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History of Django

Django is a high-level Python web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. Built by experienced developers, it takes care of much of the hassle of web development, so you can focus on writing your app without needing to reinvent the wheel. It’s free and open source.

The Beginning of Django​

Django was born in the fall of 2003, when the web programmers at the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper, Adrian Holovaty and Simon Willison, began using Python to build applications. It started as an internal project at the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper to make it easier to build web applications.

At that time, Holovaty and Willison, along with designers Wilson Miner and Jacob Kaplan-Moss, were working on a complete refactoring of the newspaper's web production process, and Django evolved out of this work. It was named after Django Reinhardt, a gypsy jazz guitarist from the 1930s to early 1950s who is known to this day as one of the best guitarists of all time.

Django Becomes Open-Source​

In July 2005, Django was released as open-source. This means that anyone can use, change, and distribute the project for any purpose. The framework received a very positive response from the developer community, which led to a rapid increase in its usage and popularity.

Django's Design Philosophies​

Django follows a few key design philosophies:

  • Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY): Every piece of information should have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system.

  • Explicit is better than implicit: Django believes in clearly spelling out things and not using any magic unless absolutely necessary.

  • Loose Coupling: Django strives to make each element of its stack independent of the others.

  • Less coding, more functionality: Django includes many modules and middleware you can use to handle common Web development tasks. Django takes care of user authentication, content administration, site maps, RSS feeds, and many more tasks — right out of the box.

Django's Popularity Over Time​

Since its creation, Django's popularity has only grown. Today, many high-traffic websites like Instagram, Pinterest, and The Washington Post use Django. The framework is also very popular among startups, as it allows for rapid development of complex web applications.

Django Today​

Today, Django is more than just a framework. It's a community and a platform for web development, with tools and apps built around it. It continues to be developed and maintained by the Django Software Foundation (DSF), an independent non-profit organization.

In conclusion, Django has made a significant impact in the world of web development since its inception, and it continues to do so. It's a powerful, robust, and efficient framework that has all the tools you need to build complex web applications. Considering its rich history and the philosophies it upholds, it's no wonder that Django is a preferred choice for web developers around the world.