Django Through The Years

A talk I gave at DjangoCon US 2022.

Transcript

1. THROUGH THE YEARS
   ANDREW GODWIN // @andrewgodwin
   DJANGO
   

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2. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
   Hi, I’m
   Andrew Godwin
   • Principal Engineer at Astronomer (w/on Airflow)
   • Django Migrations, Channels & Async
   • Doing odd things with Django since 2006
   

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3. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
   I love a nice, relaxing conference
   Sitting back, chatting to people, doing a panel tomorrow
   

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4. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
   

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5. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
   

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6. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
   FOR FUN AND MAYBE PROFIT
   CNC Machining
   

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7. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
   AND WHY BUILDING THEM IS HARD
   CAMPER VANS
   

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8. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
   AND HOW CUTE THEY ARE
   MY CATS
   

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9. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
   I've been using Django since 2006
   Yes, that is almost half my life now. Don't remind me.
   

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10. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    I've been attending DjangoCon since 2008
    That first one was a transformative experience in my life!
    

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11. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    

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12. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Schema Evolution Panel, 2008
    

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13. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Django was different back then…
    Here's some highlights from the 1.0 release, right before DjangoCon 2008
    

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14. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    

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15. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    

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16. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    

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17. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    

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18. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Cal Henderson's "Why I Hate Django"
    

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19. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    No multiple databases
    Dumb SQL generation
    Cookie-based sessions
    No good debugging tools
    No migration system
    Not smug enough
    

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20. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    No multiple databases
    Dumb SQL generation
    Cookie-based sessions
    No good debugging tools
    No migration system
    Not smug enough
    

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21. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    No multiple databases
    Dumb SQL generation
    Cookie-based sessions
    No good debugging tools
    No migration system
    Not smug enough
    

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22. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    South
    (Because birds migrate south in the winter)
    (It takes some people years and years to realise this)
    

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23. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    https://aeracode.org/speaking/
    

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24. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    https://aeracode.org/speaking/
    

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25. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Schema Evolution Panel, September 2008
    

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26. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Schema Evolution Panel, September 2008
    

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27. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Schema Evolution Panel, September 2008
    

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28. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Designing Django's Migrations, April 2014
    

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29. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Designing Django's Migrations, April 2014
    

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30. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Designing Django's Migrations, April 2014
    

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31. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Designing Django's Migrations, April 2014
    

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32. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Migrations Under The Hood, November 2014
    

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33. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Migrations Under The Hood, November 2014
    

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34. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Migrations Under The Hood, November 2014
    

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35. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Migrations Under The Hood, November 2014
    

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36. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Migrations Under The Hood, November 2014
    

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37. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Now, it Just Works™
    (I have to use Alembic at work right now and I'm missing Django)
    

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38. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    

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39. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Django is "Boring Software"
    And I mean this in the nicest way possible
    

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40. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    The Web went all-in on SPAs
    But it seems that wasn't the right choice for everything…
    

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41. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    What is Django?
    Is it complete? Do we have a goal?
    

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42. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    APIs rule the Earth
    Ideally just one set for all your apps
    

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43. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Django Rest Framework is good…
    …but I think FastAPI and Pydantic have some nice ideas too
    

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44. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    HTMX shows us a different way
    (I've tried, I'm just not a React/Vue/etc. person)
    

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45. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    id="print-form"
    action="."
    method="post"
    hx-post="."
    hx-swap="outerHTML"
    hx-trigger="change">
    {% csrf_token %}
    {{ form|crispy }}
    
    
    

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46. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    def create_print(request):
    if request.method == "POST":
    form = PrintForm(request.POST)
    if form.is_valid():
    if not request.htmx:
    # Do stuff
    else:
    form = PrintForm()
    if request.htmx:
    return render(request, "create/_print_form.html", {"form": form})
    else:
    return render(request, "create/print.html", {"form": form})
    

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47. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    So what can Django become?
    Is there a singular goal?
    

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48. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    What do today's developers need?
    What do we aim for? Who knows best?
    

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49. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    First-party API framework
    Inspired by DRF, FastAPI and others
    HTMX templating and form handling
    Doesn't have to be first-party, already some plugins
    Separately-useable ORM?
    I literally first heard this idea at DjangoCon in 2008
    

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50. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    But that's just what I want
    Django's best when we all work together and balance needs
    

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51. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    Big features are driven by individuals
    They need someone to take the wheel and work to a vision
    

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52. Andrew Godwin / @andrewgodwin
    You can inspire our future.
    And plenty of us are here to help out.
    

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53. Thanks!
    Andrew Godwin
    @andrewgodwin // aeracode.org
    

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