## The <small>(Unofficial)</small> History of Django Compiled by [Aaron Yong](https://aarony.dev) #### EdmontonPy Feb 2023

### Topics 1. What is Django? 1. Major Milestones 1. Opinions & Criticisms 1. Community 1. Future

## What is Django? #### [The web framework for perfectionists with deadlines.](https://www.djangoproject.com/start/overview/) - "Kitchen sink", "batteries included" full-stack - Sane defaults, security-minded - Versatile, w/community support - Comprehensive, easy [first steps](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/#first-steps) <small>Named after jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt</small>

## Major Milestones ### From pre-0.95 to 4.1 Sources: - [Django Release Notes](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/) - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_(web_framework)#Version_history) - [Quora](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-history-of-the-Django-web-framework-Why-has-it-been-described-as-developed-in-a-newsroom/answer/Simon-Willison)

### [Pre-0.95](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-history-of-the-Django-web-framework-Why-has-it-been-described-as-developed-in-a-newsroom/answer/Simon-Willison) #### 2003-2005 ##### From PHP to Python - Developed in a newsroom - Wanted DRY standards & scalability - New-age tech called **CSS** - URL patterning - CMS admin (now just "Django admin") - HTTP Request/Response: proto-WSGI - Company would open-source Django --- ### [0.95,](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/0.95/) [0.96](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/0.96/) #### March 23, 2007 ##### Removing the magic - Less automatic code (e.g. auto-plurals) - Clearer/shorter imports - More stable API --- ### [1.0](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/1.0/) #### September 3, 2008 ##### Stability, forwards-compatibility - De-coupled `admin` and `models` - Stronger Unicode support 🤩 - XSS mitigation: autoescape outputs in templates --- ### Django REST Framework [0.1](https://github.com/encode/django-rest-framework/tree/0.1) #### Feb 21, 2011 ##### A small* library appears - Would pioneer API-driven Django development - Like Django, has [quick](https://www.django-rest-framework.org/tutorial/quickstart/), simple [tutorials](https://www.django-rest-framework.org/tutorial/1-serialization/) <small>\* Would actually make a fairly big splash on web dev scene</small> --- ### [1.4 LTS](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/1.4/) #### March 23, 2012 ##### Django's 1st LTS! (EOL Oct 1, 2015) - (1.3) [Class-based views](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/topics/class-based-views/): a time-saver* - Time zones support - CSRF: `ensure_csrf_cookie()` decorator - PBKDF2 password storage algorithm - New project layout and `manage.py` <small>\* Won't magically mean better code though</small> --- ### [1.8 LTS](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/1.8/) #### April 1, 2015 ##### 2nd LTS, not an April Fool's joke - (1.7) Built-in [DB schema migrations](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/topics/migrations/) - [Jinja2](https://jinja.palletsprojects.com) & other template engines support - Major `django-secure` features added to Django - ORM additions - (1.7) [QuerySet methods from model manager](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/1.7/#calling-custom-queryset-methods-from-the-manager) - (1.7) [Prefetch](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/ref/models/querysets/#prefetch-objects) objects - [Query](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/ref/models/expressions/) and [conditional](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/ref/models/conditional-expressions/) expressions - [Database functions](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/ref/models/database-functions/) --- ### [1.11 LTS](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/1.11/) #### April 4, 2017 ##### Pre-2.0 - Class-based model indexes (cleaner code) - From Python- to HTML-based form widget authoring - ORM additions - [Subquery](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/ref/models/expressions/#django.db.models.Subquery) - [Exists](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/ref/models/expressions/#django.db.models.Exists) Less change allowed Djangonauts to prep for 2.0 --- ### [2.0](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/2.0/) #### December 2, 2017 ##### Bye Python 2 - Semver-esque versioning convention - Simplified URL routing syntax (thank goodness) ```python # Before url(r'^articles/(?P<year>[0-9]{4})/$', views.year_archive), # After path('articles/<int:year>/', views.year_archive), ``` - Mobile-friendly Django admin --- ### [2.2 LTS](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/2.2/) #### April 1, 2019 ##### They can't keep getting away with April Fool's* - Fine-grained constraints via `Meta.constraints` - [CheckConstraint](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/ref/models/constraints/#django.db.models.CheckConstraint) - [UniqueConstraint](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/ref/models/constraints/#django.db.models.UniqueConstraint) <small>\* Their LTS release cadence is every 2 years</small> --- ### [3.0](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/3.0/) #### December 2, 2019 ##### How do you do, fellow ~~kids~~ ASGI? 🛹 - Official MariaDB (MySQL fork) support - Start to support* [ASGI](https://asgi.readthedocs.io/), WSGI's async-capable spiritual successor <small>\* Django middleware, views, ORM, etc. are still synchronous on 3.0</small> --- ### [3.1,](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/3.1/) [3.2 LTS](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/3.2/) #### April 6, 2021 ##### Async Views & Middleware - Practical `async` usage - Functional [views](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/topics/http/views/#async-views) can be async-capable - So can properly-defined [middleware](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/topics/http/middleware/#async-middleware) - [Testing](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/topics/testing/tools/#async-tests) is async-aware too! - `django.db.models` upgrades - [Functional indexes](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/3.2/#functional-indexes) - More DB backend support for [JSONField](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/3.1/#jsonfield-for-all-supported-database-backends) --- ### [4.0 LTS](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/4.0/) #### December 7, 2021 ##### Use Python's time zone support - Replaced `pytz` with Python's [zoneinfo](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zoneinfo.html#module-zoneinfo) - Forms, Formsets, ErrorList are now rendered using template engine - Stronger `scrypt` password hasher added - Built-in [Redis cache](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/topics/cache/#redis) support --- ### [4.1](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/releases/4.1/) #### August 3, 2022 ##### Where we are today - [Async class-based views](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/topics/class-based-views/#async-class-based-views) - [ORM is also becoming async-capable](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/topics/db/queries/#async-queries)

