Once Django is launched-launched, I’ll be comparing various
aspects of it with Ruby on Rails. I plan on diving deep into
the two frameworks so instead of one large post, I’m going to make this
a running series.
While I’m primarily a Python coder, I’ve been dabbling with Ruby for
about a year and have a couple of apps under my belt with Rails. They
are admittedly simple apps but what isn’t with Rails? I’ve also logged
70-80 hours against a Python clone of Rails’ excellent implementation of
Active Record, which put me pretty deep into the internals of that
piece.
I am not a Python zealot. And, to be honest, I’m floating between the
two languages as my primary. What I’m trying to say is that my interest
is in exploring these two frameworks objectively and extending my
understanding of each, not advocating one over the other. I will include
personal thoughts on design and may favor one or the other at this level
but I will not be concluding the series with a recommendation for either
because, frankly, I already know which I’d recommend at present and it
has nothing to do with technical qualities (hint: it has everything to
do with this).
That being said, I can recommend that if you are building systems that
require the complexity of a full-stack web framework (i.e. PHP, CGI
won’t cut it) and you are currently using something other than one
of these two frameworks in any language (including Java and .NET) on any
platform, that you move swiftly to adopt either if possible. If there is
something barring you from making that switch, well, where’s your
patch? Make it happen.
I realize that many in the Python community have already grown
comfortable with an existing framework (or more likely, have written
their own, like myself) and that’s fine as there are some competent
frameworks out there. But it has become apparent that Django will be
growing a large community of contributors and that’s something no
current Python web framework of this kind can boast.
As I write this, there are 30 people idling in #django on
irc.freenode.net on a Sunday morning, two days after the none-launch;
there’s been 409 bookmarks on del.icio.us.
Granted this is all very much driven by hype right now as there hasn’t
been any real experience with the framework, excepting the
maintainers, but
the outlook for a large community to finally coalesce around a single
set of tools and conventions is promising.
I also want to mention that I spent some time talking to the Django
maintainers last night and they’ve convinced me that the Rails
comparisons, while unavoidable, may be somewhat premature. Although
Django has many of the same traits as Rails, it wasn’t built as an all
out clone and may appeal to a slightly different set of
requirements. Time will tell, of course, but as of right now the
similarities are a huge part of what’s driving interest in Django and
there’s a good reason for that - Rails got a ton right.
Still, “because it’s in Rails” is unlikely to be considered sufficient
justification for Django feature requests. That’s a sure way of creating
a Bride of Frankenstein framework and I’m pleased to see the
maintainers have a strong sense of this. Django is likely to follow many
of the same paths as Rails but that’s because they were both designed
under real life circumstances with similarly excellent philosophy.
Before I wrap this up, I’d like to echo the sentiments of one Rails
supporter
in his comments on Django:
I hope Rails learns to play with Django and they’ll not smite each
other (if not friends, don’t be enemies). The world is big enough. A
combined message from different camps will be more resounding than any
one camp trying to say he is the bestest - and coming off as naive or
clueless.
Indeed.
(warning: stomach wrenching, KUM BAI AH, everyone-hold-hands type
stuff imminent)
The Ruby, Python, Perl, and PHP communities must understand the immense
opportunities that await them should they accept that they share much
more in common than not and that a unified front would go a long way in
tearing down the barriers that have kept these technologies out of the
mainstream. The amount of positive impact these disruptive technologies
could have on existing forms of business and social interaction in
general are limited only by our ability to tell the story.
Feeds for the series: