Application servers are often seen as a Web-specific technology. However, their architectures are applicable to a wide range of contexts: the Web, Windows and *nix GUIs, and console applications, for example. By designing a multi-environment application server, this session emphasizes the importance of separation of application logic from presentation logic, fundamental to understanding concepts like the Model-View-Controller pattern. It also introduces the ideas of data persistence and application state. Although in-depth coding is not a focus, Python-based pseudocode that outlines both the application server and a set of sample applications (likely a streaming music system similar to SqueezeCenter) will be used.

Because of the mostly theoretical nature of this session, its audience includes both PHP and Python developers. It would be a suitable introduction to application-server-oriented development for all PHP developers and for Python developers who use e.g. mod_python for request-based Web applications.