My talk at Kiwi PyCon, covering the deployment revolution, front-end revolution, and more. This was the opening keynote speech.

1. Python and the Web
Can we keep up?
Audrey Roy
twitter: @audreyr
Saturday, August 27, 11

2. 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 LA's Hive Gallery
❖ Fiancée of Daniel Greenfeld (pydanny)
Saturday, August 27, 11

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

4. 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

5. 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.htm
Saturday, August 27, 11

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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 emerged
Saturday, August 27, 11

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

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

12. Where is the web going?
Beyond the limits of the WSGI protocol
Saturday, August 27, 11

13. Audrey Roy
@audreyr
WSGI 2
We're not talking middleware; we're 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 late
Saturday, August 27, 11

14. Where is the Python web going?
A deployment revolution
Saturday, August 27, 11

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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 deployments
Saturday, August 27, 11

18. 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 Ruby
Saturday, August 27, 11

19. 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 sites
Saturday, August 27, 11

20. 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

21. 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 energy
Saturday, August 27, 11

22. 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

23. 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 management
Saturday, August 27, 11

24. 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

25. Where is the web going?
Front-end revolution
Saturday, August 27, 11

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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 side
Saturday, August 27, 11

29. 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 connectivity
Saturday, August 27, 11

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

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

32. 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 more
Saturday, August 27, 11

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

34. 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_Format
Saturday, August 27, 11

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

36. 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 3.2
Saturday, August 27, 11

37. 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

38. 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 Python
Saturday, August 27, 11

39. 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 here
Saturday, August 27, 11

40. 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 communities
Saturday, August 27, 11

41. Where is the Python web going?
More packages, more contributors
Saturday, August 27, 11

42. 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-roy
Saturday, August 27, 11

43. 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

44. 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 possibilities
Saturday, August 27, 11

45. 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 PyCon
Saturday, August 27, 11

46. 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