Django vs other Python web frameworks?

Question

I\'ve pretty much tried every Python web framework that exists, and it took me a long time to realize there wasn\'t a silver bullet framework, each had its own advantages an

Answer 1

I'm a TurboGears fan, and this is exactly the reason why: a very nice trade-off between control and doing things right vs. easy.

You'll have to make up your own mind of course. Maybe you'd prefer to learn less, maybe more. Maybe the areas that I like knowledge/control (database for example), you couldn't care less about. And don't misunderstand. I'm not characterizing any frameworks as necessarily hard or wrong. It's just my subjective judgment.

Also I would recommend TurboGears 2 if at all possible. When it comes out, I think it will be much better than 1.0 in terms of what it has selected for defaults (genshi, pylons, SqlAlchemy)

Answer 2

I'd say the correct answer depends on what you actually want and need, as what will be worthwhile in the long run depends on what you'll need in the long run. If your goal is to get applications deployed ASAP then the 'simpler' route, ie. Django, is surely the way to go. The value of a well-tested and well-documented system that exactly what you want can't be underestimated.

On the other hand if you have time to learn a variety of new things which may apply in other domains and want to have the widest scope for customisation then something like Turbogears is superior. Turbogears gives you maximum flexibility but you will have to spend a lot of time reading external docs for things like Repoze, SQLAlchemy, and Genshi to get anything useful done with it. The TG2 docs are deliberately less detailed than the TG1 docs in some cases because it's considered that the external docs are better than they used to be. Whether this sort of thing is an obstacle or an investment depends on your own requirements.

Answer 3

I'd say you're being a bit too pessimistic about "not learning anything" using Django or a similar full-stack framework, and underestimating the value of documentation and a large community. Even with Django there's still a considerable learning curve; and if it doesn't do everything you want, it's not like the framework code is impenetrable.

Some personal experience: I spent years, on and off, messing around with Twisted/Nevow, TurboGears and a few other Python web frameworks. I never finished anything because the framework code was perpetually unfinished and being rewritten underneath me, the documentation was often nonexistent or wrong and the only viable support was via IRC (where I often got great advice, but felt like I was imposing if I asked too many questions).

By comparison, in the past couple of years I've knocked off a few sites with Django. Unlike my previous experience, they're actually deployed and running. The Django development process may be slow and careful, but it results in much less bitrot and deprecation, and documentation that is actually helpful.

HTTP authentication support for Django finally went in a few weeks ago, if that's what you're referring to in #3.

Answer 4

Have you taken a look at CherryPy. It is minimalistic, yet efficient and simple. It is low level enough for not it to get in they way, but high enough to hide complexity. If I remember well, TurboGears was built on it.

With CherryPy, you have the choice of much everything. (Template framework, ORM if wanted, back-end, etc.)

Answer 5

I suggest taking another look at TG2. I think people have failed to notice some of the strides that have been made since the last version. Aside from the growing WSGI stack of utilities available there are quite a few TG2-specific items to consider. Here are a couple of highlights:

TurboGears Administration System - This CRUD interface to your database is fully customizable using a declarative config class. It is also integrated with Dojo to give you infinitely scrollable tables. Server side validation is also automated. The admin interface uses RESTful urls and HTTP verbs which means it would be easy to connect to programatically using industry standards.

CrudRestController/RestController - TurboGears provides a structured way to handle services in your controller. Providing you the ability to use standardized HTTP verbs simply by extending our RestController. Combine Sprox with CrudRestController, and you can put crud anywhere in your application with fully-customizable autogenerated forms. TurboGears now supports mime-types as file extensions in the url, so you can have your controller render .json and .xml with the same interface it uses to render html (returning a dictionary from a controller)

If you click the links you will see that we have a new set of documentation built with sphinx which is more extensive than the docs of the past.

With the best web server, ORM, and template system(s) (pick your own) under the hood, it's easy to see why TG makes sense for people who want to get going quickly, and still have scalability as their site grows.

TurboGears is often seen as trying to hit a moving target, but we are consistent about releases, which means you won't have to worry about working out of the trunk to get the latest features you need. Coming to the future: more TurboGears extensions that will allow your application to grow functionality with the ease of paster commands.

Answer 6

Pylons seems a great tool for me:

• a real web framework (CherryPy is just a web server),
• small code base - reuse of other projects,
• written entirely with WSGI in mind, based on Paste,
• allows you to code the app right away and touch the low level bits if it's necessary,

I've used CherryPy and TurboGears and look at many other frameworks but none of them were so light and productive as Pylons is. Check the presentation at Google.