If you're into Python web development you've probably found yourself looking for a way to easily implement REST APIs on your backend, and I’m quite sure you found that one of the most solid and robust solutions is Django REST Framework (“DRF” from now on). DRF has a simple learning curve and nice API, integrates really well with other Django apps (both if your data comes from the ORM or elsewhere, is really fast and reliable, it's very well documented, the online community is helpful and friendly and it has a healthy ecosystem of tools, both built-in and as add-on packages). I don't want to bore you with the very long list of good things about it, but in short, it's the default solution we grab at Machinalis for many of our projects, both for internal ones and for applications we build for our clients (if you didn’t know, companies hire us to build complex web apps and APIs, knowing that our team has a high seniority in Python + Django).
DRF is an Open Source project, which for a lot of people means “it's free”, but in reality it means “someone else is paying for it”, typically with volunteered contributor time. In the case of DRF, even if there's a community of contributors, the heaviest hauler by quite a long distance is Tom Christie, who is also DRF's original author. DRF is brilliant mostly because of Tom's work, which has largely come from volunteer time (with some support from his former employers).
So now, I'm really proud to announce that Machinalis has hired Tom Christie to work on DRF. For a company like ours, ensuring the continuity of a critical piece of our software infrastructure is a must, and we know that investing on it will bring features and bug fixes that will make us more effective at providing software development services, so it's an obvious choice.
But wait... YOU should ALSO hire him!
Our agreement with him is non-exclusive. In fact, many companies and individuals have opted for different tiers of sponsorship, some of them starting as low as $15 US dollars. Tom left his engineering position as an employee in May 2016 and decided to arrange this funding program. If you use DRF in any professional capacity, you probably should join us and hire Tom Christie too. We all depend on Open Source and these support programmes are an important step in making it sustainable.
I hope the title of this post hasn't misled you. If you hire Machinalis to build your site or your API, you'll get to work with a team of amazing people and engineers which won't include Tom. However, his job will still be building an essential part of your product, and now we can count on it.