Django too seems to make things specially hard for beginners, I'm not sure why that is. I don't mean the getting started part, the doing something useful by yourself part after the tutorial.
Maybe there should be a second option "barebones" that created a settings file with most features disabled by default (yes, even the Admin.) Users who just needed a simple WSGI-compliant framework could start from there instead of figuring out what stuff to disable. You'd basically be on pair with Flask, with the advantage of having access to the advanced features just by dropping stuff in your INSTALLED_APPS and MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES settings.
I eventually jumped to doing more webapp2, and I know there's a devout Flask community as a Django alternative. Haven't played with enough Flask to say anything yea or nay for beginners, though.
What would be an example of something you encountered with django that required getting creative quickly, that rails handles more routinely?
For me, the trickiest thing in either ecosystem to get a handle on was probably rspec. I tried to learn it by osmosis and that was probably the wrong way to go. In the end, it's worth having a DSL for writing tests and leads to nice clean readable code.
When people are trying to learn rails, I point them to Rails 3 in Action and Michael Hartl's online tutorial, but still need a better reference for learning rspec. suggestions are appreciated.
Really? Tell me where the Flask community is.
I actually regretted my decision of choosing Flask over Django after 2 months of working with it precisely for that very reason.
You can find tons and tons of tutorials, docs, writings about best practices from others, crowded IRC discussions, etc. for Django -- not so for Flask. But maybe I'm mistaken? I'd love it if you clue me in as to where all the Flask people are hiding.
On the other hand, Django's 'batteries included' philosophy means you can deploy a generic CMS application very quickly.