piece of software (running on hardware) that hears HTTP requests and responds to them. Sometimes it simply delivers static documents, sometimes it's a WebApp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_servers

Sometimes an Application Server (like a Python Web Framework) will have its own built-in Web Server, other times it will run "behind" a separate server like ApaChe or Light T P D.

• lightweight servers http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-ltwebserv/

• Most Scripting Language-s include a tiny stub of Web Server code, at least suitable for running WebApp-s on the DeskTop. Jon Udell did a lot with this years ago.

• why not just use the stub?

  • may want to support code built in multiple languages

  • mainstream server have higher performance (at least for static pages)

  • already has code to provide Secur Ity against standard vulnerabilities, plus other complements like SSL, etc. (though a Proxy Server can provide some of those)

use Server Monitoring to make sure it's up

Log/Web Traffic analyzers

who uses what?

• http://www.scripting.com/ (Dave Winer) - IIS

• http://www.opml.org/ (Dave Winer) - Userland Frontier (on [WinNT])

• Tada List - Light T P D

• http://wiki.python.org/moin/ - ApaChe

• JotSpot signup - ApaChe

• Trac Wiki - Light T P D

PyThon-specific options

Standard library: [Base Http Server], [Simple Http Server], [Cgi Http Server]

MedUsa

Twisted Matrix

httpy http://www.zetadev.com/software/httpy/ - competing with WSGI?

WSGI, Python Paste (these come with their own servers, in addition to having protocols to run behind ApaChe, etc.)

Secur Ity issues with PyThon [Base Http Server], [Simple Http Server], [Cgi Http Server]?

• some (like [Cgi Http Server]) can execute arbitrary PyThon code

• in [Cgi Http Server], CGI scripts run with user=none

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