Web Development Archives
Django or Ruby on Rails
July 14, 2006 | 
38 Comments
I’ve got a small problem. I’m going to approach this small problem like I would a small problem I need to solve at work. First let’s define our goal (without giving away too much):
At Blue Flavor we want to find an open platform or framework that we can start to build “tools” on. We’ve got well thought out ideas for these “tools” and have been looking to find the right technology, and development resources to match. A few more details:
- The tools would mostly be there to help us help our clients. We’re not really talking commercial applications or anything…yet.
- The tools would mostly focused on (but not limited to) publishing.
- The tools would mostly be fairly uncomplicated.
- We want something that someone like me can understand well at a limited (not basic) level.
- We want something that has an active base of development resources and something we can hire someone in house to kind of “own” at some point.
Now let’s talk about our problem…
Django looks good, but…
We’ve looked at Django quite a bit and we really like it. It seems Web publishing focused and very powerful. Our biggest problem right now lies in resources and maturity. It’s young and we’ve had trouble finding people interested in helping out. When compared to Rails it seems very active and enthusiastic yet the pool of resources is much smaller. But maybe we’re not looking in the right spots? Keep in mind, the Seattle dev scene doesn’t seem to be big on Rails or Django…But, again, it could be we just don’t know.
Rails looks good, but…
Ruby on Rails is interesting because there are lots of great resources and we feel finding a developer or two would be a bit easier. There are also some open source applications that we could take and fit into our plans, as opposed to developing from scratch. Our biggest problem with Rails (so far) is that I don’t get it. It seems much harder to get to that “limited” understanding I’d like to have. Not sure why…
I’m not a programmer and I’d love something that I can at least understand on a limited level fairly easily. It could be that I just need to spend more time with it and something will click, but as of right now I personally prefer Django because I sort of “get it.”
Making a choice…or not.
My fear is that with Rails we know what we’re getting and are fairly sure we’ll have the support right now but that if we go that direction we might be missing out on something really great with Django. As well, both my partners and I get Django a bit better at this point.
In the end the technology we go with isn’t what will make or break our plans. I’m reasonably sure there are many solutions that could work, the trick is finding one that fits Blue Flavor as a company and our internal resources and doesn’t end up costing us an arm and a leg. There are all sorts of cases for and against either one of these, and we’re pretty interested in both. Making that choice, and sticking with it, is kind of a big deal for us.
Finally, a solution
Yeah right. If I’d had a solution I’d be writing that up instead of this. Oh, and before you make the leap, I do usually get my small problems solved, but we’re still working on this one. This post is “a creative beginning” (I hope) to finding a solution…ahh, yeah it’s Friday.
So, anyone got any advice? ;0)
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Reinvention: Django A Go Go
June 26, 2006 | 13 Comments
This is the fifth in a series of posts documenting and exploring my online reinvention. See this post for more.
What’s gone before
- I’ve decided to lay Asterisk to rest.
- I’ve set down some goals for what I want with my new site
- I’ve tossed around some ideas
- I outlined my goals (split into three groups; content, technical and creative)
- I’ve talked a bit about the specific “features” I’m looking to include
- I’ve shown you some of my creative process
- I talked about my reservations with my new design
Going forward, with Django
I’ll keep this short. Since we last spoke I’ve decided to do two things:
- Move forward with the new design. I’m going to try and work out the kinks and make it great. If I fail I’ll just redesign. ;0)
- I’m going to build my own CMS with Django. I realize this is a bit of a risk, but I’m excited about the attempt. Sure this’ll make the project drag a bit, but it’ll be loads of fun.
I hope to have a bit of time during a simply CRAZY month of July to work on this and my goal is to have something live soon. Until then, enjoy the sun.
Filed under: Reinvention | Permanent Link
Django First Impressions
June 13, 2006 | 16 Comments
I’d bet that many of you have been hearing a lot about Django, a Web framework based on Python. Now, I’m not a programmer, and don’t even do all that much development anymore, but I’ve been peaking under the hood a bit for various reasons, one of which being the potential need for a CMS for my new site.
