We have 138 PyOhio registrants so far - that's greater than the total number of attendees last year. I'm excited!
Is there a shutterbug in the house? I'm always envious of the photos taken at some conferences, like this one of Python core sprinters at EuroPython. (Hi, guys! Our contribu-palooza-ers will be joining you soon!) I want to join the fun. Our PyOhio attendees are just as pretty as any of them!
So if you enjoy taking pictures, and you're coming to PyOhio (and who wouldn't?), please don't forget your camera! Get some group shots, and let me know about them afterward. Thanks!
See you Saturday!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
PyOhio
We are 15 days from the third PyOhio, and I am so excited... My first hope for PyOhio was that it would become a little slice of PyCon-ish goodness in our region... we've definitely accomplished that. This year we're adding on some very serious sprinting that, I think, will make PyOhio an important part of the Python scene not just here, but worldwide.
- The Android Scripting Workshop has the potential to make Python-lovers of a whole new class of people who wouldn't even call themselves programmers (yet)... people who love their powerful Android phones and will love them even more once they learn the power of scripting on them. One question I'd like your advice on: how do we let these people know about the workshop? They're not reading my blog, after all...
- The Contribu-palooza is a set of linked events (a classic talk, a "Teach Me" talk, and a big fat sprint) designed to make you into a contributor to the Python language, starting from nothing - we supply the motivation, the skills, and then the hands-on practice. I'd like to see this produce both an immediate new set of Python contributors (including me) and a new way of bringing contributors in.
I hope to see you there!
Friday, July 02, 2010
talking with women
A man at a conference I was at a couple months ago approached me to talk about databases.
It was, in all ways, a good and appropriate conversation, and an example of the reason I go to conferences like that in the first place. But he later confessed to me that he'd been very hesitant to speak to me because he was afraid it would come across as cover for some kind of flirtation. It seemed ridiculous, because he was so far from anything inappropriate, but his uncertainty came a hair's breadth from actually diminishing the conference's benefit to both of us.
You see the big fat irony. Avoiding sexualizing a woman's professional environment is an absolutely appropriate and important goal. But sidelining women from a professional community's social aspects is genuinely harmful.
Most men can easily judge for themselves the difference between friendly and creepy, but geekdom is infamous for its high proportion of the awkward.* I'd love it if there were a really clear and well-known rule of thumb that would assure even the most shy and awkward guys about where "the line" is. The hard part is that men differ so widely in their judgements and self-judgements. Some will be critical or suspicious of themselves at virtually anything, and some find excuses for even the most egregious of their own behavior. It's hard to know how to encourage the former but not the latter.
My first thoughts -
* - Understand that, when I say this, it's with affection. I love the socially awkward! I find communities where everybody adheres smoothly to a single social standard to be boring and uncreative. I hope geekdom will always be a haven for the awkward.
** - Obviously not a very useful standard for bisexual people.
It was, in all ways, a good and appropriate conversation, and an example of the reason I go to conferences like that in the first place. But he later confessed to me that he'd been very hesitant to speak to me because he was afraid it would come across as cover for some kind of flirtation. It seemed ridiculous, because he was so far from anything inappropriate, but his uncertainty came a hair's breadth from actually diminishing the conference's benefit to both of us.
You see the big fat irony. Avoiding sexualizing a woman's professional environment is an absolutely appropriate and important goal. But sidelining women from a professional community's social aspects is genuinely harmful.
Most men can easily judge for themselves the difference between friendly and creepy, but geekdom is infamous for its high proportion of the awkward.* I'd love it if there were a really clear and well-known rule of thumb that would assure even the most shy and awkward guys about where "the line" is. The hard part is that men differ so widely in their judgements and self-judgements. Some will be critical or suspicious of themselves at virtually anything, and some find excuses for even the most egregious of their own behavior. It's hard to know how to encourage the former but not the latter.
