

Ask HN: choosing Web framework, again - swah

Just when I was choosing to go with Django for my startup app, I read here that<p>http://www.mutualinformation.org/2010/03/why-i-switched-to-pylons-after-using-django-for-six-months/<p>it's not very appropriate when you have more complex sites, etc.<p>Are there any guidelines for choosing a web framework? I'm language agnostic, but would avoid verbose languages if possible. The framework will be like a bank website, if you want a reference. I want to start web programming but I'm growing more confused every day.<p>I now heard about Rails, Django, webpy, Grails, Pylons, Lift, Play, Seaside, Ocsigen...
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tobyhede
I think the best advice is just to pick something and stop worrying. Analysis
can be a form of procrastination.

That said, I use and recommend Rails. Rails 3 is nearly ready for prime-time
and introduces a suite of changes that make it faster, more flexible, and
infinitely configurable. The part I have always liked about Ruby and Rails is
that even when you are stretching beyond it's intended use-cases, it bends
rather than breaks.

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samratjp
Forget the project (for the moment). Start messing around with Django and see
what works well. Do the same with Rails. Getting into a framework is like
testing out the waters - feel comfy, nice beach, nice people... Stay there.

That said, Django does have nice admin - you can extend it nicely with
Grappelli. Rails ain't too bad itself - here are some variety of Rails Apps
(with source) [http://jetpackweb.com/blog/2009/10/14/high-quality-ruby-
on-r...](http://jetpackweb.com/blog/2009/10/14/high-quality-ruby-on-rails-
example-applications/)

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swah
Should I learn SQL alone first?

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benedwards
Saying Django is not appropriate for complex sites is just plain wrong. For
whatever reason Django was just not a good fit for that author, but I think
there's thousands of Djangonauts developing complex sites that would
completely disagree with him.

Definitely don't pass on Django because of one guy's opinion.

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grayrest
I'll agree with this.

Pylons is a win when:

1\. You need SQLAlchemy. 2\. You're not really leveraging the Django admin.
3\. You don't need anything in pinax or the rest of the django apps.

I actually prefer the various wsgi options over Django (I was a TurboGears
committer for a number of years) but Django is better for banging out sites
where you need to implement common features since there's a fairly large pool
of django apps to draw on. If you're doing something more complex, then
there's no real technical (dis)advantage to Django but you'll have an easier
time finding people who know the framework and the docs are better.

