Technology

This page contains some details about the products we use, and base our applications on, for those interested. Most (or all) of the products mentioned are open-source software, and free to download, use and even adjust (if desired).

Python

Python is an interpreted, very high-level, object-oriented programming language, that combines a clear and easy-to-read syntax with powerful language features. Python has been Guido Wesdorp's language of choice for a couple of years now, mostly because it's a very elegant language, that allows writing solid, relatively fast applications in relatively little time.

Apache

Apache is a popular web server (currently the most widely used web server on the internet) that is highly customizable, very fast and incredibly stable. Even though the applications Pragmagik develops will usually run on other servers too, this is the preferred platform (using mod_python to run Python code).

Linux

Linux is a community-driven, free UNIX-like operating system originally written for x86 ('Intel') computers. Even though it has been quite a road to get there, Linux is currently a mature and stable developer-friendly OS that is very suitable for developing and running (web-)applications. Linux is used by Pragmagik both as the development platform (running on the desktops) and on the server side.

Subversion

The Subversion versioning system is a solid and versatile centralized revision control system. Even though it's really meant as a repository for code, its features (versioning, storing metadata, providing history, merge algorithms, etc.) make it quite suitable as more general data storage for collaborative environments (e.g. for CMSses), too.

PyPy

Even though it's not entirely matured yet, PyPy - a Python implementation written in the Python programming language - offers some great features and unprecedented flexibility. Pragmagik intends to use PyPy, and hopefully contribute to its codebase, for web application development. This is an area in which certain PyPy features can certainly be helpful. (The most obvious one is the RPython to JavaScript convertor, but there are more exotic features that may prove to be useful in the future, browse around in the PyPy user documentation for more details!)

Django

Django is a web application framework that is quickly gaining momentum, because it is relatively light-weight and much easier to learn and develop for than the more traditional Python frameworks, while there are still plenty of plugins and a very active community.

Zope

Zope (the 'Z Object Publishing Environment') is a web application framework written in Python. It provides a rich API for creating large web applications, and is mostly suitable for writing content management systems and portal-type web applications.

the Py lib

Developed by and for the PyPy community, the Py lib provides a set of high-level, clean APIs for dealing with certain general issues such as accessing file systems, testing code, and writing documentation. Having worked with and on the library before Pragmagik was started, Guido Wesdorp has grown very fond of certain Py lib features, such as the Subversion client library, the py.test unit test suite, and the ReST and documentation generation features.