

Aspen is a Python web server.  Simplates are the main attraction. - evangineer
http://aspen.io/simplates/

======
drats
Linking to the simplates page and not the main page[0] is a little confusing
due to the way their docs are structured. A welcome addition to bottle[1] and
flask[2] though.

[0]<http://aspen.io/> [1]<http://bottlepy.org/docs/dev/>
[2]<http://flask.pocoo.org/>

~~~
evangineer
Fair point, but since Chad says that Simplates is the main point of interest,
I thought it would be useful to point directly to them.

------
sausagefeet
Using a character that one needs a tutorial on how to type AND isn't
copyandpastable easily seems annoying...

~~~
whit537
Meh. Keeps out the riff-raff. ;^)

~~~
whit537
Ok, page updated to address this concern: <http://aspen.io/form-feed/>

:^)

~~~
sausagefeet
The concern is really that it's a poor character to choose IMO, not that there
isn't enough documentation on it :)

~~~
whit537
Touche, sausagefeet. As evangineer mentions, I've upgraded the snark to a
rationale: <http://aspen.io/form-feed/>

One idea would be to use an actual "^" "L", or at least give a warning
somewhere if these are in a file.

Do you have any other ideas?

~~~
sausagefeet
Nope, I'm just the peanut gallery :)

I do prefer the actual ^L though. I think sticking to printable characters and
being copy and pastable from the web are good things for your project though,
keep up the good work!

------
evangineer
The favicon is pretty amusing, once you've grokked Simplates. One notable
feature is that Aspen now uses the Diesel non-blocking socket engine.

------
McLeopold
On windows you would need to type [Alt]+0+1+2. The numbers have to be on the
numeric pad, which on some laptops without that would include further function
keys to be setup to type the character.

Some editors will accept this and display a [FF] representation (notepad2,
notepad++). Others just don't work (eclipse, wordpad, notepad). gVim can still
use [Ctrl]+L

This is a really bad choice if your code can only be edited by some text
editors. Perhaps a secondary string to use for splitting in addition?

~~~
whit537
Does it depend on Windows, or on your editor? In seem to remember remapping
ctrl-L to form feed in UltraEdit, for example ...

~~~
whit537
The only thing I'm seeing that Ctrl-L is otherwise used for is to focus the
address bar in a web browser:

[http://lifehacker.com/#!5302587/get-firefoxs-ctrl%252Bl-
shor...](http://lifehacker.com/#!5302587/get-firefoxs-ctrl%252Bl-shortcut-in-
internet-explorer)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_keyboard_shortcuts>

Assuming one didn't care about clobbering that (you also get F6 there), I
wonder if something could be done with a scancode map (see
<http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/>).

------
whit537
I evolved the page break discussion to talk about tool support and ugliness.
Bottom line: "If you like simplates but dislike the page break, then you have
until Aspen 1.0 to come up with something that works perfectly with existing
tools /and/ isn’t ugly."

<http://aspen.io/page-break/>

------
mikecaron
I think this is an incredibly innovative approach to web apps in Python, very
fast dev turnaround and not a lot to grok.

~~~
evangineer
I'm disappointed by the lack of discussion regarding the Simplates concept. It
does for webapp code organisation what Python's whitespace does for code
layout.

This means that from the outset, you get more maintainable webapps even it
starts out as a one file hack. That should more than compensate for having to
figure out how to enter an obscure character into your code in your editor/IDE
of choice.

~~~
whit537
Here's a list of editors with support for changing keybindings:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_text_editors#Key_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_text_editors#Key_bindings)

------
whit537
Ok, Internet, how about this. I've added a page_break knob to aspen.conf so
that you can override the ASCII page break default for your application.

<http://aspen.io/aspen.conf/>

Is that acceptable?

~~~
whit537
I just implemented support for caret-L in addition to true page breaks, no
configuration required.

<http://aspen.io/simplates/>

------
catch404
Seeing projects like this puts suggestion of hn quality going down to the back
of my mind, really excited to try this out. Is there a framework which
inspired this?

~~~
whit537
Thank you. Short answer: Zope 2. Long answer (just added):
<http://aspen.io/simplates/#history>

~~~
evangineer
One interesting use of Simplates could be a very ajaxy Single Page Application
that accesses an API provided by Python functions in the same Simplate.

------
whit537
Thanks for the link evangineer. Happy to answer any questions.

~~~
jarpineh
Hi.

For old Zope2 (and quixote) dev, looks promising and way easier than Django to
get started on a project (and fun).

Could you maybe extend the tutorial with using tornado's template inheritance
for basic page template. Like for repeating html, header, footer and perhaps
navigation block. Tornado's documentation for that is in the template module
so that kinda slows down the learning process.

I'll try this for my next project.

~~~
whit537
Here's a start: <http://aspen.io/templating/>

~~~
jarpineh
Google group was invite only, so HN was faster to get question across. I put
my request in.

Templating page answered my question, thanks. Don't know how I managed to miss
that... Perhaps you could add a link from the simplates page to it.

~~~
whit537
It didn't exist before you asked; I wrote it in response to your question.
I've linked it from the simplates page and from the index.

Approved your gg request. Have to do that for anti-spam. :^/

~~~
evangineer
@whit537, I really like how responsive you've been to questions and
suggestions on this HN discussion. Gives one confidence that Aspen will be
well maintained.

~~~
whit537
Thanks man. I've been sitting on aspen/simplates for years, and I think its
time may have arrived.

