Spats is a user-friendly and straightforward Page Template Server that can be utilized by all users. It caters to making the process simple and accessible to everyone.
To use Spats, you need to make a directory and put a start.py in it that reads: "from spats import SimplePageTemplateServer SimplePageTemplateServer.start()". However, you also need to tell it where to read HTML from, so you can pass a config dictionary variable of all the possible values. For example, make a directory called "html" or "pt" and stick a PageTemplate called "index.pt" in there. Then pass that directory through and you're on your way using "from spats import SimplePageTemplateServer config = {"html_dir":"html"} SimplePageTemplateServer.start(config)".
It's important to notice that Spats is not a CGI server and it doesn't serve Python scripts back. It doesn't do any of the stuff Zope does as well. It's simple and it only does GET and HEAD. Spats won't make good cups of tea either.
If you want to use scripts, you can pass through a scripts_dir value in the config, and everything in that directory that ends in ".py" and contains a "__main__" method will be compiled into the scripts context. For instance, you can access in TAL "scripts/foo" where foo is your script. This will call the "__call__" function. The context will be assigned to the script, which is the context variable in TAL, so you can access all TAL variables in the script. Some examples can be seen in the reports site.
It's worth noticing that you don't serve scripts directly, you serve PageTemplates that call scripts. Regarding SimpleTal, it may be quirky if you're already used to Zope TAL, but you should get there quickly. The main quirks are that elements have to be closed and "must" be used. For a commented list of variables, see SimplePageTemplateServer.py.
Version 0.1: N/A