[TrevorBurnham]

Not Python, but there are a few Rich Internet Application (RIA) frameworks you should look at if you don't want to do low-level HTML/CSS/JS work (still the most common approach, mind you). GWT is the most popular, but probably only worth using if you're Java-fluent. Here are a couple of others:

Caoouccino/Objective-J, from the YC-funded 180north guys. It's an Onjective-C like language that compiles to web apps (and now Mac apps, too). It was used recently to create a Github issue tracker app, which looks pretty sweet.

http://cappucinno.org

No one seems to have mentioned SproutCore, which had a lot of buzz for a while since Apple was using it to develop their own webapps. It had a 1.0 release just a few months ago, but the buzz seems to have died down and I haven't seen any new projects using it. Apple is using something else now. Still, it's one option to check out:

http://sproutcore.com

Finally, if you do wind up working at the JavaScript level, I strongly recommend that you try CoffeeScript, which has a very Python-like syntax yet compiles directly to JavaScript. I've used it with jQuery for some pretty complex apps, and it's definitely made me a lot more productive:

http://coffeescript.org

[rubyrescue]

also, http://ukijs.org is as powerful and much less code

[DanielRibeiro]

Be very wary of SproutCore. It is not only a Rich Internet Application framework. It is also a MVC framework in javascript, which adds a lot of complexity to the design (mostly when compared to GWT and cappucinno).

On the other hand, its designer tool is the only free one among javascript frameworks. However, it is quite new, and a bit buggy.

[forgotmypasswd]

fixin some typos http://cappuccino.org/ 280north Objective-C

[TrevorBurnham]

Thanks. That's what I get for posting to HN via iPad...