[jim_lawless]

You're going to need to learn more than a programming language. You should really learn how web transactions work, the roles of the browser and web/app servers, browser-side markup and programming, ...etc.

I would recommend that you pick up the book "Using Google App Engine" by Charles Severance. The book teaches the reader how to build applications specifically for the GAE, but it contains very good introductory chapters for the person who is trying to come up to speed quickly on web development technologies.

The early chapters begin with explanations of the mechanics of web transactions. The next chapters deal with HTML and CSS. Another chapter in the progression then provides rudimentary Python programming instruction ( programs in this chapter are executed under a command-prompt ).

After these fundamentals have been covered, the GAE web programming specifics are introduced. At least one of the programs that had been an exercise in the command-prompt-Python chapter is then rewritten as a web application to illustrate some of the differences.

Development for the GAE itself is different than other approaches to web development, but I believe that if you become conversant with the subject matter covered in this book, you could more readily learn other web development technologies.