Kiwi PyCon 2011 - Audrey Roy Keynote Speech

Python and the Web Can we keep up? Audrey Roy twitter: @audreyrSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr About me Python web developer by day ❖ MIT ’04, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science ❖ Python & Django developer for Cartwheel Web / RevSys Open-source advocate and more by night ❖ President/co-organizer of PyLadies ❖ Co-creator and core dev of djangopackages.com & OpenComparison ❖ Resident artist at LAs Hive Gallery ❖ Fiancée of Daniel Greenfeld (pydanny)Saturday, August 27, 11

Quiz: When was the ﬁrst Python web app written?Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Quiz: When was the ﬁrst Python web app written? I asked this in IRC channel #python. I was told: “audreyr, the ﬁrst person to do it probably thought somebody else did it. CGI isn’t particularly hard”Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr CGI code from circa 1999 Was CGI hard? #!/usr/local/bin/python import cgi def main(): print "Content-type: text/htmln" form = cgi.FieldStorage() # parse query if form.has_key("firstname") and form["firstname"].value != "": print "Hello", form["firstname"].value, "</h1>" else: print "<h1>Error! Please enter first name.</h1>" main() © 1999 CNRI, Guido van Rossum from http://www.python.org/doc/essays/ppt/sd99east/sld041.htmSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Years of turmoil Connecting to web servers was hard and inconsistent ❖ CGI ❖ mod_python ❖ fastCGI ❖ custom Python web servers/frameworksSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr That was before WSGI WSGI (PEP 333) the spec for the interface between web servers & Python web apps/ frameworks Consistency!Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr What did we get from WSGI? The ability to write: ❖ web frameworks that work with any WSGI-compliant web server ❖ web servers that work with any WSGI-compliant web framework ❖ middleware that sits between any WSGI server/framework (in theory)Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr What didn’t we get from WSGI? The pluggable dream ❖ Few truly reusable WSGI middleware packages ❖ No other way to write pluggable pieces emergedSaturday, August 27, 11

The web has changed since the early days of PEP 333Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr What makes up a Python web framework, in 2011? Main pieces: ❖ Python ❖ HTML/CSS ❖ JavaScript, ajaxy bits Other pieces you need: ❖ Database adapter & database ❖ WSGI adapter & web server ❖ Deployment system Put it all together and you have a Python web framework.Saturday, August 27, 11

Where is the web going? Beyond the limits of the WSGI protocolSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr WSGI 2 Were not talking middleware; were talking protocols ❖ WSGI-lite to make WSGI more easily usable? (2011) ❖ WSGI 2 spec to address limitations/throw out baggage? ❖ It’s inevitable ❖ WSGI implementors, please speak out before it’s too lateSaturday, August 27, 11

Where is the Python web going? A deployment revolutionSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Devops: Everyone’s doing it Everyone seems to be working on: ❖ Automated, repeatable server setup ❖ Fabric, libcloud, Chef, Puppet ❖ Making deployment “easy” ❖ (well, maybe when you’ve got 20+ servers)Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr 99% of deployments are small Most projects only need 1-3 servers. Do we need to have this strong a community focus on large scale deployments?Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Reproducible deployment for all Large-scale deployment techniques are trickling down to smaller projects. ❖ “Deploying the world’s smallest Django application, repeatedly” Soon to emerge: ❖ “Micro-deployment tools” - lightweight tools for small deploymentsSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Another piece of the deployment revolution Python devops teams are using Ruby more and more: ❖ Chef ❖ Puppet Python has Fabric & libcloud, but nothing comparable to Chef/Puppet (to my knowledge) One of these will happen: ❖ We bring more deployment tools to Python and stay competitive ❖ Or we lose the deployment revolution to RubySaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr After the deployment revolution In the future, deployment & hosting of web apps will be a solved problem: ❖ Shared hosting ❖ Single-server ❖ Multi-server conﬁgurations (db, media, app, etc.) ❖ Large-scale sitesSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Who is trying to solve this, in the Python world? PaaS companies are being forced to solve this in isolation: ❖ Djangozoom.com ❖ Gondor.io ❖ ep.io ❖ dotCloud ❖ Google App Engine ❖ Stackato (CloudFoundry, open-source?)Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Who else is trying to solve this, in the Python world? Python devops teams are trying to solve this, in isolation: ❖ In-house Fabric scripts ❖ In-house Chef recipes ❖ In-house Puppet modules Repeated re-invention of the wheel ❖ Wasted Python developer energySaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Can there be web hosting standards? WSGI addresses the interface with the web server. It does not address: ❖ Packaging up of app & dependencies ❖ Python module search paths/virtualenvs ❖ Location of Python egg cache ❖ Initialization of your application ❖ Initialization of logging ❖ Conﬁguring web server for static media ❖ And much more...Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr If not standards, how about one “best practice” way Wouldn’t it be nice if Python hosting all worked the same way? ❖ Do you want to be locked into 1 hosting company’s approach? ❖ Or at least to the point that these are standardized: ❖ app packaging ❖ dependency managementSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Let’s solve this and move on Once we solve our deployment and hosting issues, we’ll be able to focus our energy on the avalanche that’s upon us...Saturday, August 27, 11

