:orphan:
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Foreword
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========
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.. sidebar:: A Foreword By Paul Everitt
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Paul Everitt is a principal at :term:`Agendaless Consulting`.
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Before his time at Agendaless, he was the co-founder of *Digital
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Creations*, which later became *Zope Corporation*. He has been
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a widely respected member of the Python community since 1994.
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Some times amazing things can actually happen.
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In the world of web frameworks, the rate of radioactive decay is very high.
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Projects are starting, splintering, folding, and clashing constantly. For
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Python, there are over 50 listed web frameworks. In some ways this shows
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health and experimentation. Yet others have started to ask: "Is this really
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good for Python developers?"
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This book is the result of an event which bucked this trend, an event which
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Armin Ronacher wrote was "one of the greatest moves in Python's web framework
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history." Two projects merged and are bringing in a third. Consolidation
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won a victory over splintering.
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As someone from the Zope world, I had a strong interest in repoze.bfg. I
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viewed it as the escape hatch for Zope, teleporting us into the modern world
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of Python development, permitting but not requiring Zope-style idioms. Chris
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McDonough established a great brand for repoze.bfg: small, documented,
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tested, fast, stable, friendly. As the project manager for a very large
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repoze.bfg application, I can strongly attest that it was a home run on those
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points.
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But in a crowded web frameworks landscape, repoze.bfg was a long-shot to get
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critical mass. It had a lot to offer, but was missing critical pieces such
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as momentum and name recognition.
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Pylons has long been viewed as holding the number two spot in Python web
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frameworks. It is one of (if not the) first "modern" web framework. With
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lots of users, and a "full-stack" framework atop it (TurboGears), Pylons had
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momentum and name recognition aplenty. But it needed more resources to
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accomplish its goals of an architectural transition, and Ben Bangert needed
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to share the load as architect during the transition.
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Ben and Chris started talking during 2011 about architectural patterns and
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discovered Pylons and repoze.bfg covered almost exactly the same surface
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area. After some experiments, it became clear that, technically at least,
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the next version of Pylons could be the same as the next version of
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repoze.bfg.
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But what about the non-technical parts? It was one thing to consolidate
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code. Consolidating projects was new territory.
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I was fortunate to meet with the principals in Las Vegas and watch as they
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hashed out the idea. The projects would merge and keep the Pylons identity.
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repoze.bfg would sacrifice its identity, but provide the technical
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foundation. All the resources from the two projects would be combined.
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I'll confess, I had high hopes for the outcome. Now that the merge has
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happened and 1.0 released, I can honestly say it has done better than I could
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have imagined. The story of "consolidation" is catching on, and interest in
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working together is growing. Pyramid 1.0 is very, very high quality and
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ready to go for PyCon 2011. People interested in "simple, fast, documented,
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tested" have a strong framework and healthy project.
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It took humility, patience, and pragmatism to reach this point of obvious
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success. Certainly by the project leaders, who each had to give up some of
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their sovereignty and sacred cows. But as well, each community had to
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discuss the challenges, the various alternatives for going forward, and the
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pros and cons of consolidation in general but also this particular
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consolidation. That such a conversation and change could happen in a
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responsible, adult fashion speaks volumes about the strength and maturity of
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each community.
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What might happen in 2011? TurboGears is considering a move into the
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umbrella Pylons Project. As Armin writes in his post, there is fertile
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ground for consolidation at other layers. In my own interests, I hope the
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worlds of Zope and Plone view Pyramid as the base for the next decade of
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their ideas. But also, the Pylons Project as a vibrant home for such ideas.
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Congratulations, Pylons Project. Not only have you accelerated your spot on
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the Python web frameworks chart, but you have injected the word
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"consolidation" into the lexicon of hot ideas for 2011.
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