Drupy: Drupal in Python

[Brendon]

Hello All,

I am the founder of the Drupy project. In a nutshell, Drupy aims to  
offer Drupal in Python.

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Primary Objectives

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(1) Offer function/class/module level compatibility with Drupal HEAD.

This allows for the following:

  a) Documentation reusability
  b) Portability of user-contributed Drupal modules
  c) Possible endorsement from the Drupal project
  d) Portability of Drupal core enhancements
  e) Easy transition for current Drupal users

The policy until now has been to make whatever improvements necessary  
within API functions without modifying the external interfaces to  
those functions and/or classes.

(2) Improve namespace support

For the first release of Drupy, it will not be practical to completely  
compartmentalize every component. However, there are certain key areas  
where namespace support can be drastically improved, such as in Drupal  
modules. The policy until now has been that core includes will remain  
in the global namespace but all Drupal modules, both core and non core  
will remain within their respective namespaces.

(3) Implement security and performance improvements where possible.

Drupal is not necesarily known for security and performance. Of course  
with any application with the scope and flexibility of Drupal,  
security and performnce become more difficult to maintain.

Where possible, Drupy seeks to add improvements, but only where it  
will not drastically break current functionality. Great care needs to  
be taken to maintain a balance.

(4) Improve theming support

Obviously, Drupy cannot completely mimic the PHPTemplate engine, but  
the strengths of PHPTemplate can certainly be embraced. Embedding  
application code such as PHP directly into HTML is far from preferable.

My goal for theming is to take the general principles of PHPTemplate  
and apply them in the context of a good templating engine such as Mako.


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Status of Project

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I had spent about 5 months in the planning stages for the Drupy  
project. This involved weighing out many of the difficult choices to  
be made when porting Drupal. Drupal was in no way written "elegantly",  
but it does its job quite well. A lot of Drupal lack of elegance comes  
from the inherent lack of elegance in PHP itself.

Currently, this is what we have:

(1) A robust and well tested PHP function abstraction module for  
Python. This allows us to use most Drupal function calls without any  
modification. (Examples: preg_replace, isset, empty, ob_start)

(2) About 8 of the big Drupal core includes working

(3) Bootstrap Stage 3 ALMOST working

(4) Beginning stages of theming support

(5) A solid, well informed, plan of action

Although we have other developers who have just recently shown initial  
interest in contributing, all of this code so far has been written by  
me in the last 4 weeks.


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Call to Action

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I have approached this project as someone highly experienced with  
Drupal, but certainly not as an expert in Python. The Drupy project  
could greatly benefit from more proficient Python programmers.

Unfortunately, I have received many harsh criticisms from more  
experienced Python developers for my moderate stance on the use of  
global state, PHP abstraction functions, and various other details.

The truth of the matter is that Drupal is one gigantic global  
namespace. Compromises will need to be made to get this project  
finished. Rewriting the entire Drupal codebase for Django or  
Turbogears is a 2 - 4 year project. I want to see this project running  
much sooner than that.

So, with that said, I am asking for the assistance of skilled Python  
developers who are willing to compromise certain (but not all)  
Pythnoic practices for a short while so we can finally get Drupal in  
Python. I would love to bring on other core developers who I can learn  
from and who can help steer the direction of this project.

Of course, this should be an iterative process. Once a working  
application is built. More elegant solutions can steadily be integrated.

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Contact

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Website: http://drupy.sourceforge.net
Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/drupy
IRC: #drupy at freenode.net
Email: message144 at users ddott sourceforge dddottnet

If you want SVN access, please get in touch with me personally.

Thank You