A related question: what is the state of Python's lighter frameworks versus Ruby's Sinatra? I haven't used Rails in awhile, but since ActiveRecord, ActiveSupport, etc have been refactored into framework agnostic libraries, I've been able to build lighter websites using Sinatra or Padrino (which sits atop Sinatra) using my Rails experience. And of course,Rails itself has allowed for components to be switched in for their AR equivalents, e.g. MongoMapper

How swappable are the core components of Django?