I’ve not decided if I’ll go the Django route. There is a good chance I’ll stick with Movable Type, simply because I’d like to get the site up sometime this summer, but I’m very, very impressed with Django.
I’ve got nothing to compare it to as it’s my first real foray into the world of Web frameworks. I hear Ruby on Rails is great, but to be honest when I poked around I with it I was quickly stifled. Not so with Django. I was able to get a general idea of how things worked relatively quickly. It was fairly easy to install the core framework, thanks in large part to Jeff’s great tutorial.
Speaking of which, it’s people like Jeff who probably made my dabbling less daunting. Sure Django itself has the raw materials, but posts like Django for non-programmers help make this kind of thing digestible for a designer like me.
(The Django community in general seems very easy for designer-types and I want to specifically thank Jeff, James and Wilson for posts, sample code and pointers.)
But let me talk a bit about my experience working with Django. I’m not going to get into any detail as I’m still learning and I’m not sure I can accurately explain what I’ve learned so far.
Django isn’t easy exactly, and there are quite a few bits I’ve come across that leave me baffled, probably because I don’t have much of a programming background. However, it’s not really hard either. I could use a good book as a reference, but much like many technologies I’ve used as I Web developer I can get in and hack around and have a general idea of what’s going on without too much trouble.
I imagine someone with a true programming background would be able to do quite a lot in very little time. I mean, if I can build a rudimentary blogging application from scratch simply by tinkering with some existing code examples then an expert must be able to work wonders in very little time.
This really appeals to me as someone who has ideas and loves creating things yet doesn’t always feel comfortable relying on someone else. I’ve little desire to become a programmer and to be honest I’ve been moving away from development so I can focus on design, but playing with Django has been making it hard. It seems to provide the raw materials needed to create without needing to be a professional programmer.
That’s not to say I’d ever trust myself to build a “real” application. No, I’d probably want a programmer for that. But much like I’ve done many times with Movable Type (see my Boomarung project) I can use Django to play, prototype and whip up smaller projects of my own without having to beg a programmer to help me.
That’s extremely attractive to me. After all a big reason I’m in this business is to create things.
So, if you’re a designer and you’ve been curious about Django — check it out, you may find it easier than expected.
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How To Code With Others
October 06, 2005 | 34 Comments
…or, You Down With OPC?
(Other People’s Code.)
Over the years I’ve had the opportunity, as I’m sure many of you have, to work with all kinds of code. Some of it was nice and clean and easy to follow. Some a bit convoluted, but well commented. And some was a total mess.
It’s one of the things that spurred me toward Web standards. While working for Children’s Hospital I inherited some of the craziest code I’ve ever seen. The Javascript was miles long, un-commented and read worse than anything Dreamweaver spits out. The HTML was beyond messy. It’s a good thing there was no CSS, because I’m sure that would have been a nightmare as well.
All of this added hours, days and possibly weeks of work to my already busy schedule. When I started there I had to work with it. Not fun. It was a blessing when I was given the go ahead to start over from scratch.
One of my goals was to leave the code in such a place that whomever got it after me would be able to get around and understand things easily. I think I did a pretty good job.
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Blue Flavor Flav!
September 27, 2005 | 33 Comments
As some of you may know by now I’ve been working on getting a small business off the ground. This business, which goes by the quirky name “Blue Flavor”, hit a pretty major milestone last night: Our Web site launched!
So, I imagine you’ve got some burning questions? What’s Blue Flavor? Who’s involved? Why would I care?
Well, here’s the cliff notes:
Blue Flavor is an experience and Web design company formed by Brian Fling (Strategy, Mobile, Design), Matt May (Technology, Accessibility, Programming), Nick Finck (IA, User Experience, Analytics) and myself (Creative, Content, Development).
We’ve all got a similar philosophy towards work and technology. We’d talked off and on for a while about doing something and about a month or so ago, when the timing was just right, we decided to take a shot.
