> One of Django's strengths is in the fact that parts of the framework come off easily when they no longer serve your needs. If the ORM is no longer working for you, you can use SQLAlchemy. Authentication no longer working for you? Write your own or use a 3rd party one.
Yes and no (disclaimer: I mostly use Django for my development), while parts come off easily the tools provided by the framework are "standard" and taking them off usually means not being able to take advantages of many Django features, e.g. if you replace django's ORM with SQLAlchemy, you'll have to say goodbye to the admin or to ModelForms, if you don't use Django's auth then extensions to it (django-registration &al) will have to be torn-out and/or reimplemented, ...
So while theoretically you can remove things, it's not a straightforward process and it'll likely be a lonesome road.
I think you can use SQLAlchemy in the context of Django to assist creating custom & complex SQL queries. You don't necessarily have to use SQLAlchemy and replace Django's ORM.
Yes and no (disclaimer: I mostly use Django for my development), while parts come off easily the tools provided by the framework are "standard" and taking them off usually means not being able to take advantages of many Django features, e.g. if you replace django's ORM with SQLAlchemy, you'll have to say goodbye to the admin or to ModelForms, if you don't use Django's auth then extensions to it (django-registration &al) will have to be torn-out and/or reimplemented, ...
So while theoretically you can remove things, it's not a straightforward process and it'll likely be a lonesome road.