1Tornado is an open source version of the scalable, non-blocking web server and
2tools that power FriendFeed. The FriendFeed application is written using a web
3framework that looks a bit like web.py or Google's webapp, but with additional
4tools and optimizations to take advantage of the underlying non-blocking
5infrastructure.
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7The framework is distinct from most mainstream web server frameworks (and
8certainly most Python frameworks) because it is non-blocking and reasonably
9fast. Because it is non-blocking and uses epoll or kqueue, it can handle
10thousands of simultaneous standing connections, which means it is ideal for
11real-time web services. We built the web server specifically to handle
12FriendFeed's real-time features - every active user of FriendFeed maintains an
13open connection to the FriendFeed servers.
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