| commit | author | age | ||
| 04bee5 | 1 | ===================== |
| CM | 2 | Author Introduction |
| 3 | ===================== | |
| 9ec2d6 | 4 | |
| fd5ae9 | 5 | Welcome to "The :app:`Pyramid` Web Application Framework". In this |
| 04bee5 | 6 | introduction, I'll describe the audience for this book, I'll describe |
| CM | 7 | the book content, I'll provide some context regarding the genesis of |
| fd5ae9 | 8 | :app:`Pyramid`, and I'll thank some important people. |
| 393a31 | 9 | |
| CM | 10 | I hope you enjoy both this book and the software it documents. I've |
| 11 | had a blast writing both. | |
| 12 | ||
| c5f24b | 13 | .. index:: |
| CM | 14 | single: book audience |
| 15 | ||
| 393a31 | 16 | Audience |
| 04bee5 | 17 | ======== |
| 393a31 | 18 | |
| CM | 19 | This book is aimed primarily at a reader that has the following |
| 20 | attributes: | |
| 21 | ||
| 22 | - At least a moderate amount of :term:`Python` experience. | |
| 23 | ||
| 24 | - A familiarity with web protocols such as HTTP and CGI. | |
| 25 | ||
| 26 | If you fit into both of these categories, you're in the direct target | |
| 27 | audience for this book. But don't worry, even if you have no | |
| 28 | experience with Python or the web, both are easy to pick up "on the | |
| 29 | fly". | |
| 30 | ||
| 31 | Python is an *excellent* language in which to write applications; | |
| 32 | becoming productive in Python is almost mind-blowingly easy. If you | |
| 33 | already have experience in another language such as Java, Visual | |
| 34 | Basic, Perl, Ruby, or even C/C++, learning Python will be a snap; it | |
| 35 | should take you no longer than a couple of days to become modestly | |
| 36 | productive. If you don't have previous programming experience, it | |
| 37 | will be slightly harder, and it will take a little longer, but you'd | |
| 38 | be hard-pressed to find a better "first language." | |
| 39 | ||
| 40 | Web technology familiarity is assumed in various places within the | |
| 223d4c | 41 | book. For example, the book doesn't try to define common web-related |
| CM | 42 | concepts like "URL" or "query string." Likewise, the book describes |
| 43 | various interactions in terms of the HTTP protocol, but it does not | |
| 44 | describe how the HTTP protocol works in detail. Like any good web | |
| fd5ae9 | 45 | framework, though, :app:`Pyramid` shields you from needing to know |
| 223d4c | 46 | most of the gory details of web protocols and low-level data |
| CM | 47 | structures. As a result, you can usually avoid becoming "blocked" |
| 48 | while you read this book even if you don't yet deeply understand web | |
| 49 | technologies. | |
| 9ec2d6 | 50 | |
| 04bee5 | 51 | .. index:: |
| CM | 52 | single: book content overview |
| ee79c5 | 53 | |
| 04bee5 | 54 | Book Content |
| CM | 55 | ============ |
| 56 | ||
| b42831 | 57 | This book is divided into three major parts: |
| 04bee5 | 58 | |
| 38b33d | 59 | :ref:`narrative_documentation` |
| 04bee5 | 60 | |
| fd5ae9 | 61 | This is documentation which describes :app:`Pyramid` concepts in |
| 04bee5 | 62 | narrative form, written in a largely conversational tone. Each |
| CM | 63 | narrative documentation chapter describes an isolated |
| fd5ae9 | 64 | :app:`Pyramid` concept. You should be able to get useful |
| 04bee5 | 65 | information out of the narrative chapters if you read them |
| CM | 66 | out-of-order, or when you need only a reminder about a particular |
| 67 | topic while you're developing an application. | |
| 68 | ||
| 38b33d | 69 | :ref:`tutorials` |
| 04bee5 | 70 | |
| bd73fc | 71 | Each tutorial builds a sample application or implements a set of |
| CM | 72 | concepts with a sample; it then describes the application or |
| 73 | concepts in terms of the sample. You should read the tutorials if | |
| fd5ae9 | 74 | you want a guided tour of :app:`Pyramid`. |
| 04bee5 | 75 | |
| 38b33d | 76 | :ref:`api_reference` |
| 04bee5 | 77 | |
| 38b33d | 78 | Comprehensive reference material for every public API exposed by |
| fd5ae9 | 79 | :app:`Pyramid`. The API documentation is organized |
| 38b33d | 80 | alphabetically by module name. |
| CM | 81 | |
| 3ea7c7 | 82 | .. index:: |
| CM | 83 | single: repoze.zope2 |
| 84 | single: Zope 3 | |
| 85 | single: Zope 2 | |
| c5f24b | 86 | single: repoze.bfg genesis |
| edd915 | 87 | single: pyramid genesis |
| 3ea7c7 | 88 | |
| 9ec2d6 | 89 | The Genesis of :mod:`repoze.bfg` |
| 04bee5 | 90 | ================================ |
| edd915 | 91 | |
| fd5ae9 | 92 | Before the end of 2010, :app:`Pyramid` was known as :mod:`repoze.bfg`. |
| 9ec2d6 | 93 | |
| CM | 94 | I wrote :mod:`repoze.bfg` after many years of writing applications |
| 95 | using :term:`Zope`. Zope provided me with a lot of mileage: it wasn't | |
| 1de5ec | 96 | until almost a decade of successfully creating applications using it |
| 9ec2d6 | 97 | that I decided to write a different web framework. Although |
| CM | 98 | :mod:`repoze.bfg` takes inspiration from a variety of web frameworks, |
