How could someone start Python programming with webapp2 ? This is weird. Of course Rails felt like an improvement for him.
Where did you get stumped with Django?
I use Django to do all kinds of "non-traditional" stuff (key-based API authentication, automatic object-level caching, custom form fields, using Postgres features such as UUID fields and fulltext search) and none of it took me that much work. But then, I've been using Django for a few years now and know the ins and outs quite well.
I can see how you'd be enticed by a simpler framework such as webapp2 or Flask as a starting point. But I've found that Django is as flexible if you just consider that most of the built-in features that Django provides (even the awesome ORM) are optional if you know what apps and middleware to disable.
And when I was learning Django, I didn't know this. I moved to webapp2 because I could put only what I wanted in an application. I'm sure that if I sat down and re-dedicated myself to learning Django like I'm doing with Rails, I might have a better time at it the second go-around.
There should probably be a chapter on the tutorial with a simplified version of that. It'd help newcomers understand where everything fits.
In any case, I'm glad you found a tool that does what you need as long as it isn't written in PHP :P
[1] http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2006/jun/13/how-django-processe...
I, personally, used to do it all by myself as a PHP developer, where I wrote raw sql queries and handled the raw HTTP request. Once I figured out ORM in django and its custom templating system, everything becomes so much less code and easy to implement.
Nothing in that logic adds up. And for the record, I've yet to do a "traditional" web app in Django. Having taken the time to learn it inside and out I get all the benefits of flexibility that I would with something like Flask/webapp2, but retain the convention and mindshare for the rest of the project that does fit into common usecases.
I could write much of the same post and have it apply to Django as well. Django is designed to abstract away work, which means that it's difficult to really see what your application should be doing if you don't already know. If you've learned how to manage user authentication manually, you can appreciate and tweak what Django/Rails are doing. If your first experience with a web framework is having Django manage all of that for you, then you have no idea how to tweak it or debug it.
Ultimately, this is not a Django versus Rails debate - I just used my current Rails experience and prior Django experience as anecdote. I can't claim enough knowledge of Django or Rails to even advise someone on which to learn; all I can do is talk about my own experience and raise questions.