
Want to learn Django? Start here. - flexterra
http://elweb.co/programacion/want-to-learn-django-start-here/
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nnq
...is it just me, or Django docs are WAY more to the point than all the rails
screencasts and tutorials? I wonder if this extends to the whole Django vs
Rails way of doing things in general, not just to documentation...

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jononomo
This is exactly why I'm going with Django for my project. The Django book that
is online is just so straightforward and easy to understand. With Rails I have
not found that to be the case at all.

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nnq
Have you found anything truly "enlightening" in the Django Book (like actually
helping you to make a mental model of something or teaching you a better way
to do things) that would make it worth checking out after initially "skipping"
it?

(I actually went from the tutorial to specific parts of the docs and then to
actually digging through the code of some os projects like django-cms,
bypassing the Django Book altogether and learning things by reading the docs
while actually doing client work ...after "lying" that I actually knew more
about Django than I did ...but it all worked out magically alright, ahead of
time and in the budget :) ...and this is what really made me feel good about D
and made me eager to digg deeper and maybe even contribute to it sometime)

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taude
Some advice that saved me hours: use Vagrant to manage a linux-based VM. Share
the Django code directory with your Host OS. You're going to eventually deploy
to Linux anyway. (I had a LOT of issues trying to get Postgresql to install on
OS X via Homebrew, etc, and it still wasn't a proper environment). Once I went
with Vagrant and an Ubuntu VM, things smoothed out.

~~~
rdrake
I second using Vagrant boxes, but there is an easy solution for running
Postgres on OS X now:

<http://postgresapp.com/>

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wickedbass
Awesome! Thanks for the post. Sometimes I feel that RoR gets too much
publicity vs django or other MVCs.

Of course having used Django for ~5 years now, I must be biased!

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naiquevin
+1 for the django.me tip. I can see myself using it all the time from now on
:-) Out of curiosity, how and where did you find out about it?
<http://django.me> redirects to the main page of django docs and google search
didn't give any useful info.

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amccloud
I think it's powered by <http://slug.in/> which was a recent djangodash
project.

~~~
dominicrodger
I don't think it is, based on the GitHub repository powering <http://slug.in>
(<https://github.com/yetizzz/zzz>).

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kmfrk
Django by Example is one of the best resources: <http://lightbird.net/dbe/>.

It's getting a little out of date, what with Django 1.4 and django-
registration 0.8, but nothing that can't be upgraded without too much hassle.

#django on Freenode is also invaluable.

You can also search inside the Django documentation with "!django", if DDG is
your default search engine.

I also recommend checking out dotCloud (YC) instead of Heroku, as it's much
easier to set up for beginners. Just download the wsgi.py and make the
necessary changes to your settings.py, and Bob's your uncle.

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ZanderEarth32
Awesome, thanks for this. I've been learning Django in my spare time and using
the Django Book resource, and while I can work through it I don't think it's
taught in a way that helped me remember how to do any of it without the book.
Is that common? I am assuming that the only way you learn how to set up an
environment or a Django project is just through doing it multiple times, not
memorizing it out of a book. For example, the next time I start a project, I
know I'll have to refer back to how to start the whole process.

~~~
victorneo
I was in the same shoes as you. After going through the tutorial, I didn't
feel confident that I could set up another project and configure the required
settings without referring to the guide.

It will get better once you embark on your second or third project. You will
be able to refer back to your earlier projects (instead of the guide) and see
what steps you have missed out.

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kine
Hey Flexterra, I'm glad my post on Rails inspired you to write this for
Django!

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hackerboos
I'd love to see the Django equivalent to Railscasts.

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dominicrodger
Kenneth Love's working on this at <http://gettingstartedwithdjango.com/>.

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ryangallen
Anyone use django CMS? <https://www.django-cms.org/>

How is it in comparison to WP?

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pajju
Check mezzanine you will be amazed. :)

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ryangallen
Thank you, I will definitely check it out.

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j_col
Thanks for this, just looking at Django for the first time right now so the
timing is perfect.

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wilfra
I'm learning Django (and Python) now, a big +1 for the official tutorial being
the best first place to start. It walks you through setting up your
environment, working with the terminal and a cool little project setting up
your first app that quickly and clearly shows you all sorts of cool things
Django can do.

I took me about 10 hours from start to finish with probably half of that
devoted to getting my environment setup. I learned a ton and not just about
Django.

If you have experience with Python and/or working with the terminal it should
be much faster, but you'll still probably learn a lot.

#django IRC channel is another resource I'd highly recommend, especially when
you get stuck. Those guys are super, super helpful.

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nXqd
+1 for the time to set up working environment. It mostly costs me half of the
time I do something new.

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bduerst
Can you guys recommend any AMIs that are ready to go with django?

