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Django - starting from ground zero - any advice?

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Re: Django - starting from ground zero - any advice?

#21
post #20

I like the post and the replies. Hacker News seems to be a really good forum for inquiries of this nature. But what on earth is "Damaged by Java" supposed to convey? I guess you find Python with Django to suit your particular needs better than Java, no reason to play down the latter though.

I modded you up because I agree, but I also was in the situation where I was damaged by Java so I feel the need to respond. Java is good, but I always felt so constrained when writing code. It just felt like I had to write so much extra junk code like getters and setters that it made rapid prototyping which I do a lot a hassle. Python was a breath of fresh air, and is a great language for hacking around in. Java is v…

Python was such fresh air that I felt Java was bloatware; no offense to Java, but I really loved the agile development with python that I downplayed java.

Re: Django - starting from ground zero - any advice?

#22
post #2

http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/Tutorials and http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2006/nov/16/django-tips-get-mos... http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2007/sep/04/django-accelerated/ http://www.slideshare.net/simon/advanced-django/ http://djangoplugables.com/ Those are some sites I've come across when I was, and still am, learning Django. Good luck.

Thank you!

Re: Django - starting from ground zero - any advice?

#24
post #5

Unless you're already a Python whizz, "Python Essential Reference" is a must. I found poking around inside Satchmo incredibly helpful for finding quality code examples. ( http://www.satchmoproject.com/ ). Other than that, just do the tutorial on the djangoproject site, and subscribe to the django-users group on google groups. have fun! Rich edit: Also there's a feed called the django aggregator. A little noisy at tim…

Satchmo's pretty cool. And just fyi to other new pythonistas(?) - the new o'reilly book Learning Python is good, but thought it was a bit too long and expensive; the online tutorials fare very well indeed :)

Re: Django - starting from ground zero - any advice?

#27
post #16

http://showmedo.com/videos/video?name=1100000&fromSeries... http://showmedo.com/videos/series?name=v7kABKL6R http://blog.disqus.net/2007/03/11/a-django-primer/ http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-django...

The showmedo was pretty good; also thumbs for the disqus one, seeing they have been Django substantially!

Re: Django - starting from ground zero - any advice?

#28
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I modded you up because I agree, but I also was in the situation where I was damaged by Java so I feel the need to respond. Java is good, but I always felt so constrained when writing code. It just felt like I had to write so much extra junk code like getters and setters that it made rapid prototyping which I do a lot a hassle. Python was a breath of fresh air, and is a great language for hacking around in. Java is v…

Python was such fresh air that I felt Java was bloatware; no offense to Java, but I really loved the agile development with python that I downplayed java.

No hard feelings and thanks for the clarification.

I think Python is a slick language and tool and its Benevolent Dictator for Life is a knowledgeable and nice person. I ran into him while interning at Google (worked on the same team and almost did a project related to one of his).

I guess what I don't like is that devs of all kinds of backgrounds have been downplaying Java ever since its inception and in my view not always rightfully so.

My (admittedly subjective) impression is that this has been happening beyond the usual "religious programming language wars".

Developers writing native code are still complaining about Java's (supposedly) terrible performance, admin-focused scripters for lack of immediacy and web-focused coders for being bloated and not supportive of "agile procedure". I'd just like to point out that this language has become the "working man's language" and with it spans a wide variety of domains and features an incredibly large community. Perf-wise, I doubt that there is currently another language VM that has been better studied, optimized and supported than the JVM (Azul, anyone?).

Of course, the truth is that Java is a tool like every other language and has its proper uses and domains where I'd also pick a different weapon of choice.

Re: Django - starting from ground zero - any advice?

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Python was such fresh air that I felt Java was bloatware; no offense to Java, but I really loved the agile development with python that I downplayed java.

No hard feelings and thanks for the clarification. I think Python is a slick language and tool and its Benevolent Dictator for Life is a knowledgeable and nice person. I ran into him while interning at Google (worked on the same team and almost did a project related to one of his). I guess what I don't like is that devs of all kinds of backgrounds have been downplaying Java ever since its inception and in my view not…

It is my opinion that Java is not practical for scripting or web-based development, so I agree that people using it for that purpose will complain about it.

I definitely agree the majority of Java complaints are from people choosing the wrong tool for the job.

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