Ask HN: Learning Django post-"Learn Python the Hard Way by Zed Shaw"
5 comments
When I started learning Django, the first thing I did was work through the tutorial in the official documentation.
I cannot stress enough how useful the official documentation is. Not only is it chock full of useful code examples, but the fact that it is a living document means that it is always up-to-date (unlike Django books or blog posts).
I can not really think of any useful Django applications on Github or Bitbucket that are simple enough for someone who is learning the framework to replicate, but if pushed I would suggest:
- the source code for the framework itself
- applications made by core developers (like django-registration or django-taggit)
- applications with a significant following in the community (like south or django-sentry)
I cannot stress enough how useful the official documentation is. Not only is it chock full of useful code examples, but the fact that it is a living document means that it is always up-to-date (unlike Django books or blog posts).
I can not really think of any useful Django applications on Github or Bitbucket that are simple enough for someone who is learning the framework to replicate, but if pushed I would suggest:
- the source code for the framework itself
- applications made by core developers (like django-registration or django-taggit)
- applications with a significant following in the community (like south or django-sentry)
Yes, that's going to be my primary source for learning Django. Thanks!
I was a novice in programming and wanted to try web development so I chose python and Django as my starting point. I started learning Django by first doing the poll app tutorial found on the official Django documentation page. https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/intro/tutorial01/
Then I read the online Django Book and followed along the examples found in those chapters. http://www.djangobook.com/en/2.0/
After that, I felt I had a good grasp of Django but wanted to get a more complete experience of building a simple but powerful web app so I purchased this book - http://www.amazon.com/Django-Website-Development-Ayman-Houri.... I really learned a lot from this book since not only did it provide me with a better understanding of the Django framework, it also helped me learn how to build all the nice features like tagging, search and integrate other technologies such as JQuery.
Now, I am trying to develop my own app using the book as a guide and I am having a lot of fun with it!
Then I read the online Django Book and followed along the examples found in those chapters. http://www.djangobook.com/en/2.0/
After that, I felt I had a good grasp of Django but wanted to get a more complete experience of building a simple but powerful web app so I purchased this book - http://www.amazon.com/Django-Website-Development-Ayman-Houri.... I really learned a lot from this book since not only did it provide me with a better understanding of the Django framework, it also helped me learn how to build all the nice features like tagging, search and integrate other technologies such as JQuery.
Now, I am trying to develop my own app using the book as a guide and I am having a lot of fun with it!
The Django tutorial is pretty good. You build up a very basic polling application as you follow the tutorial and learn the basic chunks of Django.
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/intro/tutorial01/
Any good intro book is going to have something similar. "Python Web Development with Django" includes a number of example projects. You can either follow along in the book and type in the examples (the "Hard" way) or download the projects and see/run them at once in their finished form (the "Common" way).
http://withdjango.com/
http://withdjango.com/readers/source/
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/intro/tutorial01/
Any good intro book is going to have something similar. "Python Web Development with Django" includes a number of example projects. You can either follow along in the book and type in the examples (the "Hard" way) or download the projects and see/run them at once in their finished form (the "Common" way).
http://withdjango.com/
http://withdjango.com/readers/source/
Go through the Django tutorial which you'll find in the django website, they're really helpful. Then go to showmedo.com's tutorials(they're a bit outdated but I think they really nail the concepts).
If you're not in a hurry though, and are new to web development, I'd really suggest learning Flask. It's a great introduction to web development in Python.
If you're not in a hurry though, and are new to web development, I'd really suggest learning Flask. It's a great introduction to web development in Python.
There's a few starter apps w/ source code at http://www.coderbuddy.com/ and you can start editing and testing them using the site.
(You can also upload and expand zip files of other projs/code you may find, as well as copy public projects into new projects of your own.)
Hope this helps...
(You can also upload and expand zip files of other projs/code you may find, as well as copy public projects into new projects of your own.)
Hope this helps...
Thanks! Never heard of http://coderbuddy.com before so looking forward to exploring it.
Now that I have the basics down, I would like to really learn Django. Are there any Django apps with source code available that I can learn from by replicating the code?
I know I can stroll over to GitHub but as a novice, I'm concerned about the code being clean and I'm pretty sure I haven't developed an eye yet for what's clean and what's not.
Any recommendations?