

Show HN: I'm writing a book to teach beginner Django web app programming - limedaring

I&#x27;m writing a book which teaches Python&#x2F;Django web app development for non-programmers, and fundraising on Kickstarter (passed minimum funding, 2 days left):<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;hellowebapp.com<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kickstarter.com&#x2F;projects&#x2F;1868398473&#x2F;hello-web-app-intro-to-building-web-apps-with-djan<p>It&#x27;s basically the process I used to teach myself programming as a web designer a few years back, which I then launched a small web app (infant-version of WeddingInviteLove.com), which has grown into my bootstrapped startup which supports me full-time (WeddingLovely.com).<p>Most tutorials&#x2F;books assume some amount of programming experience, or start out too advanced even if advertised as a beginner book. My goal is to assume nothing, and really break it down and make it super simple to get a basic web app launched, which hopefully will make it easier to transition to those other more advanced tutorials.<p>I also have a GitHub page for the public materials (like installation instructions, which&#x27;ll live here rather than the book so I can update them quickly if needed): github.com&#x2F;limedaring&#x2F;HelloWebApp<p>I&#x27;d love any feedback on the project or any suggestions HN has for the book&#x27;s materials. Thanks for letting me share!
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borat4prez
This looks great! I've been a WordPress dev the past 2-3 years and started my
first Django project a few months ago. I know html/css well and can do jQuery
plugins, but I'm not too knowledgable past that. I know programming concepts,
I just have a hard time putting methods and classes together and all that good
stuff. My brain thinks more creatively instead of logically. Hopefully this
book can help me out, I'm currently paying a developer $50/hr to build the app
(50+ hours deep so far), I'm just doing the HTML/CSS because I'm pretty good
at that. Would love to take control of the whole thing!

Maybe this book can help?

Also it'd be neat if you took a look at my project so far and let me know your
thoughts! I have a private repo on github and the app is up on Heroku right
now. companyhen<at>gmail.com if you wanna chat and take a look :)

p.s. Backed $25 :)

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limedaring
Your skillset is perfect - definitely aiming towards people who might think
more creatively, one of the reasons I'm focusing on templates/website parts
first before jumping into models/views.

And thanks for the pledge! :)

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bdevine
I am currently going through Miguel Grinberg's Flask dev book (the early
O'Reilly version) but I had considered diving into Django instead. My
rationale for making this choice basically came down to seeing that Flask
doesn't "come with batteries", and I thought it would be more educationally
valuable to have a broad understanding of the various components of a web app
before trying something like Django which apparently does things that Flask
doesn't. (I may be off-base here, of course -- I know that I don't know what I
don't know!) All of which is to say that I hope you give some space to at
least discussing "why Django?". Good luck!

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limedaring
Yup definitely. The fact that Django comes "with batteries" is one of the
reasons why I'm choosing it — for people with less of a tech background, I'm
hoping to show the "how" first (getting the web app working), and then work on
the "why" in the latter half of the book. For me, seeing things work first was
more encouraging and got me more enthusiastic about learning more. I'll
definitely expand on this more in the book, and thanks for the comment!

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mcintyre1994
Congrats on the funding!

Have you read two scoops of Django at all? I have the ebook of the last
version and it's pretty good, just wondering if you've read it how you'd
compare the material covered. I'm guessing you start at a more beginner level
than them but it'd be interesting if you could compare in some detail.

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limedaring
Thank you!

Yes, definitely have — Audrey and Danny are friends of mine. :) Their book is
perfect for after my book - I'm hoping to teach the basics and get people
started, and Two Scoops would hammer in the best practices and more of the
intermediate concepts like class-based views.

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limedaring
Clickable links:

[http://hellowebapp.com](http://hellowebapp.com)

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1868398473/hello-web-
ap...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1868398473/hello-web-app-intro-to-
building-web-apps-with-djan)

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smartial_arts
Tracy, that's a great initiative, I wish you all the best with the book!

I wonder what the thought process was behind the decision though - i.e. how
did you decide to write a book, whether you tested/researched the market in
any way?

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limedaring
Thanks!

I've been ruminating about the book for awhile now — first, after I learned to
code, I got it in my head that I could teach it a bit differently/more
efficiently for creatively-minded folks. I've also attended a lot of
conferences with beginner tracks which frustrated me as I found they still
weren't totally beginner friendly.

The book process officially started last fall — I made a survey to see whether
designers (my original market) were even interested in coding, and started
working on the book after I got good results. I shopped the idea to a few
publishers, was accepted by one, but decided that I would rather publish it
myself and turned the offer down. (Mainly keep control and additional
potential revenue were my reasons, not to mention that the process looked
fun.)

Continued writing until right before PyCon, which I realized that Kickstarter
might be a good avenue to get an "advance" as well as being good marketing for
the book, so I launched the campaign, and here we are. :)

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annapurna
Just started learning Django myself and have played with Rails in the past. I
would love to see you include some design tips. Also, congrats on the funding
and just pledged a small amount to get my hands on the paperback!

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limedaring
Aww thanks so much! I'm not sure design tips would make sense for this book,
but people have been suggesting a "Hello Web Design" book after this one,
which would be fun to write. :)

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santiagobasulto
This is awesome! I've wrote an introductory book in spanish for my class. I
think it's buried in dust by now. I'll take a look at it and share my feelings
if that's Ok.

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limedaring
Thanks, and sure thing!

