django/docs/faq.txt

==========
Django FAQ
==========

General questions
=================

Why does this project exist?
----------------------------

Django grew from a very practical need: in our fast-paced newsroom, we often
have only a matter of hours to take a complicated web application from
concept to public launch.  Django was designed to not only allow us to
build web applications quickly, but to allow us to build them right.

Django would not be possible without a whole host of open-source projects --
Apache, Python, and PostgresSQL to name a few -- and we're thrilled to be
able to give something back to the open source community.

How do you pronounce "Django"?
------------------------------

According to Wikipedia_, "Django is pronounced **zhane**-go (with a long 'a')."

.. _Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt

Is Django stable?
-----------------

We've been using Django for almost two years.  Sites built on Django have
weathered traffic spikes of over one million hits an hour, and at least
one slashdotting.  Yes; it's quite stable.

Does Django scale?
------------------

Yes.  Compared to development time, hardware is cheap, and so Django is
designed to take advantage of as much hardware as you can throw at it.
Django ships with clean separation of the database layer from the 
application layer and a simple yet powerful `cache framework`_.

.. _`cache framework`: http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/cache/

Who's behind this?
------------------

`Adrian Holovaty`_
    Adrian is a gypsy-jazz virtuoso, an amateur Beatles historian and a proud
    Chicagoan. He's also a pretty decent programmer, with a knack for whipping
    data into shape and putting it to work for the good of his fellow man.
    Adrian is the lead developer at World Online and the man behind the code at
    chicagocrime.org.

`Simon Willison`_
    XXX

`Jacob Kaplan-Moss`_
    Jacob is a whipper-snapper from California who spends equal time coding and
    cooking. He does Web development for World Online and actively hacks on
    various cool side projects. He's contributed to the Python-ObjC bindings and
    was the first guy to figure out how to write Tivo apps in Python. Lately
    he's been messing with Python on the PSP.

`Wilson Miner`_
    Wilson's design-fu makes us all look like rock stars. When not sneaking
    into apartment complex swimming pools  he is the Commercial Development
    Director for World Online, which means he makes the money that pays all our
    paychecks.  
        
.. _`Adrian Holovaty`: http://www.holovaty.com/
.. _`Simon Willison`: http://simon.incutio.com/
.. _`Jacob Kaplan-Moss`: http://www.jacobian.org/
.. _`Wilson Miner`: http://www.wilsonminer.com/live/

Using Django
============

How do I get started?
---------------------

...

The admin interface
===================

The admin site is ugly!  How can I change it?
---------------------------------------------

We think it's very purty, but if you don't agree you can modify the admin site's
presentation by editing the CSS stylesheet and/or associated image files.  The 
site is built using semantic HTML, so any changes you'd like to make should be
possible by editing the CSS stylesheet.  We've got a `guide to the CSS used 
in the admin`_ to get you started.

.. _`guide to the CSS used in the admin`: http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/admin_css/