Archived Entries for February 2008
Time for a Django Documentation Evolution
Published 8 months, 3 weeks ago
As Django continues to mature - or more importantly as it captures more media mind share - people from many different camps will want to see what the hype is about. For those entrenched in another platform or web framework, comparisons will be made between features and methodology. For those new to web development, a desire to feel like one is grasping the basics and getting tangible results without a big learning curve can have a big influence. IT managers and system administrators will want to confirm that it can be deployed and scaled without hassle (or conversely they'll be desperately looking for reasons to justify extending their $100,000 proprietary licensing and support fees for another year).
In each case, an important element will help the investigative process: accessible relevant literature.
Time to Write That Beginning Python Book
Published 8 months, 3 weeks ago
I came across an Amazon listing for a pre-sale book geared to beginning Python programmers. I am hoping that the ad contains a typo in the price. If not, I may have found a new career calling.
Frameworkology 101 Homework
Published 8 months, 4 weeks ago
I've collected a few articles that give fairly humble assessments of the perceived trade-offs of the differing design approaches of Python's currently popular web frameworks. Refreshingly civil in their discourse, there is a lot of great insight about the approaches taken by Turbogears, Pylons, and Django. It sounds like the authors are in agreement that there remains a lot of work to do in terms of educating developers using those frameworks how to struture their applications in ways that are best suited to the framework's design.
Django Sites for Pixel-Challenged Displays
Published 9 months ago
Nathan Borror of Playground Blues describes how he enabled his site to support mobile browsers during a mid-afternoon coding session in a local cafe.
Who Doesn't Love a Good Plot?
Published 9 months ago
Jacob Kaplan-Moss has made some template tags for working with Google Charts available. Now you can pretty up those reporting apps and it's like you don't even have to think hard!
Django Gains Popularity - Trees are Afraid
Published 9 months ago
A few more books about Django will be coming out this year. Soon we'll have an excuse to browse the "Computers and Programming" sections of the major bookstores which in my experience always seem to be quite sparse when it comes to anything about Python at all.
Model Inheritance Hits QuerySet-Refactor Branch
Published 9 months ago
OOP purists, Java converts, and "otherwise lazy folk" have long clamored for model inheritance in Django. It will soon be a reality thanks to the efforts of Malcolm Tredinnick et. al. Changeset 7126 to the queryset-refactor branch introduces model inheritance capabilities to the Django framework.
Adrian Holovaty Retires chicagocrime.org
Published 9 months ago
Adrian Holovaty announced on his blog recently that he would be shutting down chicagocrime.org. Adrian's new venture Everyblock supercedes the functionality of chicagocrimes by providing a variety of city/neighborhood oriented data sets for cities.
