5 ms·

App Engine SDK 1.3.5 - New Task Queue, Python Precompilation, and Blob Features

36 points by pufuwozu 16y ago

kljensen 16y ago
The pre-compilation of python code appears to significantly decrease the time required for cold starts. That's just great. Awesome team, awesome platform.
riobard 16y ago
Is Python pre-compilation just compiling to bytecode as in .pyc files, or is it compiling to native code?
- rbanffy 16y ago
  Most certainly to .pyc. Native code is the realm of a JIT runtime.
floodfx 16y ago
Does anyone use AppEngine in production? I am not trying to troll but we've have had pretty poor performance getting data out of their datastore. We only have a couple operations apps running on it and I could not imagine running anything that need to perform on GAE. BTW - We've had slowness in both Java and Python...
- sumeeta 16y ago
  I’ve heard that as soon as you start paying for quota, the datastore gets way snappier. I can’t confirm this though.
  - grandalf 16y ago
    I have been paying for quota and I was effected by the recent flaky behavior of the datastore (as were some high traffic production apps). This was a pretty huge deal for a lot of loyal app engine users and I am pretty sure Google will not let it happen again. Also, the upcoming "business class" service offers an SLA so it appears that the platform is maturing nicely. Since the recent datastore fix performance has been superb.
- dannyr 16y ago
  BuddyPoke and NetworkedBlogs are using it in Production. Both are highly-trafficked sites.
- litewulf 16y ago
  I do (but I'm not sure I can talk numbers.) Honestly: I like that it means I don't have to muck around with configurations, the fact that downtime is out of my control is frustrating, but at the same time, if I were running things, there would be more downtime due to mistakes I/my fellow developers make. Datastore latency is something of a painpoint, but it was something we knew going in and designed a bit for, and it also helps quite a bit that we're very read heavy in the ways that appengine wants you to be. My friends at wolfire ran the humble indie bundle (and lots of other stuff like their blog as well), and it does well. (documented at http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-app-engine-served-humble-indie.html http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-app-engine-s...)
- melling 16y ago
  Is anyone using Java on GAE? I love Java in general but for web dev I never found a great framework. Was considering learning Python/Django. However, the one thing about Java is that I might be able to go with Scala and/or Clojure at some point.
  - gtani 16y ago
    lift on GAE: http://distractable.net/coding/google-appengine-language-performance-comparison-followup/ http://distractable.net/coding/google-appengine-language-per... http://groups.google.com/group/scala-london/browse_thread/thread/4facf58a93026d68# http://groups.google.com/group/scala-london/browse_thread/th...
- rbanffy 16y ago
  I believe they are not focused on single-request performance as much as being able to scale to thousands of simultaneous requests.
- kljensen 16y ago
  Tons of people do. The appengine blog featured a number of prominent ones. We own http://news.priorsmart.com http://news.priorsmart.com which runs on there. Is a great platform for all the same reasons Heroku is a great platform: scalability, easy deployment, no sys admin.
ibagrak 16y ago
Still waiting for that full text search API. I believe the ticket was 'started' in October last year. http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=217 http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=21...
- joshu 16y ago
  why is this downvoted? i completely agree.
  - ibagrak 16y ago
    I didn't mean it as a complaint either. Just to clarify: I am a pretty happy user of GAE. Full text search is one thing that is missing from the feature set that could make my life as a GAE developer a lot easier.

36 points by pufuwozu 16y ago

The pre-compilation of python code appears to significantly decrease the time required for cold starts. That's just great. Awesome team, awesome platform.

riobard 16y ago

Is Python pre-compilation just compiling to bytecode as in .pyc files, or is it compiling to native code?

rbanffy 16y ago
Most certainly to .pyc. Native code is the realm of a JIT runtime.

floodfx 16y ago

Does anyone use AppEngine in production? I am not trying to troll but we've have had pretty poor performance getting data out of their datastore. We only have a couple operations apps running on it and I could not imagine running anything that need to perform on GAE. BTW - We've had slowness in both Java and Python...

sumeeta 16y ago
I’ve heard that as soon as you start paying for quota, the datastore gets way snappier. I can’t confirm this though.
- grandalf 16y ago
  I have been paying for quota and I was effected by the recent flaky behavior of the datastore (as were some high traffic production apps). This was a pretty huge deal for a lot of loyal app engine users and I am pretty sure Google will not let it happen again. Also, the upcoming "business class" service offers an SLA so it appears that the platform is maturing nicely. Since the recent datastore fix performance has been superb.
dannyr 16y ago
BuddyPoke and NetworkedBlogs are using it in Production. Both are highly-trafficked sites.
litewulf 16y ago
I do (but I'm not sure I can talk numbers.) Honestly: I like that it means I don't have to muck around with configurations, the fact that downtime is out of my control is frustrating, but at the same time, if I were running things, there would be more downtime due to mistakes I/my fellow developers make. Datastore latency is something of a painpoint, but it was something we knew going in and designed a bit for, and it also helps quite a bit that we're very read heavy in the ways that appengine wants you to be. My friends at wolfire ran the humble indie bundle (and lots of other stuff like their blog as well), and it does well. (documented at http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-app-engine-served-humble-indie.html http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-app-engine-s...)
melling 16y ago
Is anyone using Java on GAE? I love Java in general but for web dev I never found a great framework. Was considering learning Python/Django. However, the one thing about Java is that I might be able to go with Scala and/or Clojure at some point.
- gtani 16y ago
  lift on GAE: http://distractable.net/coding/google-appengine-language-performance-comparison-followup/ http://distractable.net/coding/google-appengine-language-per... http://groups.google.com/group/scala-london/browse_thread/thread/4facf58a93026d68# http://groups.google.com/group/scala-london/browse_thread/th...
rbanffy 16y ago
I believe they are not focused on single-request performance as much as being able to scale to thousands of simultaneous requests.
kljensen 16y ago
Tons of people do. The appengine blog featured a number of prominent ones. We own http://news.priorsmart.com http://news.priorsmart.com which runs on there. Is a great platform for all the same reasons Heroku is a great platform: scalability, easy deployment, no sys admin.

ibagrak 16y ago

Still waiting for that full text search API. I believe the ticket was 'started' in October last year. http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=217 http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=21...

joshu 16y ago
why is this downvoted? i completely agree.
- ibagrak 16y ago
  I didn't mean it as a complaint either. Just to clarify: I am a pretty happy user of GAE. Full text search is one thing that is missing from the feature set that could make my life as a GAE developer a lot easier.