On May 6, 7:37 am, Anthony <av201...@yahoo.com> wrote: > I am brand new to web application development, and I'm looking for a > good web framework to learn in order to build a new web application > (sort of a personal task/project management system). > > Any insights and advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.
I know this question well: you're considering getting into web2py, but your time is precious and you don't want to spend a lot of time on something that you might later end up dumping in favour of a different, better tool. Unfortunately, there is almost nothing anyone can merely say that will convince you, because you have clearly done your homework. I would say that you probably cannot avoid at least toying with multiple tools in order to get a feel for their differences. This will be far more valuable than regurgitated lists of features. For example, when I was looking for a web-framework, I knew I right away I wanted a Python one, because I had significant experience with the language, so that immediately limited my choices; a good thing, in this instance. Thereafter it came down to Turbogears vs. Django vs. web2py (Zope was right out). I came up with a small project at work that was suitable for a web-based app (it was an in-house build-server for our Delphi-based product line), and made the app in Django, and then completely remade it again to exactly the same specs in web2py. This was my first web-app. It took about a week to get both done, starting from scratch. It was not a big project at all. I bought the Django book (1.1) and the web2py book (2nd Ed) for this. After having made this comparison, I got a pretty good idea of the relative merits between Django and web2py for the general, basic work of web apps. In my opinion, the conveniences web2py makes available for the developer more than make up for any concern about community size. I enjoy web2py even more as time goes on, the more I learn. This is a good sign, just like when I was first learning Python. Django is just more work to use, for example, and for no benefit either. Though if web2py were not available, I would use Django, and probably be happy with it. Once I decided on web2py I never bothered with TG. I remain curious, but only slightly so. I am accumulating a basic idea of how web-frameworks work in general, so I imagine the differences between different frameworks (even across language boundaries) become smaller and smaller as one becomes more familiar with the domain. I would strongly recommend you get the book, if you are considering spending some time on web2py. It, similar to something like Vi, will be incomprehensible until you read some documentation. You can't figure it out on your own, don't even try. Just get a book and work through the examples. Or use the book online, if you can work with books on-screen (I can't).
