Why is Django so much harder!

Django is a professional framework with the ability to produce professional quality websites with the least amount of effort.

However...

*Django is not the easiest framework to learn because it includes so much-- routing, administrative interface, object relational mapper (ORM), etc. * At first, Django has a very "black box" feel when you begin using it, you don't have to understand what is going on fully to make working applications. However, you do have to conform to the "Django way" of doing things.

If you want to take a slightly gentler introduction to Python frameworks, then you should study Flask. Flask makes it easy to have a 1-file app. There are excellent Treehouse courses on it. With Flask, the programmer has more decisions to make-- what kind of database to use, how to implement security, etc. I have written major applications in Flask that are just as robust as those built by Django. What's nice is that this framework can easily run on a Raspberry Pi or other IoT computer, but can scale to running high performance websites with thousands of hits per hour!

The "Flask Basics" course on Treehouse is excellent, probably the best one you will find anywhere!

https://teamtreehouse.com/library/flask-basics

If you're interested in the Ruby language, you might want to take a look at "Building web apps with Sinatra." Again, this has excellent content worth your time.

https://teamtreehouse.com/library/building-web-apps-with-sinatra

Here's what a very simple Hello World with two routes program would look like on Flask. I took the liberty of commenting the featured functionality.

from flask import Flask

# instantiate the Flask app
app = Flask(__name__)

# declare a route /
@app.route('/')
def hello():
    return "Hello World from Flask!"

# declare a route /greet with a url parameter (e.g. /greet/Dakota)
@app.route('/greet/<name>')
def greet(name):
    return "Hi there " + name

# starts the app that serves as a host to any client on port 8000
app.run(host='0.0.0.0', port=8000)