Google App Engine - Is it necessary to call self.response in handler?
When your handler ends, the response goes to the client -- if you've never written anything to the response, then it will be an empty response (should come with an HTTP 204 status, but browsers are notoriously resigned to broken servers like the one you're apparently planning to create:-).
Nothing about this will cause "the instance GAE creates to handle that request will stay alive so to speak indefinitely". After at most 60 seconds (for auto-scaled modules, which are the default choice), things will time out and a 500 HTTP status will go to the browser.
I'm developing with GAE Python. If I have a URL that routes to a handler, is it necessary to actually call self.response.out.write or self.render(if I'm using a template)?
I'm thinking if I don't specify a response.out call, then the instance GAE creates to handle that request will stay alive so to speak indefinitely?