In an effort to learn a new skill and get some much needed exposure to another programming language, I've started learning Python.  Its a very neat language, and its use of whitespace to organize code pleases the code style nazi that Sandy has instilled in me.  Reading the code itself, its refreshing how uncluttered it can be without curly braces, dollar signs, and semi-colons all about. It takes a little getting used to, as I do find myself looking for braces to delineate a function definition, or an if-block, and still litter an occasional end of line with a semi-colon.

I've learned how to use exceptions to handle errors, which out of habit and lack of necessity I haven't used in PHP.  I haven't gotten beyond a simple procedural program yet, but there's a lot of power under the hood in all the libraries available for python.

As a result, I've been reading up, and doing the online tutorials for the Django framework.  I chose Django after reading Please Teach me Web Frameworks for Python!, and the comments for that entry.  TurboGears was highly recommended, but three things steered me towards the former.  First, Django seems to be a more integrated suite of components (DB/ORM, Templating, Controllers), while TurboGears lets you pick and use a "Best-of-breed" component, defined by you.  Second, Django provides a useful admin application for free, which you'll be very impressed with if you follow the tutorial.  Last, but not least, the Django book, available for free online, was a very accesible, easy to read, and informative resource for learning about the different components and how they work together.  I wish more web application frameworks, particularly the one we use at work, had such good introductory documentation for orienting new developers.

I haven't gotten very far with Django yet, but I do plan on using it for my next online project.  I recommend you look at it too.