My first thoughts -
- Imagine that she were a man. Would you still do or say what you're doing or saying now, or would it feel too awkward?**
- If you're genuinely worried about it, you're probably not a problem guy in the first place.
* - Understand that, when I say this, it's with affection. I love the socially awkward! I find communities where everybody adheres smoothly to a single social standard to be boring and uncreative. I hope geekdom will always be a haven for the awkward.
** - Obviously not a very useful standard for bisexual people.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Dayton Dynamic Languages User Group
In Dayton, we don't have a dedicated Python user group; instead, we have the Dynamic Languages User Group. I always struggle to explain why I enjoy this group so much, because a quick description doesn't sound that impressive. Each meeting is 5-10 people scattered across the entire dynamic language landscape: Python, Ruby, Perl, JavaScript, PHP... now and then somebody will throw in some LISP or whatnot. There's only occasionally a formal presentation.
Instead, there are people who are very open about sharing both what they know (which is impressive) and what they don't know (which is more important). I've never been in a group where people are more uninhibited about saying, "Wait -- I don't get it." As a result, everything we do gets enriched by some extremely good discussion.
When we don't have a formal presentation, we sometimes walk through a code project somebody's working on, or research a programming topic together (like dependency injection). Recently we've started publishing a simple programming problem and asking the members to bring a solution in their favorite language - reviewing the various solutions is a nice exercise in both language details and programming approaches.
Come see us sometime. We meet the second Wednesday of the month at 7:00 PM at the Dayton Chess Club.
Instead, there are people who are very open about sharing both what they know (which is impressive) and what they don't know (which is more important). I've never been in a group where people are more uninhibited about saying, "Wait -- I don't get it." As a result, everything we do gets enriched by some extremely good discussion.
When we don't have a formal presentation, we sometimes walk through a code project somebody's working on, or research a programming topic together (like dependency injection). Recently we've started publishing a simple programming problem and asking the members to bring a solution in their favorite language - reviewing the various solutions is a nice exercise in both language details and programming approaches.
Come see us sometime. We meet the second Wednesday of the month at 7:00 PM at the Dayton Chess Club.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
On the error message soapbox again
Q. What's wrong with this message?
A. The window that it pops up in doesn't support copy-and-paste (on Fedora 13, at least). If you want to websearch for this message, you have to type it in by hand.
Hey, Oracle - fix it, please? It's the sort of usability problem that I wouldn't nag you about if you were a little FOSS project or a mom-and-pop software shop, but you're a big company with fifty bazillion programmers and entire committees on usability, so I know you can do it.
I'm sure that's the fault of whatever Java GUI library underlies your graphical tools like dbca... so go on and fix the library, and the whole world will benefit!
Also, in keeping with my fixation with good error messages, I implore you to think about error message usability ahead of time. I suspect that error messages get the short end of developer attention because they never appear in sales presentations. Well, actually, they do appear in sales presentations, they're just not supposed to... (although, frankly, watching somebody work through an error is a million times more interesting than watching a polished sales pitch)
Q. What else is wrong?
A. The workaround to this error is to disable SELinux. For the ultimate bestest securest database EVAR, doesn't that seem a little cheesy?
Q. Anything else?
A. Until you actually achieve SELinux compatibility, how about trapping the error with a message that describes the workaround? Failing that, mentioning in the Installation Guide that SELinux should be turned off is a next-best solution... no, come to think of it, forget I said that. "It's on page 732 of the docs" is actually a terrible excuse for leaving a bug unfixed. I don't know how "document it" became an acceptable alternative to "fix it".
Q. Are you finished yet?
A. Almost. After more than 10 years of DBA work, I actually don't know what the proper channel is for making suggestions to Oracle Corp. I end up ranting about it on my blog, approximately the equivalent of wandering into the street and yelling about it. Is that silly or what?
I'm Catherine Devlin, and I approved this message.
A. The window that it pops up in doesn't support copy-and-paste (on Fedora 13, at least). If you want to websearch for this message, you have to type it in by hand.
