The Mewlo web framework - I'm Looking for Teammates

[mouser]

I have restarted my Yumps project from scratch, this time coding in Python.

The new project name is "Mewlo".

What is Mewlo?

• Mewlo is an Open Source framework/library which allows coders to build custom community-based (user accounts, groups, projects, forum, etc.) web services.
• The aim of Mewlo is to provide the absolute best implementation of the common infrastructure of code seen in so many community-based web services.
• Mewlo supports robust user and group accounts, social-website features (user profiles, messaging, forums, etc.), and it offers strong support for community moderators to manage users and site content.  It is designed to perform well on large sites.
• Note that Mewlo is a framework for coders, it's not a content management system for non-coders.  One should *NOT* expect to set up a Mewlo site without writing a single line of code, the way you would set up a content management system or blog.

There is now a website for Mewlo:

• http://www.mewlo.com

And a github source code repository here:

• https://github.com/dcmouser/mewlo
• Online discussion on channel #mewlo on efnet.

I will be posting more here about Mewlo in the coming days and weeks.  If there are Python coders out there who want to join the project, I can't promise anything but some experience working on a large project, but I'd love to have some serious collaborators.

[justice]

I feel this is going to be really interesting!!

[jgpaiva]

I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of this

Could you provide some more info on what you plan to build? I cannot locate this on the current panorama of things (which I guess is a good thing and motivates a need for it? )

So, can it be an extension for flask or django (or similar), or can it have bindings to talk to any of the two, or is it meant to replace them completely?
In your mind, what's the main feature, that's missing on what exists already?

[mouser]

There are many good web frameworks out there which can be used to create custom web services/sites. Mewlo is not an entirely new kind of thing; Django is probably closest in scope (at least in Python).

A main thing that makes Mewlo different is that it is focused on user-account-centric sites and will support such things in its core: User accounts, rich user profiles, cross-site logins, user groups and projects, user messaging, forums, tagging, rating, etc.

It's not that you can't create such functionality by coding it yourself once you start with these other frameworks, or by cobbling together dozens of semi-supported addons -- but Mewlo is an attempt to create a cutting-edge and tightly-integrated framework for this stuff, and for the backend administration of it.

So for example, if you wanted to create a user-centric site like boardgamegeek, deviantart, facebook, etc.  You could build it on top of any of these existing frameworks like Django, Drupal, etc.  But you would have to write a huge amount of additional code to support the user and group account features, and you'd probably be installing dozens of addon extensions that you might have difficulty getting to cooperate -- and then struggling to keep all of these disparate components maintained.

The goal with Mewlo is to create a framework that provides more core infrastructure support for, and a more cohesive vision for creating these kinds of large complicated sites where users are the focus.


When a web framework like Django or Drupal provides support for something like user profiles, they do so as an effort to provide a fairly bare bones implementation, that makes few assumptions about the features and functionality that will be needed for such things.  This is a deliberate decision to be agnostic about how user profiles should be supported and what features will be needed, and makes sense given the fact that many developers will be using Django/Drupal to build sites that do not make use of rich user profiles.

The drawback is that whenever any developer does want to provide the kind of modern rich user profiles (and groups, and user messaging, forum, etc.), they must reinvent the wheel, or struggle to combine and maintain a large collection of third-party addons which rarely work well together for long.

With Mewlo, the goal is to provide support for best-in-class implementation of the kind of features you find in a modern user-centric web service -- with components that are stable, tightly integrated and maintained, to provide a predictable cohesive foundation for a developer.

Mewlo is firmly in the camp of "there is one right way of doing things" than some of these other frameworks, and will sacrifice some flexibility in favor of increased clarity-of-vision, uniformity, predictability, stability, etc.

A good tagline for Mewlo would be: "No more reinventing the wheel."


I've written quite a bit about Mewlo, it but it's on a private document that I need to make public.  I will try to do so soon.

As I said, it's a very big project, and I'd love to have some partners working on it with me (as well as line up some sponsors for it).

[jgpaiva]

I really can understand the objective of "no more reinventing the wheel" (I think a sexier tagline would be "Mewlo: it's the wheel for user management, don't reinvent it" ). I also feel that this is a very useful project.

However, and I'm sorry if I'm being a bit thick, but what exactly is the advantage of building Mewlo from scratch instead of being an extension of django, drupal or something like that? Seems like you're reinventing the wheel yourself on stuff that isn't related directly to user management?

I'm looking forward to reading that document on Mewlo

[TaoPhoenix]

I have restarted my Yumps project from scratch, this time coding in Python.

And I'd like to know what the behind-the-scenes emphasis on Python is!

I've heard about the famous usage of "spacing as syntax" (I think it's about removing those hanging section braces for a "cleaner" look, right?)

But what was it before, and why did that require/inspire a language change, and of all the choices, why Python? I'd thought Python was more of a "middle-app" language that began to creak at the seams for huge projects!

[mouser]

However, and I'm sorry if I'm being a bit thick, but what exactly is the advantage of building Mewlo from scratch instead of being an extension of django, drupal or something like that?

This is a question I've struggled with myself.
And I think writing it as a massive set of extensions of Django *would* make sense and would be a viable approach.

But I think there are advantages to starting with a clean slate. The primary one is having control over everything and being able to create a single coherent vision and API.

There is a special freedom and satisfaction that comes from building your own system from the ground up, and that's part of it.  It's true that there is more work involved in the beginning, but the advantages of being able to control all of the moving pieces and understanding all of the parts are substantial.


So really I think the answer to your question is that, while it will take longer to do this way, it will result in a more consistent, focused framework that is more enjoyable to code and maintain.

[mouser]

If you are a competent coder with Python experience, who is interested in being part of a small team developing a serious, large, long term open source project, I'd like to have you be part of the team.

There is currently no funding for the work, and there may never be.  But it should be a great experience.  If you are a student looking for an independent project or someone looking for an internship for your resume, this could be a good fit.

[rgdot]

mouser, a project the way/like you are explaining definitely needs its own site.

[TaoPhoenix]

But can you get any traction to make progress? As an outsider, when I read tech stories, I giggle a little when a few otherwise well meaning groups doing useful stuff get hyper conservative with version numbers and you get something like:
"After 12 years of developent, we are releasing Alpha 0.03".

Then again I do that myself, but at least I don't claim to have any timeline! : )

[mouser]

The github repository is now created and has actual code in it.  See first post in thread for link.

[mouser]

Quick update: I'm having a ton of fun coding on this, using git for source code version control, etc.  I'm still looking for python coders to join the team.

[mouser]

There is now a website for Mewlo:

• http://www.mewlo.com

Good place to start might be:
http://www.mewlo.com/book/index.html

[Renegade]

I just happened across this, but it's mature CMS written in Python that I'd either completely ignored or never heard of before:

http://plone.org/

I'm not sure if you've seen it or if it might be helpful for a few ideas or for snipping a bit of code from.

From the sounds of things, it is mature and has a large user-base. It might be worth peeking at for ideas/inspiration/whatever.