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1.3 History

Mod_python originates from a project called Httpdapy (1997). For a long time Httpdapy was not called mod_python because Httpdapy was not meant to be Apache-specific. Httpdapy was designed to be cross-platform and in fact was initially written for the Netscape server (back then it was called Nsapy (1997).

This excerpt from the Httpdapy README file describes well the challenges and the solution provided by embedding Python within the HTTP server:

      While developing my first WWW applications a few years back, I found
      that using CGI for programs that need to connect to relational
      databases (commercial or not) is too slow because every hit requires
      loading of the interpreter executable which can be megabytes in size,
      any database libraries that can themselves be pretty big, plus, the
      database connection/authentication process carries a very significant
      overhead because it involves things like DNS resolutions, encryption,
      memory allocation, etc.. Under pressure to speed up the application, I
      nearly gave up the idea of using Python for the project and started
      researching other tools that claimed to specialize in www database
      integration. I did not have any faith in MS's ASP; was quite
      frustrated by Netscape LiveWire's slow performance and bugginess; Cold
      Fusion seemed promising, but I soon learned that writing in html-like
      tags makes programs as readable as assembly. Same is true for
      PHP. Besides, I *really* wanted to write things in Python.

      Around the same time the Internet Programming With Python book came
      out and the chapter describing how to embed Python within Netscape
      server immediately caught my attention.  I used the example in my
      project, and developed an improved version of what I later called
      Nsapy that compiled on both Windows NT and Solaris.

      Although Nsapy only worked with Netscape servers, it was a very
      intelligent generic OO design that, in the spirit of Python, that lent
      itself for easy portability to other web servers.

      Incidently, the popularity of Netscape's servers was taking a turn
      south, and so I set out to port Nsapy to other servers starting with
      the most popular one, Apache. And so from Nsapy was born Httpdapy.

...continuing this saga, yours truly later learned that writing Httpdapy for every server is a task a little bigger and less interesting than I originally imagined.

Instead, it seemed like providing a Python counterpart to the popular Perl Apache extension mod_perl that would give Python users the same (or better) capability would be a much more exciting thing to do.

And so it was done. The first release of mod_python happened in May of 2000.