So far, so good. There is lots of work out there and we’ve already lined up a few small clients. Not too bad for not even having business cards yet, eh? That’s the next thing on the list.
We’re still working on sorting everything out and so far it’s been pretty fun, as well as educational and quite a bit of hard work. It’ll be interesting to see how it all works out and I’ll be sure and share along the way. Also be sure and check out the blog. I promise it’s not going to be a bunch of rehash from our other sites.
Want to know more? Check out blueflavor.com
Filed under: News | Permanent Link
Inman's Mint
September 06, 2005 | 7 Comments
I’ve been playing with the much talked about and eagerly awaited Mint Web site stats program.
It’s really cool. And nicely designed, easy to use and read, useful, quick and chock full of referrer information that I find actually valuable. At $30 it’s not exactly cheap (re: free) but it’s well worth the price and I, for one, am more than happy with it already. The only downside was the install was a bit of a pain for me and the instructions weren’t totally clear. But I suspect most folks will be able to get it up and running fairly quickly.
In any case, I thought I’d give my hearty recommendation and a public nod to Shaun for his hard work on this. Great work man. Thanks.
Filed under: Web General | Permanent Link
AJAX: Your Take
July 06, 2005 | 42 Comments
AJAX or, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is probably one of the most talked about (hyped) developments in Web development this year.
In essence, AJAX is a group of somewhat related technologies that allow for new (and arguably exciting) ways to design and develop user interfaces. In other words, it’s just a suite of cool tools.
I’m curious to hear what my readers think of AJAX. But first my own take.
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Multiple Site Integration
May 18, 2005 | 10 Comments
So, as many of you know, I’ve been launching new content channels left and right. I’ve got various reasons why I’m doing this and not just keeping everything here at Asterisk, most of which I’m not going to get into right this second.
What I did want to talk a bit about is how I’m trying to keep them all “together” in some ways. It’s not an ideal solution, but I do want some “cross-pollination” going on between my sites. One of my goals is to broaden my writing horizons and speak to new audiences.
(Not that I don’t love my readers here — not at all!)
I’ve got a few ways I’ve been handling this. Mainly Movable Type plugins (MTOtherBlog is what I’ll be using to pull Sweetdex in) and Del.icio.us.
Filed under: Web Development | Permanent Link
Learning WordPress
May 09, 2005 | 47 Comments
It’s kind of funny to be posting about Wordpress from my Movable Type run site, but I’m learning Wordpress and I’d like any advice, tips, tricks or hacks you might have.
I’ve got a few sites (iPodarmy.com is the first of a few) in the works and thanks in large part to Dreamhost and the ease of the 1-click Wordpress install, I’ve decided to dive in and try WordPress for these.
I was a bit put off at first, mainly because it’s just different than Movable Type (and probably because I know Movable Type very, very well) but now that I’ve played around there are some things I really like about WordPress. I’m not going to stop using Movable Type altogether, but hey, I hear good things about WordPress so why not use both?
Regardless, I’m still kind of starting from scratch, and although I’ve found the WordPress Codex very helpful so far, I still thought I’d throw a call for advice out there and see what comes back.
Pretty much what I’m looking for are tips, links, tricks, and other usable stuff about WordPress. What are some cool plug-ins? Got any links to great themes? Do you now any great sites with tutorials and the like? Also, anyone know how to have a different meta title on the home page from individual entries?
If so, post a comment here and help me, and possibly other WordPress newbies who come across this, get the most out of WordPress.
Filed under: Web General | Permanent Link
Technological Excuses: A Rant
May 03, 2005 | 25 Comments
“Can’t Never Did Anything.”
That was something my Mom used to say to me when I was little. And it’s true. There were times in my young life where I had a decidedly “can’t do” attitude. I’d come up with all sorts of reasons why I just couldn’t do something. Of course my mother, with her motherly wisdom and years of experience, knew all too well that I could do these things.
I was either lazy, or scared or intimidated or just plain didn’t want to do. This is an attitude I see quite often from Web professionals and I can’t help buy wonder why.
Filed under: Web Development | Permanent Link