| 393a31 | 99 | it owes more of its core design to Zope than any other. |
| 9ec2d6 | 100 | |
| 3ea7c7 | 101 | The Repoze "brand" existed before :mod:`repoze.bfg` was created. One |
| CM | 102 | of the first packages developed as part of the Repoze brand was a |
| 103 | package named :mod:`repoze.zope2`. This was a package that allowed | |
| 104 | Zope 2 applications to run under a :term:`WSGI` server without | |
| 105 | modification. Zope 2 did not have reasonable WSGI support at the | |
| 106 | time. | |
| 9ec2d6 | 107 | |
| CM | 108 | During the development of the :mod:`repoze.zope2` package, I found |
| 109 | that replicating the Zope 2 "publisher" -- the machinery that maps | |
| 110 | URLs to code -- was time-consuming and fiddly. Zope 2 had evolved | |
| 111 | over many years, and emulating all of its edge cases was extremely | |
| 112 | difficult. I finished the :mod:`repoze.zope2` package, and it | |
| 113 | emulates the normal Zope 2 publisher pretty well. But during its | |
| 114 | development, it became clear that Zope 2 had simply begun to exceed my | |
| 115 | tolerance for complexity, and I began to look around for simpler | |
| 116 | options. | |
| 117 | ||
| f5106b | 118 | I considered using the Zope 3 application server machinery, but it |
| 9ec2d6 | 119 | turned out that it had become more indirect than the Zope 2 machinery |
| CM | 120 | it aimed to replace, which didn't fulfill the goal of simplification. |
| 121 | I also considered using Django and Pylons, but neither of those | |
| 122 | frameworks offer much along the axes of traversal, contextual | |
| 123 | declarative security, or application extensibility; these were | |
| 124 | features I had become accustomed to as a Zope developer. | |
| 125 | ||
| 3ea7c7 | 126 | I decided that in the long term, creating a simpler framework that |
| CM | 127 | retained features I had become accustomed to when developing Zope |
| 128 | applications was a more reasonable idea than continuing to use any | |
| 129 | Zope publisher or living with the limitations and unfamiliarities of a | |
| fd5ae9 | 130 | different framework. The result is what is now :app:`Pyramid`. |
| 9ec2d6 | 131 | |
| fd5ae9 | 132 | The Genesis of :app:`Pyramid` |
| edd915 | 133 | ============================= |
| CM | 134 | |
| fd5ae9 | 135 | What was :mod:`repoze.bfg` has become :app:`Pyramid` as the result of |
| edd915 | 136 | a coalition built between the :term:`Repoze` and :term:`Pylons` |
| CM | 137 | community throughout the year 2010. By merging technology, we're able |
| 138 | to reduce duplication of effort, and take advantage of more of each | |
| 139 | others' technology. | |
| 393a31 | 140 | |
| c5f24b | 141 | .. index:: |
| CM | 142 | single: Bicking, Ian |
| 143 | single: Everitt, Paul | |
| 144 | single: Seaver, Tres | |
| 145 | single: Sawyers, Andrew | |
| 146 | single: Borch, Malthe | |
| 147 | single: de la Guardia, Carlos | |
| 148 | single: Brandl, Georg | |
| 149 | single: Oram, Simon | |
| 150 | single: Hardwick, Nat | |
| 151 | single: Fulton, Jim | |
| 152 | single: Moroz, Tom | |
| 153 | single: Koym, Todd | |
| 154 | single: van Rossum, Guido | |
| 155 | single: Peters, Tim | |
| 37bcb7 | 156 | single: Rossi, Chris |
| 2c0f82 | 157 | single: Holth, Daniel |
| CM | 158 | single: Hathaway, Shane |
| 394c7b | 159 | single: Akkerman, Wichert |
| dade3b | 160 | single: Laflamme, Blaise |
| 6bc4d5 | 161 | single: Laflamme, Hugues |
| dade3b | 162 | single: Bangert, Ben |
| CM | 163 | single: Duncan, Casey |
| 164 | single: Orr, Mike | |
| 1f4f96 | 165 | single: Shipman, John |
| 895859 | 166 | single: Beelby, Chris |
| 88f967 | 167 | single: Paez, Patricio |
| 8c0344 | 168 | single: Merickel, Michael |
| c5f24b | 169 | |
| 9ec2d6 | 170 | Thanks |
| 04bee5 | 171 | ====== |
| 9ec2d6 | 172 | |
| e4ed8f | 173 | This book is dedicated to my grandmother, who gave me my first |
| CM | 174 | typewriter (a Royal), and my mother, who bought me my first computer |
| 175 | (a VIC-20). | |
| 9ec2d6 | 176 | |
| CM | 177 | Thanks to the following people for providing expertise, resources, and |
| 178 | software. Without the help of these folks, neither this book nor the | |
| dade3b | 179 | software which it details would exist: Paul Everitt, Tres Seaver, Andrew |
| CM | 180 | Sawyers, Malthe Borch, Carlos de la Guardia, Chris Rossi, Shane Hathaway, |
| 181 | Daniel Holth, Wichert Akkerman, Georg Brandl, Blaise Laflamme, Ben Bangert, | |
| 88f967 | 182 | Casey Duncan, Hugues Laflamme, Mike Orr, John Shipman, Chris Beelby, Patricio |
| 8c0344 | 183 | Paez, Simon Oram, Nat Hardwick, Ian Bicking, Jim Fulton, Michael Merickel, |
| CM | 184 | Tom Moroz of the Open Society Institute, and Todd Koym of Environmental |
| 185 | Health Sciences. | |
| 9ec2d6 | 186 | |
| c81116 | 187 | Thanks to Guido van Rossum and Tim Peters for Python. |
| 9ec2d6 | 188 | |
| c81116 | 189 | Special thanks to Tricia for putting up with me. |
