Should I Learn Python or Django?

Should I learn Python or Django?

Python and Ruby are the two major development languages for new apps these days, assuming you aren't working in Objective C for the iOS.

I've heard I should know Python or Django or both.

Learn Python directly. It is not one of the harder programming languages to learn.

Yet Python plus Django is supposedly more powerful.

Frameworks take the basic syntax of a language and add another layer of complexity. In theory, you make the code more efficient, but you have to know how to ride a bike before you study BMX racing.

You want me to learn the language before I learn the framework.

Python programmers learn that everything is an object. You can mess things up by learning Django first, because Django hides the objects as strings.

You can learn JavaScript without learning jQuery. In theory, you can learn jQuery without learning JavaScript.

That's like learning Spanish question words without understanding the answers. Don't waste time learning how to ask where the bathroom is if you don't understand the directions to the restroom.

jQuery is Java.

If you try to learn Django without knowing Python first, you'll waste twice as much time looking up terms for Object Oriented programming. If you try to work with Django without knowing Python, you'll make design mistakes that are that much harder to fix.

If I'm learning Python, I might as well learn the basics of the framework. Or the framework first.

Settings.py is a critical Python configuration file, but you miss that if you start with Django. Programmers like using Python's built in data structures, but you don't learn how to use that if you rely on Django.

So you think I should learn Python first.

If you try to learn Ruby and Rails at the same time, you'll get slowed down looking up Ruby syntax every other sentence while trying to learn Rails because you don't know Ruby.

Fine. I'll learn the language first.

Muy bueno!