I started coding in python like 12 years ago, within the zope environment. It was for a project called StarRave. It was designed to replace the thousands of websites like "midwest raves" "sf raves" etc. It did end up getting deployed on several servers, but did not get adopted widely. It was a great project to dive head first into python.
I've been coding inside zope ever since. With great results.
About a year ago, Telly, Joshua, and Chris all started working on me to try django. After a few months of resistance, I gave in, and started to install and configure it. The install and configuration was a nightmare. I had to install python, django, mysql, and apache across 3 different machines, all with isolated environment vars. It did not go well.
After 2 weeks of consistent effort, I finally got all 3 machines working, and sharing the codebase over SVN. I kept working in django for another few weeks, until I finally abandoned it when Todd needed to get at the source. He was going to have to go through all of the same installation and configuration headache to get his dev environment working. We went back to zope, and finished the project in there.
This past weekend, I went looking for a server solution for my next project. I wanted something running in the cloud, that was distributed and scalable, and hopefully python.
I found Google App Engine.
Following this great django how-to I had a django instance running inside a windows local app engine server in less than 5 minutes. I had SVN connected and an install on a mac running 5 minutes later. No mysql, no apache, no configuration. Just a cute installer and a command line.
I'm just getting back into django, but this is the way. It has completely removed the installation headache, and has so many inherent bonuses that it's just amazing.
It is one of those days where I am completely struck with the awesomeness that is google.
/win
