Django Through the Years with Andrew Godwin - DjangoCon US 2022

Join Andrew Godwin as he shares Django's evolution, highlighting its growth, challenges, and innovations over the years, emphasizing the importance of documentation, UX, and community involvement in its journey.

Key takeaways
  • Django’s evolution since its inception was marked by significant changes and innovations, including the introduction of asynchronous handling and schema changes.
  • The importance of documentation and user experience was emphasized, particularly in the age of rapid changes and feature additions.
  • The concept of “ separating the view from the controller” was mentioned, with a suggestion to potentially make the Django ORM more separable.
  • The panel discussion on Django’s future and Martin JC’s blog post “Why I hate Django” were referenced, highlighting the need for a more modern and welcoming community.
  • The idea of shipping and conference speaking was mentioned, with a call to action to engage in activities outside of the conference.
  • Andrew Godwin’s experience of releasing a new piece of software called South in 2005 was referenced, which had a significant impact on his career and community involvement.
  • The data science community’s adoption of Django as a suitable language for data analysis and machine learning was noted.
  • The importance of maintaining and improving developer experience was highlighted, particularly in light of the rise of alternative frameworks and tools.
  • The versatility and flexibility of Django ORM were underlined, with a suggestion to explore its potential for more advanced use cases.
  • The significance of open-source maintenance and the need for more contributors was emphasized, with a call to action for people to get involved and continue pushing the language forward.
  • The historical context of Django’s development, including changes in technology and the community’s growth, was explored.
  • The importance of learning from failures and being willing to admit and tackle mistakes was highlighted.