I get asked a lot where to start if you’re looking to python for web backed work. A lot of people look at Django and Flask and feel that Flask is where they should start. It’s nice and small, very simple, and after all they’re not doing anything big and complicated, so why start with a big, complicated framework? This reminds me if something that happens in the running world. People get started running then either a) read Born to Run, or b) hear someone talking about the benefits of so-called barefoot running.

Most of you who know me have heard me talk about Armstrong, the open-source news platform that I helped create when I first joined the Texas Tribune. I have and continue to talk at length about Armstrong and its future, but I’ve never collected those thoughts into one cohesive document outlining how we got to where we are now, what the current state of the project is, and where I hope to see it go.

Here at the Texas Tribune, we started using a project called django-chunks some time last year. Consider this post a cautionary tale and think long and hard before you start using. We didn’t. We’re paying the price. The Promise django-chunks gives you the ability to inject arbitrary chunks of HTML into any template inside Django. You load up a template tag library, call a templatetag, and you’re off to the races.