Py-tornado

Python Web Server from FriendFeed

Tornado is an open source version of the scalable, non-blocking web server and tools that power FriendFeed. The FriendFeed application is written using a web framework that looks a bit like web.py or Google’s webapp, but with additional tools and optimizations to take advantage of the underlying non-blocking infrastructure.

The framework is distinct from most mainstream web server frameworks and certainly most Python frameworks because it is non-blocking and reasonably fast. Because it is non-blocking and uses epoll or kqueue, it can handle thousands of simultaneous standing connections, which means it is ideal for real-time web services. We built the web server specifically to handle FriendFeed’s real-time features - every active user of FriendFeed maintains an open connection to the FriendFeed servers.