Hey, Oracle - fix it, please? It's the sort of usability problem that I wouldn't nag you about if you were a little FOSS project or a mom-and-pop software shop, but you're a big company with fifty bazillion programmers and entire committees on usability, so I know you can do it.
I'm sure that's the fault of whatever Java GUI library underlies your graphical tools like dbca... so go on and fix the library, and the whole world will benefit!
Also, in keeping with my fixation with good error messages, I implore you to think about error message usability ahead of time. I suspect that error messages get the short end of developer attention because they never appear in sales presentations. Well, actually, they do appear in sales presentations, they're just not supposed to... (although, frankly, watching somebody work through an error is a million times more interesting than watching a polished sales pitch)
Q. What else is wrong?
A. The workaround to this error is to disable SELinux. For the ultimate bestest securest database EVAR, doesn't that seem a little cheesy?
Q. Anything else?
A. Until you actually achieve SELinux compatibility, how about trapping the error with a message that describes the workaround? Failing that, mentioning in the Installation Guide that SELinux should be turned off is a next-best solution... no, come to think of it, forget I said that. "It's on page 732 of the docs" is actually a terrible excuse for leaving a bug unfixed. I don't know how "document it" became an acceptable alternative to "fix it".
Q. Are you finished yet?
A. Almost. After more than 10 years of DBA work, I actually don't know what the proper channel is for making suggestions to Oracle Corp. I end up ranting about it on my blog, approximately the equivalent of wandering into the street and yelling about it. Is that silly or what?
I'm Catherine Devlin, and I approved this message.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
templating engine cookoff updated
Ian wished for loop syntax examples in the Templating Engine Cookoff, so I just added them.
And none of you Django programmers have given me code to include Django templates in the cookoff. You can't throw an exception in this town without hitting a Django programmer, so what's up? C'mon, it's easy - I just need something analogous to this:
[EDIT: Well done, Django folks! Django is in the cookoff now. Except... hmm... it reacts to missing variables by leaving blanks instead of throwing an exception... so I need a new trick if I want to actually see the Django error stack.]
And none of you Django programmers have given me code to include Django templates in the cookoff. You can't throw an exception in this town without hitting a Django programmer, so what's up? C'mon, it's easy - I just need something analogous to this:
The answer to the Ultimate
Question is ${everything['universe'].answer}.
Among our weapons are:
% for weapon in weapons:
${weapon}
% endfor
import mako
import mako.template
class MakoDemo(Demo):
name = 'mako'
version = mako.__version__
def demo(self, vars):
self.template_name = 'mako.txt'
template = mako.template.Template(filename=self.template_name)
return template.render(**vars)
[EDIT: Well done, Django folks! Django is in the cookoff now. Except... hmm... it reacts to missing variables by leaving blanks instead of throwing an exception... so I need a new trick if I want to actually see the Django error stack.]
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
dbapiext.py
Richard Jones alerted me to Martin Blais' dbapiext.py, and I like it very much.
Richard's post focuses on the improvements to bind variable handling. I love dbapiext.py for another reason: it provides query results as namedtuples, a class so perfect for database resultsets that they make me sob with relief.
When memory isn't an issue, I like to transform the result into a list and tack on a simple equality filter method for convenience.
It is, of course, no SQLAlchemy, and isn't meant to be. It's meant to be a roadmap toward a less awful DB-API for Python. (I still wake up in the middle of the night, gasping, "Five incompatible bind variable formats! It's heresy!") In the meantime, dbapiext.py is a nice lightweight layer for times when SQLAlchemy is too much. For instance, I write lots of database administration tools that poke around in lots of different views of Oracle's data dictionary, and setting up SQLAlchemy mappings for each of them is a pain. dbapiext.py is perfect for that. Thanks, Martin!
Richard's post focuses on the improvements to bind variable handling. I love dbapiext.py for another reason: it provides query results as namedtuples, a class so perfect for database resultsets that they make me sob with relief.
