id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
20267	default form values (not just initial)	clime	nobody	"Hello,

I am finding the ""initial"" functionality on forms lacking. 

With this form:

{{{
class Form(forms.Form):
    name = forms.CharField(required=False, initial='Hello world')
}}}


If in view, I do something like:


{{{
form = Form(request.GET)
if form.is_valid():
    name = form.cleaned_data['name']
}}}

Then initial value of name is lost even if request.GET does not contain name as key.

Why there is not just ""default"" attribute that would maintain the default value until being explicitly overwritten by request data? There are so few things I find inconvenient in Django but this is one of them."	New feature	closed	Forms	1.5	Normal	worksforme	form, default		Unreviewed	0	0	0	0	0	0