What python html generator module should I use in a non-web application?

Question

I'm hacking a quick and dirty python script to generate some reports as static html files.

What would be a good module to easily build static html files outside the context of a web application?

My goals are simplicity (the HTML will not be very complex) and ease of use (I don't want to write a lot of code just to output some html tags).

I found two alternatives on my first goolge search:

• markup.py - http://markup.sourceforge.net/
• HTML.py - http://www.decalage.info/en/python/html

Also, I feel that using a templating engine would be over-kill, but if you differ please say it and why.

Any other recommendation?

Answer 1

Maybe you could try Markdown instead, and convert it to HTML on the fly?

Answer 2

You don't necessarily need something complex - for instance, here's a ~150 line library to generate HTML in a functional manner:

http://github.com/Yelp/PushmasterApp/blob/master/pushmaster/taglib.py

(Full disclosure, I work with the person who originally wrote that version, and I also use it myself.)