>>> import cx_Oracle, dbapiext
>>> connection = cx_Oracle.connect('username/password@SID')
>>> results = dbapiext.execute_obj(connection, 'SELECT * FROM crew')
>>> row = results.next()
>>> row
Row(ID=1, NAME='Kaylee Frye', ROLE='Mechanic')
>>> row[1]
'Kaylee Frye'
>>> row.ROLE
'Mechanic'
When memory isn't an issue, I like to transform the result into a list and tack on a simple equality filter method for convenience.
class Filterable(list):
def filter(self, **kw):
for itm in self:
for k in kw:
if not (getattr(itm, k) == kw[k]):
break
else:
yield itm
yield StopIteration
>>> result = Filterable(dbapiext.execute_obj(connection, 'SELECT * FROM crew'))
>>> result.filter(NAME='Jayne Cobb').next()
Row(ID=5, NAME='Jayne Cobb', ROLE='Public Relations')
It is, of course, no SQLAlchemy, and isn't meant to be. It's meant to be a roadmap toward a less awful DB-API for Python. (I still wake up in the middle of the night, gasping, "Five incompatible bind variable formats! It's heresy!") In the meantime, dbapiext.py is a nice lightweight layer for times when SQLAlchemy is too much. For instance, I write lots of database administration tools that poke around in lots of different views of Oracle's data dictionary, and setting up SQLAlchemy mappings for each of them is a pain. dbapiext.py is perfect for that. Thanks, Martin!
Monday, May 03, 2010
Penguicon wrap-up
Thanks to the wonderful audience at my Ren'Py talk. Your patience and your questions got us through the painful time of waiting for the projector to work... bless you all! I hope you have fun with Ren'Py. I've posted my slides and sample game in the Ren'Py forum * here *.
Oh, and I saw a flashbulb during the talk... if you're reading this, could you send me a copy of the photo? I don't have a good recent photo of myself presenting. Unless it sucks, that is. :)
Some of Penguicon's other highlights, from my POV:
Adrian Crenshaw's talk on Mutillidae was delightful. I am so tempted to quit my job and become a security researcher; they have all the fun. He tipped us off to some Firefox extensions for conveniently testing websites for some common vulnerabilities, too.
Matt Arnold's talk on Inform7, which showed me wonderful tools the Inform IDE comes with. It's amazing to see how much work has gone into a language that has such a specialty purpose. I hope I'll find time to put some more work into Inform7 games. I loved this exchange:
The dance. I love dancing with nerds. It's so much more fun when the cool kids aren't there. I miss the good old days, though, when we danced to songs, instead of to interminable dance beats. Ah well.
During Mark Ramm's talk about implementing Sourceforge's new TurboGears/MongoDB infrastructure, a questioner invited him to complain about strict schedules for completing a job. Instead, he said that he likes demanding, inflexible deadlines; having flexibility on a project's scope is how you get things done. I thought that was a wondefully wise point of view. A flexible timetable can be an excuse for not triaging a project's scope; a firm deadline helps you make those necessary decisions and actually get something done.
Oh, and I saw a flashbulb during the talk... if you're reading this, could you send me a copy of the photo? I don't have a good recent photo of myself presenting. Unless it sucks, that is. :)
Some of Penguicon's other highlights, from my POV:
Adrian Crenshaw's talk on Mutillidae was delightful. I am so tempted to quit my job and become a security researcher; they have all the fun. He tipped us off to some Firefox extensions for conveniently testing websites for some common vulnerabilities, too.
Matt Arnold's talk on Inform7, which showed me wonderful tools the Inform IDE comes with. It's amazing to see how much work has gone into a language that has such a specialty purpose. I hope I'll find time to put some more work into Inform7 games. I loved this exchange:
Attendee: Is there a limit to how many [options] there can be?
Matt: No! The limit is your sanity!
The dance. I love dancing with nerds. It's so much more fun when the cool kids aren't there. I miss the good old days, though, when we danced to songs, instead of to interminable dance beats. Ah well.
