What kind of project would anyone use Python/Django for?

dalearyous

[H]ard|Gawd
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this is not a post to state what language is better than others, i just want a real world project or problem that can be solved best with python.
 
The P in LAMP has come to evolve into meaning Python, Perl or PHP, so there's a whole universe of web applications for which python would work great. And while Perl is enjoying its throne as the scripting king (because people like me prefer it, not because it's necessarily technically superior to python), python is perfectly acceptable for scripting use anywhere perl is.
 
this is not a post to state what language is better than others, i just want a real world project or problem that can be solved best with python.
Still sounds like you'll get a series of responses with a fair amount of subjective and assumed details.

The thread topic could be stated another way: What is a real world problem that was solved after making several implementations in multiple programming languages, and yet the Python implementation was deemed "the best"? Please qualify with testing analysis, hardware/network/infrastructure details, you (and, if applicable, your team's) experience level in each programming language implementations, external or third party dependencies, etc.

I think the "best" solution is significantly weighted by maintainability, which the current thread topic either assumes or ignores.
 
What PTNL said.

I am just trying to see if it warrants my time to learn as i already use PHP extensively. I am always open to better solutions.
 
I am just trying to see if it warrants my time to learn as i already use PHP extensively. I am always open to better solutions.
If you're uncertain or on the fence, then just learn it and add another tool to your development belt. It's not going to penalize you for doing so.

Spend a weekend learning the basics, and another porting some tiny app of yours into Python.
 
What PTNL said.

I am just trying to see if it warrants my time to learn as i already use PHP extensively. I am always open to better solutions.

If you already use PHP, you shouldn't have difficulty learning Python, so what do you really have to lose?
 
What PTNL said.

I am just trying to see if it warrants my time to learn as i already use PHP extensively. I am always open to better solutions.

Anything that you learn from is worth your time, that goes for mistakes too. I learn just as much from the wrong way I've done something as I do learning the right way from the get go.
 
i just haven't seen a demanding app that can't be solved using drupal and some PHP. colleague recommended i learn python and after going through some tutorials i am stuck with the notion: "what for" ... i can rip out an amazing product using the toolset i have now. maybe he gave me a bad case for it i dunno. always staying open minded.
 
Python is pretty widely used in GIS development, due to access to libraries like numpy and GDAL. GeoDJango is really popular for this kind of work.
 
Every programming language, framework, technology, etc I have learned throughout my career has taught me something valuable. If the only tool in your belt you respect or like working with is PHP / Drupal, expanding your horizons will certainly be of benefit to your future as a developer. If you are looking for a reason to spend any time learning python (/django), that seems like a pretty good one.

As to the actual question there are a ton of great sites built with django (http://www.mozilla.org/ is a pretty cool one). Was it the best solution? Well, that is impossible to answer- my guess would be it was chosen to be the best by the team behind the project based on their requirements, knowledge, and hopefully research. It's probably easier to say PHP/Drupal would not have been the "best solution". It would have simply been another solution- as would have been any of the thousands of other possible solutions.
 
I have used PHP for 10 years now and recently looked into learning either Python/Django or RoR. PHP isn't the cleanest language of the bunch but it is as popular as it is because it is very easy to learn, was there to take the place of CGI when there was no competition, very well documented and very well supported on web hosts.

From doing research, it doesn't seem that either of these solutions can do stuff the other can't. Anyway, here is a cool infographic I ran across one day.

http://www.udemy.com/blog/modern-language-wars/

I have to admit, I'd like to move away from PHP just for the coolness factor but if you are planning to make an open source project, just remember that of the three solutions I mentioned, PHP is supported by 10x the number of webhosts that the other two are.
 
Staples, thanks for that link!

everyone's feedback has been great and i think i will tackle it as a side project for now!
 
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