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Simon Willison’s Weblog

Vellum looks nice

Stuart has released the code for Vellum, his new Python blogging system. I haven’t tried it out yet (the installation process is pretty in depth and I don’t have a properly configured server to hand) but it looks damn sexy. Key features include:

  • Funky caching—an idea that originated with Rasmus Lerdorf that was expanded on by Phil Ringnalda a while ago (I blogged it here) where pages are intelligently created by a custom 404 script as and when they are first requested.
  • A template system based on Stuart’s Castalian engine, which allows Python to be embedded in HTML using a similar approach to ASP. The template system includes the interesting addition of an ’end’ statement for Python blocks, to get around the problem of Python’s indentation clashing with the indentation used in the HTML of the templates.
  • A truly smart looking Plugins system, with plugins that can either extend existing Vellum objects (adding new methods and attributes if required) or use ’hooks’ to add new functionality to the existing code structure. Best of all, plugin installation is as simple as dropping a plugin file in to a directory.

All in all it looks like a really smart system. It’s going to be fun watching it evolve (comments are promised as a soon-to-be-added feature).

Posted 16th January 2003 at 10:19 pm

This is Vellum looks nice by Simon Willison, posted on 16th January 2003.

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3 comments

  1. It doesn't use Castalian actually, it is very simple. Virtually pure Python is parsed the Python with the 'end' statement added to get round the indentation issue. Jolly clever.

    Paul Freeman - 16th January 2003 23:18 - #

  2. The intention was to sort of get around some of Castalian's warts, among other things; while I do like my dear old cas files, there are a couple of weirdnesses with its use that I wanted to avoid this time round. Sorry about the installation. One of my original goals was to have the installation routine be: (1) unpack the archive in the web root, (2) visit the CGI in your web browser (3) start blogging. I can't think of a way of making this work without a certain amount of initial setup, which is a pity. It's still a goal, though.

    Stuart Langridge - 16th January 2003 23:27 - #

  3. My biggest problem with installation is not having anywhere to put it - I still haven't got myself a proper linux development box (I've been promising myself one for ages) and I haven't the slightest idea how to get CGIs working with Apache on windows.

    Simon Willison - 16th January 2003 23:48 - #

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