During Mark Ramm's talk about implementing Sourceforge's new TurboGears/MongoDB infrastructure, a questioner invited him to complain about strict schedules for completing a job. Instead, he said that he likes demanding, inflexible deadlines; having flexibility on a project's scope is how you get things done. I thought that was a wondefully wise point of view. A flexible timetable can be an excuse for not triaging a project's scope; a firm deadline helps you make those necessary decisions and actually get something done.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Dayton Oracle meeting
DAY-O, the Dayton Oracle user group, is meeting May 4 - a week from this Tuesday. We've got a full-day meeting planned with lots of great content... see daytonoracle.org for full details.
Thanks to Matt Morrisey and Vicki Blommel for their organizational work, and to Oracle for being our meeting sponsor!
09:00 AM - 09:30 AM Meeting Registration / Door Prize Raffle Registration
09:30 AM - 10:00 AM Sun / Oracle Merger Update - Gary Hall (Sun / Oracle Corp.)
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM Leading Spaces and Their Diagnosis with Toad for Oracle, A Toad® for Oracle Case Study - Michael Allen (SmartDBA.com)
10:30 AM - 10:45 AM Break
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Update / Roadmap - Eric Rudie (Oracle Corp.)
11:45 AM - 12:40 PM Lunch - Pizza
12:40 PM - 01:25 PM Exadata 2 Database Machine - Gary Hall (Sun / Oracle Corp.)
01:25 PM - 01:30 PM Break
01:30 PM - 02:30 PM Security and Compliance with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 - Eric Rudie (Oracle Corp.)
02:30 PM - 02:45 PM Announcements / Raffle
Thanks to Matt Morrisey and Vicki Blommel for their organizational work, and to Oracle for being our meeting sponsor!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Bugfixing at PyOhio
Jesse Noller wants to know what's holding you back from working on Python.
He's looking to make the process of contributing to Python more smooth and self-explanatory, less intimidating. That's a good discussion, and I'm not sure what to tell him right now, but it does bring to mind something I really want to see.
Walk everybody nice and slooooowly through the process of browsing through the Python bug tracker (for bugs in Python itself, in its standard library, etc.), checking out code, fixing and testing, making a diff file, submitting the fix. Don't assume that people are familiar with VCS, diff files, the test suite, etc. - all those tools and jargon that separate veterans from intimidated users. Let's break down that separation.
Our Call for Proposals is open right now (through May 10). What a coincidence! I'm not actually on the program committee, so I can't promise that such a proposal would be accepted, but let's just say that the committee will give it serious consideration if they know what's good for them. :)
I'm asking you to propose this, not me, because I am not crazy enough to think that I can lead such a tutorial while chairing the conference; especially since I've never actually done it before myself. Actually, maybe there's one way I could do it: taking the role of the leader/learner in a "Teach Me Twisted"-style you-teach-me session. In that case, I'd want commitments from... hmm... let me say 3+ experienced bugfixers to talk me through it in front of a live audience.
One way or the other, let's see to it that PyOhio transforms some Python users into contributors!
He's looking to make the process of contributing to Python more smooth and self-explanatory, less intimidating. That's a good discussion, and I'm not sure what to tell him right now, but it does bring to mind something I really want to see.
Let's have a Python Bug Fixing Tutorial at PyOhio!
Walk everybody nice and slooooowly through the process of browsing through the Python bug tracker (for bugs in Python itself, in its standard library, etc.), checking out code, fixing and testing, making a diff file, submitting the fix. Don't assume that people are familiar with VCS, diff files, the test suite, etc. - all those tools and jargon that separate veterans from intimidated users. Let's break down that separation.
