hosting service on Earth.
> 
> I'm fairly sure you can say that because you haven't done much other
> kind of PHP work. :)
> 
> > For everything else, it is very worthwhile to learn and use a general
> > purpose dynamic language such as Python, Ruby or Perl.
> 
> Of course. Developers should learn many of languages, and choose
> wisely the language best suited to the problem at hand.
> 
> > Sorry for the rant. I must confess I am a founder of the Brazilian
> > Python Association and was its first president, so you can call me a
> > Python advocate.
> 
> No bias at all, really. :)
> 
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Alex
> 

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