Book notes

An entry published by James Bennett on June 3, 2008, Part of the categories Django and Meta. 16 comments posted.

A few notes about the book:

No, there will not be a free download like Jacob and Adrian’s book. I believe an e-book version will be available, but it’ll be a for-pay download from Apress. I’m OK with that, because they’ve already given one Django book away, and I’d like them to make some money so they can keep publishing.
Yes, it’s written on the assumption of a checkout of Django trunk. A recent checkout (I was tracking queryset-refactor on the — correct — assumption that it would merge before my press date). There is absolutely no way whatsoever that you’ll be able to work through the book using the 0.96 release, which is a good thing: it means you’ve got less work to do to upgrade to 1.0 when it lands.
The book covers three applications: a simple CMS based on django.contrib.flatpages, a weblog, and a code-sharing application similar to the one in use on djangosnippets. It deliberately leaves lots of room for you to go back and add or tweak features once the book has moved on.
Because the current iteration of django.contrib.admin is going to be replaced before 1.0, I deliberately stayed away from discussion of customizing/hacking on the admin interface. The official Django docs do a good job of that already and, unlike a printed book, they can update immediately when newforms-admin lands.
I wrote with the assumption that, once something’s been explained in prose and demonstrated in a code sample, there’s no need to keep coming back to it over and over again; if you didn’t get it the first time, you can always go back a few pages and read over the explanation again. This means the book moves quite a bit faster as you get deeper into it, and assumes you’ll be able to keep up.
The style of the book resembles the Django tutorial in some ways: there are numerous occasions where I show you the wrong way to do something, then explain why it’s wrong and show the correct way.
Speaking of correct ways to do things: this book encourages best practices for application development whenever possible. This means standalone apps on the Python path, decoupling from project cruft and a whole chapter devoted to principles of reusable, distributable application development

No clue yet when it’ll actually appear on bookstore shelves, but theoretically sometime within the next month.

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On June 4, 2008, Daniel DiPaolo said:: Awesome, just in time for my July birthday. I know what I’ll be asking for/looking forward to.
On June 4, 2008, Joshua Works said:: Sounds completely solid, as completely expected. Count me in, completely.
On June 4, 2008, Steven Ametjan said:: Sounds like it will be a great book for someone who has a decent grasp on the Django basics, but wants to move further with the language. I will definitely be picking up a copy, and recommending it to at least two of my friends as well.
On June 4, 2008, Charlie said:: I’m getting toward the end of the other Django book… wondering whether whether it would be a great idea to get this one in my quest to learn app engine (which is the reason I have recently started exploring Django)?
On June 4, 2008, Nick Day said:: This sounds really good. I started learning Django a couple of months ago and have nearly finished building my first site with it - it’s very powerful and saves so much time over using PHP etc that I used to use. Have just preordered your book from Amazon!
On June 4, 2008, Kevin N. Murphy said:: Huzzah! Can’t wait man, this sounds awesome.
On June 4, 2008, Jannis Leidel said:: Cool James, this sounds just like the book I always wanted. Pre-ordered, yay!
On June 4, 2008, Lawrence Oluyede said:: Great James! Looking forward to read it :)
On June 4, 2008, Julie Miller said:: Hey folks, Julie from Apress here. Just wanted to pipe in and say that yes, we will be selling the eBook at apress.com. The book officially publishes on 23 June, so you’ll see it available online within a day or two of the 23rd. Brick and mortar bookstores should have stock in early July. Cheers!
On June 4, 2008, Scott Johnson said:: Congrats! It’s great to see more Django books coming to the market. I can’t wait to get a copy.
On June 4, 2008, Paul Solomon said:: Sweet. Congrats on this. I’ve ordered my copy and can’t wait to read it.
On June 4, 2008, drozzy said:: I’ll order it when it’s actually available. Preorder doesn’t sit right with me…
On June 5, 2008, Jentis said:: Definitely looking forward!
On June 5, 2008, Vic said:: Already pre-ordered. Hurry up already :)
On June 6, 2008, Eoghan Barr said:: Will be ordering the eBook (save the trees etc). Love the whole Django approach. It just makes sense…
On June 24, 2008, Mogga said:: bought the ebook. skimmed it. looking forward to walking through your code step by step… great stuff.

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