A Framework of One's Own

This article reflects on the creation of the Responder web framework in 2018, set against the backdrop of Python's transition from synchronous WSGI frameworks like Flask and Django to the async ASGI ecosystem. The author explains the motivation to unify HTTP client and server mental models, inspired by the Requests library. It covers Responder's features (async/sync handlers, OpenAPI docs, WebSockets) and acknowledges FastAPI's later success. The piece also discusses the challenges of framework maintenance, marketing, and the ephemeral nature of web technologies, offering a personal and technical retrospective on building and maintaining open-source software.