Initial thoughts on Python and Django post
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](http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/tutorial01/) for
the [Django framework](http://www.djangoproject.com/). I chose Django
after reading [Please Teach me Web Frameworks for
Python!](http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=146149), and
the comments for that entry. [TurboGears](http://www.turbogears.org/)
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](http://www.djangobook.com/), 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.\
Categories: Uncategorized