3 ms·

I know one of the co-creators (Simon W) is quite active on HN :)

BeetleB 1y ago
Simon wasn't a cofounder. He was an early employee/intern for LJW though. Perhaps the first person other than Jacob or Adrian to work on it.
- indigodaddy 1y ago
  Wikipedia says Jacob was hired shortly before Simon's internship ended though. Not sure why you are trying to imply that Simon wasn't a co-creator. https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-history-of-the-Django-web-framework-Why-has-it-been-described-as-developed-in-a-newsroom/answer/Simon-Willison?ch=15&oid=88764&share=4fb920ef&srid=7UvE&target_type=answer https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-history-of-the-Django-web-...
  - hungryhobbit 1y ago
    In general when an intern works on something before you get there, and then you do all the real work, the intern doesn't get co-creator status.
    - runjake 1y ago
      You have silly rules. simonw co-created Django. It's a fact. You don't have to like it.
    - peterashford 1y ago
      This sounds like the Musk rule of company founding
- simonw 1y ago
  Adrian and I co-created Django while I was working at LJW in a "year in industry" program from my UK university - which got me a student visa, so you could call it an "internship" but it was paid and 11 months long. Jacob joined shortly before I left, then Adrian and Jacob turned Django from a closed-source newspaper CMS project into open source Django. I think they deserve way more credit for the framework than I do, they made it open source and were co-BDFLs for the next decade of development. I'll still take the co-creator credit though, because Adrian and I designed, built and sometimes even pair-programmed the core of the framework - request/response objects, view functions, template system - together during my year at the LJW. If you're interested in more details I told a bunch of the story in this talk: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/13/django-birthday/ https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/13/django-birthday/ - and more in this Fireside Chat interview at PyCon AU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E_UqhFmJQs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E_UqhFmJQs
  - BeetleB 1y ago
    Hey Simon and everyone else. I was write to be downvoted. Apologies for getting it wrong. I started using Django in 2008, and Simon's influence was very apparent at that point - my comment was not meant to belittle his contributions (I also follow him on Mastodon - big fan of his comments on HN and there). I guess my memory was just wrong. I knew Jacob was hired after Adrian - but I thought they both started Django after Jacob joined, and Simon was an early intern. I had the ordering totally wrong.
- pyman 1y ago
  Django was developed by Adrian and Simon, and the django site was created by Wilson Miner.
  - simonw 1y ago
    Jacob joined a little later but I think of him as a co-creator as he worked on Django substantially prior to the initial open source release, then acted as co-BDFL with Adrian for the next decade.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]

Simon wasn't a cofounder. He was an early employee/intern for LJW though. Perhaps the first person other than Jacob or Adrian to work on it.

indigodaddy 1y ago
Wikipedia says Jacob was hired shortly before Simon's internship ended though. Not sure why you are trying to imply that Simon wasn't a co-creator. https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-history-of-the-Django-web-framework-Why-has-it-been-described-as-developed-in-a-newsroom/answer/Simon-Willison?ch=15&oid=88764&share=4fb920ef&srid=7UvE&target_type=answer https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-history-of-the-Django-web-...
- hungryhobbit 1y ago
  In general when an intern works on something before you get there, and then you do all the real work, the intern doesn't get co-creator status.
  - runjake 1y ago
    You have silly rules. simonw co-created Django. It's a fact. You don't have to like it.
  - peterashford 1y ago
    This sounds like the Musk rule of company founding
simonw 1y ago
Adrian and I co-created Django while I was working at LJW in a "year in industry" program from my UK university - which got me a student visa, so you could call it an "internship" but it was paid and 11 months long. Jacob joined shortly before I left, then Adrian and Jacob turned Django from a closed-source newspaper CMS project into open source Django. I think they deserve way more credit for the framework than I do, they made it open source and were co-BDFLs for the next decade of development. I'll still take the co-creator credit though, because Adrian and I designed, built and sometimes even pair-programmed the core of the framework - request/response objects, view functions, template system - together during my year at the LJW. If you're interested in more details I told a bunch of the story in this talk: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/13/django-birthday/ https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/13/django-birthday/ - and more in this Fireside Chat interview at PyCon AU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E_UqhFmJQs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E_UqhFmJQs
- BeetleB 1y ago
  Hey Simon and everyone else. I was write to be downvoted. Apologies for getting it wrong. I started using Django in 2008, and Simon's influence was very apparent at that point - my comment was not meant to belittle his contributions (I also follow him on Mastodon - big fan of his comments on HN and there). I guess my memory was just wrong. I knew Jacob was hired after Adrian - but I thought they both started Django after Jacob joined, and Simon was an early intern. I had the ordering totally wrong.
pyman 1y ago
Django was developed by Adrian and Simon, and the django site was created by Wilson Miner.
- simonw 1y ago
  Jacob joined a little later but I think of him as a co-creator as he worked on Django substantially prior to the initial open source release, then acted as co-BDFL with Adrian for the next decade.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]