PUBLIC MARKS from pvergain with tags orm & applications

New Python-based database communication tool represents first open source component of Launchpad LONDON, July 9, 2007 – Canonical Ltd today announced the release of Storm, a generic open source object relational mapper (ORM) for Python. Storm is designed to support communication with multiple databases simultaneously. Canonical is best known for the popular Ubuntu operating system and Launchpad, a web-based collaboration platform for open source developers. "Storm is an ORM that simplifies the development of database-backed applications in Python, especially for projects that use very large databases or multiple databases with a seamless web front-end", said Gustavo Niemeyer, lead developer of Storm at Canonical. "Storm is particularly designed to feel very natural to Python programmers, and exposes multiple databases as /stores/ in a clean and easy to use fashion." The project has been in development for more than a year for use in Canonical projects such as Launchpad, and is now publicly available under the LGPL license. This will be the first complete Launchpad component to be released as open source software. "We're excited about using Storm for Launchpad, and that it is being released as open source. Storm's API is clear and well designed, making it a joy to work with, " said Steve Alexander, Launchpad Product Manager at Canonical. "The scalability advantages of Storm's architecture are important for us to ensure that Launchpad continues to perform well as the number of Launchpad users grows." Launchpad currently includes developers data for several thousand projects and is used by tens of thousands of developers, translators, and other free software contributors. The Storm project welcomes participation, and has a new website at http://storm.canonical.com. That site includes a tutorial, and links to allow developers to download, report bugs and join the mailing list.