## Opinions & Criticisms ### My personal hot takes 🔥

### Is Django still worth learning? ## Yes. --- ### Support from Django Software Foundation & open-source community --- ### While it may not win in performance benchmarks, a dev can get up to speed fast. Development time usually exceeds performance considerations <small>Python itself <a href="https://github.com/faster-cpython/benchmarking-public/blob/main/RESULTS.md">has been getting faster</a></small> --- ### Django does a good job helping new devs write safer, cleaner code Reusable patterns, sane defaults, proper warnings where possible --- ### Packages I Enjoyed - [Django Debug Toolbar](https://pypi.org/project/django-debug-toolbar/) - Visual SQL query inspector 😍 - Close 2nd: template rendering time profiler - [Wagtail CMS](https://wagtail.org/) - NASA, Google, NHS 👀 - [Django REST Framework](https://www.django-rest-framework.org/) - API development stalwart in a SPA-filled world --- ## Criticisms --- ### Django relies on its own ORM The knowledge base built around its ORM is tougher to port over <small>I find myself wondering why other ORMs "aren't like Django's", for better and for worse.</small> <small>Mitigated by understanding my use case and abstracting my problem.</small> --- ### Django's own template engine gets far more attention Most template tutorials, guides, and packages rely on Django's engine instead of other venerable ones like Jinja2. <small>Again, I find myself wondering why other template engines "aren't like Django's"</small> --- ### It has always had strongest support for PostgreSQL It reached a boiling point when Django 1.8 added [PostgreSQL-specific model fields](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/ref/contrib/postgres/). <small>Why aren't other competing DBs as feature-filled as PostgreSQL?</small> --- ### Lack of NoSQL support Though, you might get away with relation DBs and `JSONField`... ...and I have a bone to pick about "schemaless" thought (or lack thereof) <small>Those who "hate migrations" end up paying the debt in their app logic</small> <small>and/or JSON/YAML eventually</small> --- ### Its `async/await` support A lot of tutorials & guides are written for synchronous Django With Django 4.x, `async` has improved (ORM, views, middleware) [Django Channels](https://channels.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) is supported by the DSF & supercharges Django's ASGI capabilities. <small>Remember: ASGI is not some free magical performance enhancer</small> <small>A bad (async) ORM query will (still) be super slow! 💣</small>

## Community

### Who uses Django? Pinterest, Instagram, Udemy, and many more! Source: [Stackshare](https://stackshare.io/django) --- ### DjangoCon(s) Big enough to have not one, but _two_ annual conventions! #### [US](https://2023.djangocon.us/) and the [EU](https://2023.djangocon.eu/) --- ### [Django Girls](https://djangogirls.org) Non-profit organization and community Empowering & helping women organize free, 1-day workshops --- ### [Dev Edmonton Society](https://devedmonton.com/) #### Find us in #meetup-edmontonpy and #django 🐍

## Future

### It's looking forwards-compatible There will always be new web technologies. Django won't be the first to adopt them. It will do so while ensuring your websites keep ticking. <small>We are forced to learn so much, so quickly that Django's stability is appreciated.</small> --- ### Expanding My Horizons After Djangonauting for 3+ years, I explored [FastAPI](https://www.django-rest-framework.org/). <small>Sacrilege?! _Nonsense_.</small> #### Different tools for different jobs. <small>FastAPI's [SQLAlchemy tutorial](https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/tutorial/sql-databases/) feels like a step backwards from Django's ORM 😵</small> I'm grateful learned Django before FastAPI, not the other way around.

## Conclusion #### Django is and will continue to be a venerable web framework [Get started](https://www.djangoproject.com/start/) & join fellow Djangonauts 🚀 --- ## Thank you 🥳 #### Questions?