Need a compelling argument to use Django instead of Rails

[Ben Sizer]

Paul Boddie wrote:
> Ben Sizer wrote:
> >
> > In my case, multimedia and game support is patchy,
>
> There are lots of multimedia and game frameworks for Python. Which ones
> have you tried and why are they insufficient?

PyGame was barely maintained for a year, and is based on SDL which was
also barely maintained for a year, and which hasn't kept up with
hardware advances at all. On the graphical side you can opt for OpenGL,
the Python library for which is also barely maintained (though I hear
work is underway behind the scenes) and doesn't provide much more than
a minimal layer over the C interface anyway. DirectX support only
appeared this year unless you used IronPython, and it doesn't seem very
popular.

Which other frameworks are you thinking of? I know of a variety of
wrappers around individual libraries, and of wrappers around 3D engines
such as Irrlicht and Ogre, but not much else.

> Certainly, some Web frameworks have some element of Java flavouring,
> but there's also considerable diversity at least at certain levels.

Pretty much every Python web offering revolves around you having your
own server with the luxury of running your own long-running processes
on it. Great for business apps, not much use for the hobbyist or
independent site. There are probably some hosts that will provide
shared hosting for your Django or Turbogears app, but they are not
exactly numerous. The barrier to entry here is much higher than with
PHP or ASP, for example. And even with the full framework approach, the
field has been so fragmented until recently that in terms of community
support, you'd be better off opting for another language. I appreciate
there's a diversity vs. standardisation argument there which may never
be settled, so I accept this is just a personal opinion, but I do think
a critical mass of users is important with any technology.

I'm in a similar situation to the original poster; I'd like to use
Turbogears for an app I want to write, but will probably end up doing
it in PHP instead, because I can't get dedicated hardware or a local
host for Turbogears. (Never mind the lack of documentation.)

> Otherwise, no amount of complaining will put the
> two technologies together.

It's a fair point, but on the other hand, saying "if you want it doing,
do it yourself" doesn't objectively improve the status quo. If
something doesn't exist, it doesn't exist, and it's valid to comment
upon that fact.

-- 
Ben Sizer