I’ve been reading up a bit on Python lately, which is a pretty popular high-level programming language used for a variety of applications - including web and desktop apps.  It’s used extensively in a lot of Linux applications, and Google utilizes Python in a lot of their work.  The performance of the language seems to be a key selling point, as does its refreshingly simple syntax.  Naturally, I’m curious about using the Django framework in my own work.

This doesn’t mean I’m leaving PHP in the dust - I still use it extensively at work, with no plans of stopping anytime soon - but I just have a feeling this is a language I would like to work in. Python’s syntax is similar to Ruby’s (at least at first glance), and from what I’ve read it outperforms Rails by quite a bit.

The project that I’m going to cut my Django teeth on is my wife and I’s blog: www.rustyandben.com. I talked briefly about overhauling the site a few months ago, but some other higher priority projects came up. I’m getting to the point now, however, where I can start working on it again. I’ll be re-designing and developing from scratch (obviously maintaining all data), so it makes the perfect opportunity to try out Django. I’ll be upgrading my Media Temple hosting to a virtual dedicated server so that I can have root-level access in order to install whatever software I want. This, in turn, will allow me to try out a couple other technologies I’ve been wanting to check out: SQLite (a lightweight flat-file database system) and Lighttpd (a lightweight and fast HTTP server). More on those as I assess their feasibility.

I’ll be posting about all this again soon, as I’m planning on writing a series of posts about the creation of the site.