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Rewriting Reddit (2005)

aaronsw.com

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Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)

#11

Post by jedberg »

web.py never really worked well, so we ended up rewriting it again. The interesting thing was that Django still wasn't up to the task when we did that, mostly because it's templating engine was too slow. So we chose Pylons instead.

It should be noted that Django has since fixed that issue.

Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)

#13

Post by swartkrans »

jedberg wrote: post #11

web.py never really worked well, so we ended up rewriting it again. The interesting thing was that Django still wasn't up to the task when we did that, mostly because it's templating engine was too slow. So we chose Pylons instead. It should be noted that Django has since fixed that issue.

Was there one specific problem with web.py or multiple issues? Was there ever a write up about what you guys learned from trying web.py? Would be an interesting read.

Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)

#14

Post by swartkrans »

linuxydave wrote: post #2

Whatever happened to that Lisp clone?

I'm not sure if linuxydave is joking, but for those not in on the joke, Hacker News is written in arc, a Lisp variant. Hacker News resembles early versions of reddit quite a bit and Reddit was a ycombinator funded startup. Early on there was a big overlap in the two communities, although Hacker News was quite a bit more exclusive and limited in scope.

Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)

#15

Post by Igglyboo »

jedberg wrote: post #11

web.py never really worked well, so we ended up rewriting it again. The interesting thing was that Django still wasn't up to the task when we did that, mostly because it's templating engine was too slow. So we chose Pylons instead. It should be noted that Django has since fixed that issue.

Do you guys wish you were using Django right now?

Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)

#16

Post by bhhaskin »

rrradical wrote: post #6
geerlingguy wrote: post #3

Just wondering (as someone who only uses/touches Python indirectly, through some projects that use it, but is not currently a 'Python developer' by any means); was this posted in response to some recent drama in the Django community, or as an argument against Lisp? I'm just wondering why it seems this story is quickly getting upvoted on the front page of HN, when it seems there are no other frontpage stories remotely…

I upvoted just because it's a neat, historical document that I missed the first time around. I have no particular stake in Lisp or Python.

Yep, I knew that Reddit was originally written in Lisp and made the change to Python at some point. It is neat to learn exactly why and how.

Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)

#17

Post by erkose »

geerlingguy wrote: post #3

Just wondering (as someone who only uses/touches Python indirectly, through some projects that use it, but is not currently a 'Python developer' by any means); was this posted in response to some recent drama in the Django community, or as an argument against Lisp? I'm just wondering why it seems this story is quickly getting upvoted on the front page of HN, when it seems there are no other frontpage stories remotely…

Aaron Swartz

Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)

#18

Post by rdtsc »

jedberg wrote: post #11

web.py never really worked well, so we ended up rewriting it again. The interesting thing was that Django still wasn't up to the task when we did that, mostly because it's templating engine was too slow. So we chose Pylons instead. It should be noted that Django has since fixed that issue.

Do you recall what didn't work? So far web.py looks like a really nice rest-ful api backed framework. I rather like it.

http://webpy.org/

Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)

#19

Post by jedberg »

rdtsc wrote: post #18
jedberg wrote: post #11

web.py never really worked well, so we ended up rewriting it again. The interesting thing was that Django still wasn't up to the task when we did that, mostly because it's templating engine was too slow. So we chose Pylons instead. It should be noted that Django has since fixed that issue.

Do you recall what didn't work? So far web.py looks like a really nice rest-ful api backed framework. I rather like it. http://webpy.org/

That version of web.py has little relation to the one that Aaron wrote. The current version looks pretty good but I have no idea what it's scalability and modularity story is.

Re: Rewriting Reddit (2005)

#20

Post by euphemize »

Used Tornado, django and flask quite a bit, web.py only once. As others have mentioned, it didn't work that well, and the community around it is smaller than other frameworks. Again today, Django seems a bit cumbersome, Tornado works well but has a very low bus factor.

Pretty sure flask is currently the front runner in "python microframeworks".

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