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Basically, Can You Help Me Understand Python For Web Development (Conceptually)?

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Maverick

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2011
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So I'm sure of one thing: these are stupid questions.

Seems what little knowledge I have might be relative, so I'll give the big picture:

HTML/CSS
I've done some work in HTML and can design (amateurishly) little sites with HTML, CSS, and a little Javascript action. Never attempted any sort of "masterpiece" (relatively speaking, of course) site, but I can trial-and-error it to get it to look the way I want to look.

Python
Recently I've also been using Python scripts to get some stuff done on my server (Rapidleech is much too limited for my purposes) and I've been enjoying playing around with the scripts and getting the scripts to do things. I've enjoyed the things I've managed to do with it (and the things I can imagine being able to do with it).

PHP
I've also messed around with PHP files (never actually coded anything new in it, just customized Rapidleech a little bit for my purposes).

My Questions
1) It seems to me that it might be both difficult and in some ways suboptimal to learn to use Python to develop a web page?

I mean, you can only develop a website with something like Cherrypy, Web2Py, etc....right? Doesn't something get lost in the translation where it wouldn't in PHP?

So, if one were to attempt (for example) a filemanager. From with hopefully the user could select files, and have options of moving them to folders, renaming (with a feature like was you can do with os.path.splitext() in Python), and list links. Would using Python essentially involve more (and sustained) CPU/memory than at all necessary?

2) If that were the project, how much of designing how it looks would/could be done with HTML knowledge/...use?

Thanks in advance for helping an ignorant wretch like me! =D
 
6 comments
It would be a lot simpler imo to do things in PHP. They have a lot of built in functions for things like making a simple file manager. Before you get heavy into either python or PHP though, I would recommend you to finish mastering html, especially since it's generally easy and fast to pick up.
 
Think about Python as a versatile language. While most frameworks out there tend to make code management and development a bit easier in one way or the other, you can still do web development without relying on them (a bit cumbersome though). WSGI is the way to go if you want to dive into it. Set up apache with mod_wsgi and look into it.

@narutoroot: Yes, PHP is great for starting with web development stuff, but I find it less versatile at times when I wish to do stuff using it on the server side. Python wins there undoubtedly.
 
So there isn't a (functional) benefit to PHP with a built-in HTML vs. python?

Sort of like Gaurav is saying, I'm hoping to be able to work with Python; but I'm wondering if there's a downside I need to consider and be aware of.
 
Python isn't really the future IMO. Better go for PHP for now. When you want to code desktop applications you should go for C++ using Qt.
 
Well, I'm pretty sure GUI development with Python is much better supported than PHP.. Also, the PHP market there is a bit saturated with too much competition. And if you're uncertain about Python's usability, Youtube uses Python, so do many other projects at Google (y)
 
You shouldn't just blindly learn and accept a new language just because a few big names (Youtube, Google, NASA, Yahoo) are using it.
Python is a very Mature Language, and there are tons of libraries, that can help you get your job done.

Take a look at this video: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Fr65PFqfk[/ame]

The speaker talks about how PHP is a "Serious Language" people use for "Serious Development" at 3:30
EDIT: I hope you realize that he's being sarcastic.
 
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