Django 1.6 released

And that is not a happy place to end up when you're just starting out with them, since in there you're seeing the whole inheritance/mixin layout structure, which is what leads to the belief that it's too complicated to use.

Which... no, class-based generics are pretty darned easy. Here are the views for my blog app, for example:

https://github.com/ubernostrum/blog/blob/master/blog/views.p...

It'd be nice to cut down the use of super(), but that's about the only issue I have with it. All of the simpler-CBV implementations I've seen make a few too many assumptions for my personal taste, or otherwise cut down on flexibility in favor of simplifying the inheritance diagram, which I don't agree with as a goal in itself.

For me it's a perpetual issue to get them up and running, commit/push with git, etc etc. Is there an easier solution? Basically, I'd like them to get started and be able to tweak the templates and css as effortless as possible.

It's kind of very hard to have people working directly in templates/css and others updating html/css and them diff the changes, integrate them, etc..

Years ago, when I was a Microsoft-only shill (yeah, I'll say it), I knew how to build almost anything as long as something from Microsoft was under the covers. I was proud of my abilities, and in spite of the anti-MS crowd, I stood up for my platform and was a good developer.

In 2006, I had a short two-week break from my startup job, and my wife & kids were traveling to their grandparents' house at the same time. I had 336 consecutive hours to spend as I wanted, something I hadn't been able to do in many years. I decided I wanted to work on a little side project, something I could complete within those two weeks.

I made a decision to break out of my comfort zone. I knew a little about Linux, nothing about Apache, zero about Python, and had never worked with Mysql. I came up with an idea for a simple little CRUD application, just a utility site. It was something I knew I could build in maybe two or three days using Microsoft tools.

So, I searched around and found Django. I downloaded v0.9x (it was sometime in the summer, can't recall what it was specifically. I know it was pre-v1.)

And I started from the beginning, purely a newb. It was a position I wasn't accustomed to, so I immediately felt a lack of boundaries and sense of control. But the Django documentation was really good, and I soon gained an understanding of everything I needed to learn -- Python, running Apache, configuring Django, wiring up Mysql. I stayed focused and in one week, I had written my ridiculously simple CRUD app.

But the value I got out of it was how well the project pulled me in to becoming productive on a platform that I'd never used. Not only that, there was the help in the discussion groups from the community. It was a lot of fun, and I could recognize myself becoming a better developer.

The biggest realization came when I compared my Django project to an equivalent built on Microsoft tools. It wasn't a comparison of one-week vs. two-days, but rather one-week coming from square 1. All this led me to rethink my thoughts around my Microsoft background. I didn't become a convert per se, but it made me realize there are so many other ways of solving problems and other systems on which to build applications. And, after feeling productive, it made it easier for me to explore other (non-Microsoft) technologies. The feeling of being productive in multiple environments was so empowering.

I'm not sentimental about software, but the Django project is kind of that kid who can do no wrong in my eyes, due to my formative experience with it.