FAQ: General¶
Why does this project exist?¶
Django grew from a very practical need: World Online, a newspaper Web operation, is responsible for building intensive Web applications on journalism deadlines. In the fast-paced newsroom, World Online often has only a matter of hours to take a complicated Web application from concept to public launch.
At the same time, the World Online Web developers have consistently been perfectionists when it comes to following best practices of Web development.
In fall 2003, the World Online developers (Adrian Holovaty and Simon Willison) ditched PHP and began using Python to develop its websites. As they built intensive, richly interactive sites such as Lawrence.com, they began to extract a generic Web development framework that let them build Web applications more and more quickly. They tweaked this framework constantly, adding improvements over two years.
In summer 2005, World Online decided to open-source the resulting software, Django. Django would not be possible without a whole host of open-source projects – Apache, Python, and PostgreSQL to name a few – and we’re thrilled to be able to give something back to the open-source community.
What does “Django” mean, and how do you pronounce it?¶
Django is named after Django Reinhardt, a jazz manouche guitarist from the 1930s to early 1950s. To this day, he’s considered one of the best guitarists of all time.
Listen to his music. You’ll like it.
Django is pronounced JANG-oh. Rhymes with FANG-oh. The “D” is silent.
We’ve also recorded an audio clip of the pronunciation.
Is Django stable?¶
Yes, it’s quite stable. Companies like Disqus, Instagram, Pinterest, and Mozilla have been using Django for many years. Sites built on Django have weathered traffic spikes of over 50 thousand hits per second.