So, perhaps let me speak for myself next time.

If you knew my history and how I get involved in things you would know that I help all manner of people out even where it is a project that I am not directly involved in. This has included me helping people with writing their own custom modules for hosting Python under Apache or other web servers. So, I am not saying mod_wsgi is the only way and you will find that I still often suggest people use mod_python, fastcgi/scgi or proxy solutions instead. It really all depends on what people want to do as to whether something is appropriate.

Codehead, by the sounds of it you may want to have a look at http://www.freenet.org.nz/python/pyweb/docs/pyhp.html as it looks to overlap with what you have in mind. They also are trying to develop a module for Apache which directly supports their system. This is actually how I came across it as they recently approached me in respect of the custom Apache module they are writing to handle Python and their templating system and some issues they are seeing in interfacing with Apache.

I still have to properly look through what these people are doing, but the general concept of having an application handle a custom template file which is the target of a HTTP request is also able to be managed using mod_wsgi. It is just a matter of configuring Apache appropriately with a combination of Action and AddHandler directives. Even if not a template file which needs special processing, mod_wsgi already allows you to stick WSGI application script files anywhere you want in document directories just like PHP does.

Finally, be aware that using ‘print’ to produce response opens up a huge can of worms. This is because it implicitly directs output via stdout. To have it do otherwise would require byte code manipulation due to it being a keyword. Replacing stdout itself to try and redirect it as some do is not a good solution as it has issues with multithreading, plus that some third party Python modules think they can blindly dump debug output to stdout and/or do other strange things with it, all of which can screw up a response.

I want to work together with everyone who’s interested in what I want to create. I have this idea and I will try my best to make it happen and I believe it will be good for Python.

User www-data
Group www-data

Listen 80
Listen 443

ServerRoot “/usr/lib/apache2″
ErrorLog “/var/log/apache2/error.log”
LogLevel info

LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ca.pem
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/key.pem
SSLSessionCache dbm:/var/log/apache2/ssl_cache
SSLSessionCacheTimeout 600
SSLEngine Off

LoadModule wsgi_module modules/mod_wsgi.so
WSGIProcessGroup %{GLOBAL}
WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL}
WSGIPythonPath /srv/www/lib

LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so
TypesConfig /etc/mime.types
DefaultType text/plain
AddHandler wsgi-script .py
AddType text/xml .py

LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/javascript text/css

LoadModule authz_host_module modules/mod_authz_host.so
LoadModule autoindex_module modules/mod_autoindex.so
LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so

ServerAdmin gert.cuykens@gmail.com
ServerName 127.0.0.1:80
DocumentRoot “/srv/www”

Options ExecCGI Indexes FollowSymLinks
DirectoryIndex index.htm
IndexIgnore .htaccess .??* *.pyc
Order Deny,Allow
Allow from all

I want to be able to name a script *.py, put it anywhere on my web server and point my browser to it. I hate regulations, I think these modules should let you just print things to the web server and if you want a framework, then use one on top of that.

Carl,
I’m not trying to compete with anyone, I’m just frustrated with the options. I’m also a supporter of open-source and admire Graham for what he did and all his contributions.

Kevin,
I will hopefully start this project next week, like I said, I don’t have a lot of time but I’m very motivated.