Comments on: A change in direction: Python, Django, and Google App Engine

By: pip010

pip010 — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:28:28 +0000

Thanks for the tip of focusing on django first GAE second:)

is see it is quite an old post but two things for up the moment about GAE:
1 – recently google started tweaking pricing and thus messing with peoples plan/model of scale per price

2 – python is not only native to jango but GAE itself, that is it is made in distributed sandbox execution of python scripts. at that moment pyhon (although cheaper than Java) doesn't come with support for threads. something Java devs can certainly enjoy!

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By: jayliew

jayliew — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 05:48:17 +0000

I agree that more a more tech-savvy geographical location would be more likely to demand for new technologies .. but at any rate, imho, if you're the technical domain expert to the non-technical customer, then it's kinda part of your job to explain the benefits .. for what it's worth. Some are going to be very risk-averse and be real laggards when it comes to adopting technology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoptio...

If you're dealing with laggards, it may just be a waste of time trying to convince them.

As for myself, I listed 3 things above (Python, Django, and App Engine) .. and I've now the opportunity to reflect back (thanks for commenting). When I wrote this blog post, GAE did not support Java yet (so my experience has been with GAE-Python). I found out that attempting to learn GAE-Python without a proficiency in Django a challenge.

After I got the basics of Django down, how things the major pieces with each other i.e. models.py, views.py, urls.py, /templates/ .. the process of picking up GAE made more sense. In fact, I had dived into GAE before Django, and I didn't have a good feel for it, and decided that I'll tackle Django first. Then as I was going through Django, I had many "aha" moments. Aha, as in, "this was the stuff I read in the GAE docs but didn't understand, so that's what they meant!"

It's almost like climbing up this plateau, there's path 1 or 2. For me the Django path was easier to climb. Once up the plateau, climbing up from the other path was easier.

Also, back when I did this, there was no books on GAE. Just online docs. I'm like you, I prefer a book in hand with examples to work through when I'm learning something new. So I found this Django book, and I recommend it.

'Django 1.0 Website Development' by Ayman Hourieh http://bit.ly/8Ocxgh

I've now got Django and Python under my belt, but I haven't returned to pickup GAE-Python yet .. because now I'm polishing my front-end skills ;) with jQuery and jQuery UI. There's also some cons with using GAE that some have pointed out online, so depending on your goal, GAE may not be the best choice. The GAE team is still evolving to mature GAE of course. I'll have to revisit it again.

I wish you the best!