Learning Django
I’ve had this post sitting in my queue for months now giving advice on how to learn Django. I’ve had several people email me and ask how I learned. Amazon delivered some inspiration to finish this on my doorstep last night.
My copy of the Django book arrived on my doorstep. I’ve had it on pre-order since August. I’ve read two chapters (Caching and users), skimmed the intro and browsed the whole book. Want to learn Django? Make your Christmas a little more merry for yourself and go buy it. Worth every penny. Clear. Engaging. Takes you from the very beginnings to very advanced topics.
You’ll go a long way with just that book. Other resources I used developing PolitiFact were Adrain Holovaty’s manifesto on newspapers and structured data, the unbelievably well done documentation on the Django Project website, the Django users Google Group and, if you find yourself totally lost on Python, read How to Think Like a Computer Scientist.
Quoting from the acknowledgments on the book “the most gratifying aspect of working on Django is the community.” It’s true, and I’ve been among the beneficiaries of the community’s generosity and willingness to share code and advice. So what are you waiting for? If you think you want to learn how to make data-driven web apps, Django is a fine choice to jump in and learn. And there are smart people in the world doing everything they can to help make it easy.
