While I think it is bad to not have a 404.html, I think this could be cleaner since it does work when DEBUG=False. This could lead to a broken site when it is deployed by simply changing the DEBUG setting, which I think is bad.
If flatpages and DEBUG=False and 404.html doesn't exist it throws the error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/opt/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages/django/core/servers/basehttp.py", line 272, in run
self.result = application(self.environ, self.start_response)
File "/opt/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages/django/core/servers/basehttp.py", line 614, in __call__
return self.application(environ, start_response)
File "/opt/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py", line 189, in __call__
response = self.get_response(request)
File "/opt/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py", line 103, in get_response
return callback(request, **param_dict)
File "/opt/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages/django/views/defaults.py", line 78, in page_not_found
t = loader.get_template(template_name)
File "/opt/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages/django/template/loader.py", line 79, in get_template
source, origin = find_template_source(template_name)
File "/opt/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages/django/template/loader.py", line 72, in find_template_source
raise TemplateDoesNotExist, name
TemplateDoesNotExist: 404.html
When DEBUG=False, get_response in core/handlers/base.py triggers the callback to the handler404 which is 'django.views.defaults.page_not_found' which eventually loads the template 404.html. If it doesn't exist, you get the error above.
When DEBUG=True, get_response loads the django.views.debug.technical_404_response.
I see two options for a fix (and one isn't really a "fix")...
1. Change documentation to say that flatpages require that you have a 404.html template.
2. Fix this so it works the same in both DEBUG states.
If #2 is the best option, this requires a design decision.
One fix could be to change get_response to know whether flatpages is enabled and switch the way it handles the call to page_not_found. But that couples the base handler to flatpages which is bad.
Another fix could be to change page_not_found to not try to load the 404.html template just yet if flatpages exists. But again, this couples flatpages to django/core when it is supposed to be a contrib app.
Not sure what the best answer is.
