- very *little overhead* - routes.py is loaded only when web2py starts and regex patterns are compiled, and this is just a string operation (regex) on a short string (url)
why I prefer to rewrite urls in web2py: - *no external dependencies*, like mod_rewrite - *portability - *is mod rewrite the same for nginx, lighttpd, apache, IIS etc ? - I found it *easier *to rewrite urls in web2py( http://web2py.com/book/default/chapter/04?search=lighttpd#URL-Rewrite ) than with apache mod_rewrite( http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/misc/rewriteguide.html), when I first read about mod_rewrite I was scared :), even having a quite long experience with regex