Where is the web going? Front-end revolutionSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr What makes up a Python web framework, in 2011? Main pieces: ❖ Python ❖ HTML/CSS ❖ JavaScript, ajaxy bits Other pieces you need: ❖ Database adapter & database ❖ WSGI adapter & web server ❖ Deployment system Put it all together and you have a Python web framework.Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Why should we care? Today’s web apps have ❖ rich, dynamic, responsive user experiences ❖ multimedia ❖ special effects This isn’t just pretty templates anymore.Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Why should we care? There are some very interesting Python web issues to address: ❖ UI effects require dynamic loading of data ❖ large multimedia ﬁles take time to load ❖ realtime chat, search, data analysis often required ❖ fancy caching mechanisms are becoming more important ❖ server can’t always handle processing; off-load to client sideSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Why should we care? Plus we have to deal with mobile phones & tablets ❖ Adaptive layouts with adaptive data sets ❖ Device memory/power limitations ❖ Limited connectivitySaturday, August 27, 11

Quiz: What version of the Web are we on now?Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr So, what version of Web are we on now?Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr HTML5 New and improved web with fancy APIs ❖ Drawing graphics on canvas ❖ Ofﬂine data storage ❖ Drag and drop ❖ Multimedia ❖ Semantic elements (for search engines, screenreaders) and moreSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr CSS3 The future of interaction ❖ Animations ❖ Special effects ❖ Support for mobile browsers ❖ Media queries - see http://mediaqueri.esSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Web Open Font Format WOFF “provides typographic ﬂexibility and control far beyond anything the web has offered before” from w3.org ‘the W3C commented that it expects WOFF to soon become the "single, interoperable [font] format" supported by all browsers’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Open_Font_FormatSaturday, August 27, 11

By the way, I want Python in my web browser This work is attributed to the W3C.Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Remember Grail (1995-1999)? ❖ Browser written in Python ❖ Lets you download Python applets ❖ Full HTML 2.0 support ❖ Support for much of HTML 3.2Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Remember Grail (1995-1999)? Invoking a Grail applet: <HEAD> <TITLE>Grail Applet Test Page</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <H1>Test an Applet Here!</H1> Click this button! <OBJECT CLASSID="Question.py"> If you see this, your browser does not support Python applets. </OBJECT> </BODY>Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Python in the browser? Why does it have to be JavaScript? ❖ It makes me sad ❖ Skulpt: was an interesting idea; lost momentum ❖ Pyjamas: great idea that lost momentum too ❖ Pythonistas are so desperate for an alternative that they’ve settled for CoffeeScript CoffeeScript is the closest successful implementation ❖ But it’s not PythonSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Wish list: Python in the browser In jQuery: $(document).ready(function() { // Initialization code goes here }); In CoffeeScript: $(document).ready -> # Initialization code goes here In PythonInTheBrowserScript: jq(document).ready: # Initialization code goes hereSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Who’s going to help with the front-end revolution? Look for new ideas. Be ﬁrst to bring them to Python! ❖ HTML5 spec ❖ CSS3 spec ❖ JavaScript community ❖ Ruby community ❖ Other communitiesSaturday, August 27, 11

Where is the Python web going? More packages, more contributorsSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Diversity of Python packages (and contributors) See videos of my PyCon AU talk: “Diversity in Python: it’s about untapped resources” http://www.slideshare.net/audreyr/pycon-australia-2011-keynote-audrey-roySaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr The Python community needs you Opportunities for leadership in ❖ Mobile ❖ Real-time web ❖ Complex UI interactions ❖ Open-source standards/protocols ❖ Python in the browser Don’t be shy, implement it.Saturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr More leaders are emerging The open-source Python community can always use new leaders ❖ Implement a new idea ❖ Release a package ❖ Give a talk ❖ Demonstrate the possibilitiesSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr To all “PyLadies” in attendance ❖ Come and talk Python with me anytime! ❖ Informal breakfast for all female Python developers, planned for tomorrow morning: ❖ Kiallas Cafe in Newtown ❖ Sunday, 7:30am onward ❖5 min walk from Kiwi PyConSaturday, August 27, 11

Audrey Roy @audreyr Thank You We’re going to shape the future of the web together :) HTML5 & derivative graphics attributed to the W3C. Python logo attributed to the PSF. Special thanks for your help: Christine, Danny, Esther, Graham, Grant, Jess, Katharine, Michael, Sophia (this graphic is a parody, but the intended message is real)Saturday, August 27, 11

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Kiwi PyCon 2011 - Audrey Roy Keynote Speech

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Kiwi PyCon 2011 - Audrey Roy Keynote Speech — Presentation Transcript