B. Mann Consulting

A little birdie let me know that there are a group of folks that are going to take a run at using the Drupal project as a template to re-work the same system in Python.

Do you have thoughts on what you would do differently in Python? Are there specific language features that would do interesting things? Any ideas on Drupal in Python (DIP?), please leave a reference in the comments.

In kicking around this idea the other day, I was thinking about if there is a way to bridge to PHP from Python. That is, could you clone the Drupal APIs and then run a PHP-based (native) Drupal module in a Python framework?

Note: the group is actually private, and doesn't want any publicity at this point. I'm hoping to use this blog post to draw some attention to different concepts, without flooding them with people.

Update: this is a beginner project, so think of this more as exploratory coding than a hard core undertaking. *However* -- I think this will kick off some interesting discussion: I encourage people to do some research and tag stuff with "Drupal in Python" to keep the discussion going.

The Vancouver PHP Conference 2007 is coming up next week. I think registration is full or close to it. We've got Steven and James giving a couple of talks on Drupal and Identity / OpenID.

There is also a (free, as in beer) panel on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) on Monday night. It's open to the public and sponsored by a group called Information and Communications Technology / Open Source Co-op. Never heard of 'em, but they run Drupal, so they can't be all bad :P

Some of the topics up for discussion include:

• Choosing a license
• GPL3
• Common Misperceptions about the GPL
• Growth in GPL
• Winning Over New Converts to FOSS
• Reasons Why Businesses Choose FOSS
• Current state of FOSS in North America
• Encouraging the growth of FOSS in Vancouver/N. America

Well, there's a selection of things I'm passionate about :P Should be interesting to see how the discussion goes, but I suspect it will be preaching to the converted in many cases.

I'm trying to find some time to setup a development environment locally again, and I want to invest in learning an IDE. Most of the folks I know use something like emacs or TextMate to code, but I'd love a little more of an environment. Also, I'm still trying to find more bits and pieces that together form a set of best practices for developing, deploying, and maintaining Drupal.

Initially I was thinking about learning Eclipse, except I've heard that it's PHP support isn't the greatest. Looks like the PHP IDE isn't going to be 1.0 until June 2007. But then again, IBM's Drupal tutorial also explained using Eclipse.

Xcode is Apple's own tool, and there are some guides on using it for PHP.

Then there's Komodo, made by Vancouver's very own ActiveState. 

I want to learn an IDE that has support for multiple languages, so editors purely focused on PHP are out. 

Integration directly with CVS / SVN is a nice to have. svnX works for me as a GUI.

Rasmus has a short sample PHP script of how he keeps a Windows XP box in sync with an OS X iTunes library.

If you want an easy double-click install of PHP in .pkg format, you go here and use Marc's stuff. The installer even makes the necessary changes so that PHP "just works" on your OS X box.

The Jabber guys are planning world domination with us here at BarCamp Amsterdam. Ralph is keeping the secret pretty close to his chest, but we've got it pretty well sketched out: our session is at 14:30 today in the kitchen

Apparently, Drupal isn't ranking highly in searches for "PHP CMS", so I'm doing some links to help with that. Funny thing is, searching for Broken CMS ends up pointing to a Drupal-powered site...but it has links to Typo3, XOOPS, and PHPWCMS. Yeah, we laughed.

I'm hoping that James will commit his Jabber module today, so that we can kick the tires on it. Of course, the ejabberd server already runs their community site on Drupal. We had a little bit of a discussion about have a new jabberd server that has some of the attributes of ejabberd -- distributed, fault-tolerant, etc. -- except, not written in a not very widely supported language like erlang. Python and the Twisted networking framework sound like good choices.

An excellent PHP-based blogging tool, with all sorts of advanced features. Easy installation, easy upgrades, nice typographical formatting.

Only downside right now is that it doesn't support auto-thumbnailing or a media directory for selecting already uploading pictures.

From the front page:

coWiki is a free (GPL) tool written in PHP 5 which creates a collaborative website that gathers, organizes and extends knowledge. It can manage text documents and binaries, act like a weblog or organize knowledge bases such as FAQs.

coWiki provides an easy way to maintain and discuss its documents. It also provides a fast way for qualified contributors to create content online, using a simple and easy to apply markup language without needing HTML editing skills.

coWiki is template based, multilingual and modular.

Standards-compliant weblog tool written in PHP. First two items from the feature list:

• Simple. Designed for users of all technical levels.
• Robust Editing Interface. Featuring an (optional) WSYISWG editor, image manager, extended entry support and a host of other features.

Very nice looking calendar/events app. Uses MySQL.