Advice request for project

2005-01-02 Thread John French
I've been interested in Python for a while now but haven't had an 
opportunity to use / learn it.  I'm tasked now with a project at work that 
might be my first opportunity.

 I have to write a ~75 concurrent user document storage app. that allows 
users to scan documents from locally attached scanners and save to a 
database for retrieval.  I also need to be able to call MS Word with 
templates and allow the user to save the file to the database.  I think I 
understand that I can interface MS COM for these, correct?

My interest is in using FreeBSD/Postgresql/Python as a back end and a Python 
GUI app on the XP workstations.  I'm going to end up adding some 
non-database functionality to the project in the future that precludes only 
using odbc to the database.  I'll likely end up with some form of inter-user 
messaging being incorporated before it's over.  Is it better to write one 
server side socket app to handle everything or start via odbc and necessary 
server side apps later?  If anyone can tell me if this project seems 
appropriate to Python and offer suggestions as to an initial architecture, 
I'd appreciate it.  I'm quite interested in the RAD aspect of the language 
but quite lost at the moment.  (I did just sign up for the Tutor mailing 
list).

Thanks in Advance 


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[Pyro] Newbie Question Regarding Pyro

2005-01-07 Thread John French
I'm putting together a new project which I'm using to learn Python and have 
questions about pyro. I like the idea of the abstraction that pyro offers 
from sockets programming but I cannot determine if I'm giving up some 
possibly needed functionality.

If the server needs to send an unsolicited ad hoc message to a given client, 
is this possible? (New message or a reminder, for instance) I suppose I 
could poll a server side list from the client but I'm wondering if the 
server can initiate the exchange.

Also, if a client wishes to converse with another particular client (in a 
chat or IM situation, for instance). What's a good mechanism for this?

Does pyro create a persistent client/server connection? What happens if a 
pyro client goes down hard? Does it's process continue or is there a cleanup 
mechanism?

Thanks in advance.


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