1. web2py is especially good for freelancers and single developers because
it is such a tight package. Everything works really well together and right
out of the box.
2. From the forum I get the impression that there is a lot of intranet work.
But if you look for sites built with web2py I think that are enough examples
out there to make anyone feel comfortable.
3. It fares really well! One frequently voiced concern is performance, which
is not a problem at all. Python is pretty fast for an interpreted language,
the database io (outside of Python is really the bottleneck). And rocket is
very, very fast.
4. Well, depending on your goals, webdevelopment can be pretty difficult.
Especially for a single developer, browser inconsistencies, many different
skills and know-hows involved (HTML, CSS, deployment, ...). Particularly
powerful and easy is SQLFORM :-) , the DAL is pretty sleek. web2py, like
Python, can be said to fit the brain (i.e. you won't be looking much at
documentation) which is a real productivity booster - KUDOS Massimo. The
forum is great and answers are generally very very fast.
5. Generally clients don't care. However this might not always be the case.
Python as been around for 20 years! If you look at programming indexes it is
generally found among the top used languages:
* http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html
* http://langpop.com/
* http://www.devtopics.com/most-popular-programming-languages/
Those who feel more comfortable with corporation languages should check that
open-source languages are not subject to corporate whims, so contrary to
popular belief they tend to die less. Most importantly, Python is also on
multiple platforms, like dotNet and Java, so it is being used as a scripting
langugage not only in C/C++ (and others) but also in C# and Java. And a
cursory inquiry on who uses it leads to replies like:
* Google - also hired GvR
* NASA
* Disney
* Civilization IV (Firaxis Games)
* Plone (most likely the best CMS around opensource or not)
* Yahoo Maps
The list goes on and on. For some of this and other references :
* http://www.python.org/about/success/
* http://wiki.python.org/moin/OrganizationsUsingPython
No one should be concerned with using Python!
HTH,
Miguel
On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 6:26 PM, spiffytech spiffyt...@gmail.com wrote:
I'm picking out a framework to use for freelance web development. Does
anyone use web2py in that sort of situation? How does it fare? Do you
find anything particularly limiting or particularly easy? How do
clients respond when you tell them you're building the site in Python
(not PHP), and that you're building it in one of the less-common
frameworks?
