the game is afoot....

In the first part I had perhaps bored you with some of the details of my attempts to learn programming. Anyways let me stick to the main points in this blog entry.

 

As I mentioned in the previous entry, the biggest reason for me choosing Django is the better documentation and the wide availability of both code and content across the world wide web. The djangobook.com, djangosnippets.org, the blog of James Bennet , Malcolm Tredinnick ,  Ross Poulton,    are worth a mention.

 

1. Critics point out several deficiencies to various parts of Django, notably the ORM, and the templating language. But the fact remains for 95% of web applications, these are more than sufficient. There is the other 5% where, we need to go beyond a web framework, or is irrespective of the web framework. The Language will play a role, and the biggest role will be that of your team. But for 95% of web apps you are likely to build Django's current set of features is good enough.
2. Unlike Pylons and Turbogears, there is some amount of uniformity and cohesiveness between different parts that make Django. That is because of the code is written by a team of developers and is still controlled development. As you browse through the code, you figure that and the way the code is written and structured make it quite predictable, even for a newbie reading the code base. While individual stacks that make TG or Pylons, may be superior compared to that of Django, the cohesiveness, predictability of the way code is written makes it easier to work with Django.
3. To further reiterate the point mentioned in the previous paragraph, as someone pointed out Django is like Mac, while TG or Pylons is like Linux.  Both are powerful, but Mac is more user friendly.
4. Beyond everything, I value the numbers behind each project. That is where Django scores heavily. My rough guess is there are 20 times more coders behind Django, than other two put together. It's a pure commercial consideration. However, its quite important tomorrow, if I am pitching in for a large project, and then its easier to find Django pros than others.
5. Also I like the way, Django philosophy has evolved. Apart DRY, certain directions which the developers have taken are commendable. Notably the lack of higher end programming functionality in the basic templating is actually good. This will ensure that designers to do not muck up the logic, playing around with the markup and design.
6. Django Admin Interface is the best way to impress clients. Many of them get hooked to them very fast.
7. Finally, being from publishing background, I can appreciate some of the finer tastes the framework developers have, which is reflected in templating, clean URLs, and even in the ORM.