So here (http://fewagainstmany.com/blog/python-micro-frameworks-are-a...) is a post that lists some micro-frameworks for Python, such as web.py. Many of them are similar to Sinatra for Ruby (if you are familiar with that framework) and basically allow you to create very simple web applications in a single file if that is what you desire. While these are not inherently MVC, they can be used as the underlying foundation for your very own MVC framework.
As for MVC, the other big ones for Python (other than Django) are Pylons and TurboGears. Of course there are some other very heavy weight ones as well, such as Zope and Plone, but my knowledge of these is very limited, so I'll leave them for someone else to comment on.
Finally, you can could always use the WSGI spec directly and just slap together all the other "best of bread" pieces to make your own simple framework. It's actually pretty easy to do so, and the best tutorial I've found on doing just that is on Joe Gregorio's website (http://bitworking.org/news/Why_so_many_Python_web_frameworks). Check it out, it's definitely worth running through once to at least get an idea of what other frameworks are doing under the hood.
I'd just like to point out that, if you have any interest in genetic algorithms, Dr. Melanie Mitchell is one of the professors at Portland State University and she pretty much wrote the book on GA's (see here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0262631857/qid...).
I can totally agree with you here cousin_it. I've noticed this problem a few times on the main user-facing [more] link at the bottom of the news listings and I don't see any reason for it. From what I've seen/read/advocated it's best to use continuations for the backend things such as the admin pages, but keep all of the forward-facing pages as continuations-free as possible in order to avoid just these types of problems. As a user of the site, I should be able to bookmark any page I desire and return to find it still exists rather than the continuation has timed out and I lost a list of really great articles that I was hoping to read.
I've been following your site from the start from the Arc Forum and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised when I took a look at it today. The design is so much more pleasing now than it was originally--which is not too say the original design was bad, quite the contrary. I'm not really much of a sports fan, but the site does intrigue me since you decided to go with Arc to create it. Not sure if you're holding it secret or not (which would be totally understandable), but if not, I would love to see the source code for the site seeing as how I am currently learning Arc as well and I love comparing my ideas with others to spot better ways of doing things.
Either way, code closed or open, the site does look great and I think its a really great idea. Good work!
I owe a lot to pg for making news.arc open, and to the people who run Anarki as well. Some things I am thinking about:
- it is harder to open-source something than to deploy the site, because w/ open-sourcing, both the site and the code have to be in good shape, whereas with just deploying a site, it is not as big a deal if the code has some quirks. In other words, there are some deviations from Arc best practices that I want to take care of.
- I am thinking about whether there is an opportunity to have an open-source digg-killer based on Arc, and if so, what that would look like.
Anyway, if you want to work something out then shoot an email to: pageonetimes@idoh.com
I actually wrote a couple of blog posts on this very topic for the O'Reilly Network which I still believe are probably one of the most extensive collections of links to free resources on the web for learning Lisp. You can read over them here ( part 1 - http://www.onlamp.com/pub/wlg/8397 and part 2 - http://www.onlamp.com/pub/wlg/8595). Also, I've recently gotten back into lisp once again myself--although this time I am going the scheme route--and I am currently reading through R. Kent Dybvig's book The Scheme Programming Language and I'm finding it to be a truly excellent book and it is also free online here http://www.scheme.com/tspl3/. And of course make sure you take a look at the Arc tutorial (http://ycombinator.com/arc/tut.txt) and the blog.arc and news.arc source code as they will have you up and running with a Lisp powered website in no time.
Anyway, good luck with your studies, I think the rewards are well worth the effort. I can honestly say no matter how long I've been away from lisp I always find myself going back and loving it even more each time.
