I AM SORRY BUT WASP WILL not BE RETURNING.
I simply have no time for this venture, seeing as how I am working towards my masters while making crazy sounds. There was little interest and lots of mature products out there as alternatives. I do thank those who have written to me.
If the code was decent I would offer what I have here. But I would be too embarrassed, given the state of things. What follows is of only historical interest.
Introduction
Wasp is an platform-independent open-source web application framework and HTML processor written in Python. Like other such tools it provides an organised way of designing and programming a web app. Unlike many it does not require that you change your mental space to fit with some esoteric idea of how the web should work. Files remain files, URLs are URLs, and Python is everywhere.
Create HTML files as usual. Enhance them with powerful Wasp tags that allow embedding Python code, calling external plugins, or including boilerplate text or additional files. Write your own plugins to provide database access or application logic. You are free to structure these as you wish; Wasp imposes no new paradigms.
Wasp may be run in three modes.
In command-line mode, templates are processed in a batch to produce HTML files. You still get all the benefits of custom tags and code, but the result is a set of static files that can be browsed in any fashion you wish.
In CGI mode, Wasp works with your web server as a complete application framework, providing cookie handling, session support, logging, e-mail notification, post-mortem error dump, even remote error diagnostics.
In server mode, Wasp runs embedded in its own fully asynchronous web server. This is useful for testing on the desktop, and might even be powerful enough for deployment.
Quick FAQ
Do I need Python to run Wasp?
Yes. Download the latest version of Python and follow the installation instructions.
Do I need any additional modules to run Wasp?
No! Wasp is entirely self-contained, without dependencies.
Do I need to know Python to use Wasp?
Out of the box, Wasp provides powerful include and boilerplate text templating. But if you wish to further customise your pages, you'll be happy to learn Python. It's easy, clear, powerful, and of course free.
Do I need to pay for Wasp?
No! Wasp is free as in beer and free as in speech, with all code available. However we appreciate donations and will add a Paypal donation button to this page soon.
Is Wasp just for Windows?
No! Wasp should run on any platform supported by Python. It has been extensively tested on Linux.
Do I need access to a web server to use Wasp?
No! Wasp can run in command-line bacth mode, producing HTML from template files right on your computer.
Do I need a special hosting plan to run Wasp as a CGI?
No! It would be a pretty poor provider who didn't give you access to Python on the server, and that is all you need. However, be sure version 2.5 or higher is installed.
Who Uses Wasp?
Good question. I wrote Wasp for my own purposes and know of one robust e-commerce site that based their business on it for five years or more. If you have any other success stories, please contact me.
Why Wasp and not one of these?
In this article I list ten reasons to like Wasp, and a few reasons not to. With so many excellent frameworks available, you might very well wish to choose a different tool.
Download
The last version of Wasp to be made available to the general public was 1.33. That was five years ago. The new version 2.00 will be provided here shortly.
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