fidzu : django

It's been another month of slow writing and not for want, but in between holidays and the same amount of work, the blog post just got squeezed out each week. Additionally the GSoC project that I have been mentoring took a slight turn into more of a research based thing rather than trying to push anything into Django right now.

However with the GSoC research itself and the recent features of tasks, the email updates, my own prodserver package, I'm beginning to solidify in my head what a modern Django feature looks like. One thing to clarify here is when I use the word feature, I'm referencing a concept that Django can represent, such as Databases, Tasks, Emails & Storage.

These features while different in what they achieve have a very similar architecture within Django, marked by some common characteristics:

• A common API for the rest of Django to use
• A single settings configuration, typically a dictionary
• Pluggable backends that do the actual implementation and specified in the above settings
• Minimal backend implementations inside Django (except Databases), with extra implementations provided as community packages

This architecture leans into Django being an API layer for various concepts that all tie together to become a website or web app. I'm taking this route with prodserver and this approach also taken by by mentee for GSoC when producing django-experimental and django-featurevault.

Django Experimental is a proof of concept around how an experimental features may be added to Django at some point. Django Feature Vault is a similar package specifically targeting an API for feature flags native to Django. Please do give them a read and a spin on a project if you like and raise issues. Both also have associated draft DEPs (Experimental, Feature Flags) available to review and comment.

I wonder if we can more formally codify this architecture (perhaps a copier package template?) to continue to smooth the on-ramp for those that want to contribute new features and ideas to Django and the community.

27 Aug 2026 5:00am GMT

A written guide to my talk on deploying Django and why 90% of it is the same.

26 Aug 2026 11:57am GMT

When I read consistent, cohesive code, I have a feel for its author. I may disagree with the ideas, but I can feel where the author is driving it. Other times the feel is split-brain - the code's "energy" is fractured, the work of unaligned hands each solving its own small problem, none with an idea where the whole is going. Immediately I feel it should be rewritten or refactored holistically.

Here is the paradox. Most of us are dedicated professionals with years of experience, and bad code is everywhere. Programmers I respect produce it; my own code is far from perfect. Why?

25 Aug 2026 10:00am GMT