The Python blogsphere has been exploding with the news of the Google App Engine today. And fascinating it is too - free hosting for Python web apps, Django included. With the might of Google behind it, this will push Python big style. Take that, Rails hype!
I'm a bit uneasy about the datastore, though. Not only does this gut any existing Django app, it also any means that any app that you write that persists data (read - non-toy) will be bound to the GAE API. What's wrong with a real database?
Naturally, I've signed up already. ;-)
Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at April 08, 2008 03:33 PMYou could write your own backend for the DataStore to make migrating away from AppEngine easier. You could even go so far as to base that back-end on Mysql or HBase.
Sadly persistence in large-scale distributed systems is a leaky abstraction.
Posted by: ade on April 8, 2008 05:15 PM*All* abstractions are leaky, Ade. ;-)
It's an interesting idea. The Django boys are already talking about something like this, though targeted at Django's database API rather than at general RDBMSes. I shudder to think how it'll perform, though.
Posted by: Simon on April 8, 2008 05:22 PM