Webware for Python

Shall I keep old-style (pre 0.5) actions in the code? A comment in 
HTTPContent.py by Ian says that they have gone anyway. The 0.9 release 
may be a good opportunity to get rid of them completely. This old stuff 
may be confusing for new users.

-- Christoph

Christoph Zwerschke wrote:
> Shall I keep old-style (pre 0.5) actions in the code? A comment in 
> HTTPContent.py by Ian says that they have gone anyway. The 0.9 release 
> may be a good opportunity to get rid of them completely. This old stuff 
> may be confusing for new users.

Hmm... I can't remember just what they are.  I think the code should 
stay as it is until after 0.9.  If "old style" actions mean _action_=foo 
(as opposed to _action_foo), I think we should keep that indefinitely, 
as it's still useful.  But I think there were some other slight 
differences to the pre-0.5 algorithm, and those are turned off by 
default, so that can go.

-- 
Ian Bicking  /  ianb@...  /  http://blog.ianbicking.org

>> Shall I keep old-style (pre 0.5) actions in the code? A comment in 
>> HTTPContent.py by Ian says that they have gone anyway. The 0.9 release 
>> may be a good opportunity to get rid of them completely. This old 
>> stuff may be confusing for new users.
> Hmm... I can't remember just what they are.  I think the code should 
> stay as it is until after 0.9.  If "old style" actions mean _action_=foo 
> (as opposed to _action_foo), I think we should keep that indefinitely, 
> as it's still useful.  But I think there were some other slight 
> differences to the pre-0.5 algorithm, and those are turned off by 
> default, so that can go.

You're right, we need to be more precise.

"Very old style" actions:
_action_=foo calls methodNameForAction(foo)()

"Old style" actions:
_action_=foo calls foo()

"New style" actions.
_action_foo calls foo()

I was actually talking about "Very old style actions".
To use them, you have to set OldStyleActions = True in 
Application.config which is by default False since version 0.6.

Since by default, methodNameForAction(foo)==foo,
very old style actions are identical to old style actions unless you 
explicitely override the methodNameForAction method.

If we want to keep "old style" actions indefinitely (and I think that's 
fine), why not allow "very old style" as well and get rid of the 
confusing OldStyleActions setting in Application.config?
I see no security or compatibility problem in doing so, but it would 
simplify a lot.

-- Christoph

Just for the record, since nobody protested, I have re-implemented the 
"methodNameForAction()" transformation for action names. By default it 
is the identity, so there will be no compatibility issue.

Because of this, the current behavior is nearly compatible with 
"OldStyleActions". The only difference is that the real OldStyleActions 
took an additional "transaction" parameter. However, this can be adapted 
very quickly, so I have removed the "OldStyleActions" setting and 
everything that was connected with it. This will make the whole action 
handling more clearly defined and still flexible.

I have also updated the docs, doc strings and Release Notes.

-- Christoph

I noticed that in 0.9beta2 the 404Text.txt page was not supported any 
more. It was still there and mentioned in the docs, but not used. 
Instead, a standard HTTPException error message was printed.
Was there a deeper reason for this?

Anyway I have re-implemented the old behavior. Only if there is no 
404Text.txt page available, the standard error message will be used.

-- Christoph