Our Call for Proposals is open right now (through May 10). What a coincidence! I'm not actually on the program committee, so I can't promise that such a proposal would be accepted, but let's just say that the committee will give it serious consideration if they know what's good for them. :)
I'm asking you to propose this, not me, because I am not crazy enough to think that I can lead such a tutorial while chairing the conference; especially since I've never actually done it before myself. Actually, maybe there's one way I could do it: taking the role of the leader/learner in a "Teach Me Twisted"-style you-teach-me session. In that case, I'd want commitments from... hmm... let me say 3+ experienced bugfixers to talk me through it in front of a live audience.
One way or the other, let's see to it that PyOhio transforms some Python users into contributors!
Pythonic PL/SQL
Pythonic PL/SQL exists!
https://code.launchpad.net/~catherine-devlin/pythonic-plsql/trunk
I imagine it will grow in fits and starts as my job needs dictate, but it shouldn't ever be abandoned, since I'm incorporating it gleefully into my own production code.
So far,
I'm very open to contributions from others! There's plenty of room to participate, since implementation has barely begun.
There are Quest Code Tester tests for it, too, but unfortunately that's a closed-source project and I have to check on what the rules are for releasing tests produced with it.
Of course, most hard-core PL/SQL developers will already have written or found code to handle basic, common operations like this. But, by sticking close to names and APIs we're familiar with from another increasingly well-known language, I hope to reduce the amount of brainspace you need to remember how to do it all.
Usage samples::
https://code.launchpad.net/~catherine-devlin/pythonic-plsql/trunk
I imagine it will grow in fits and starts as my job needs dictate, but it shouldn't ever be abandoned, since I'm incorporating it gleefully into my own production code.
So far,
format (Python 3-style string formatting) and join are available. I'm not using object-oriented PL/SQL at all (I find it very unsatisfactory), so instead of','.join(mylist), you use pythonic.join(',', mylist).I'm very open to contributions from others! There's plenty of room to participate, since implementation has barely begun.
There are Quest Code Tester tests for it, too, but unfortunately that's a closed-source project and I have to check on what the rules are for releasing tests produced with it.
Of course, most hard-core PL/SQL developers will already have written or found code to handle basic, common operations like this. But, by sticking close to names and APIs we're familiar with from another increasingly well-known language, I hope to reduce the amount of brainspace you need to remember how to do it all.
Usage samples::
DECLARE
crewlist pythonic.string_list
:= pythonic.string_list ('Wash', 'Kaylee', 'Mal');
crewdictionary pythonic.string_dictionary;
curs SYS_REFCURSOR;
template VARCHAR2 (100);
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (pythonic.join ('; ', crewlist));
-- output: "Wash; Kaylee; Mal"
OPEN curs FOR
SELECT name FROM crew ORDER BY name;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (pythonic.join (' *** ', curs));
-- output: "Kaylee *** Mal *** Wash"
template := '{2}! {1} says we''d better replace that catalyzer!';
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (pythonic.format (template, NULL, 'Kaylee', 'Captain'));
-- output: "Captain! Kaylee says we'd better replace that catalyzer!"
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (pythonic.format (template, crewlist));
-- output: "Mal! Kaylee says we'd better replace that catalyzer!"
crewdictionary ('First Officer') := 'Zoe';
crewdictionary ('Public Relations') := 'Jayne';
template := '{First Officer}: (to {Public Relations}) "I can hurt you."';
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (pythonic.format (template, crewdictionary));
-- output: Zoe: (to Jayne) "I can hurt you."
END;
Monday, April 19, 2010
P(ythonic)L/SQL?
I'm itching to begin creating a bunch of PL/SQL packages that will emulate certain handy Python features. Before I sink too much time into it, does the LazyWeb have anything to recommend? Or, perhaps, volunteers to help make the dream come true?
I want to start with a package for Pythonic string manipulation:
... and so forth
I think this package would not just implement the ones that don't exist in SQL or PL/SQL, it will provide Pythonically familiar names and interfaces to the ones that do exist.
Granted, there's only so Pythonic you can get in PL/SQL. A perfect set of packages would be a heroic task. Still, it's easy to imagine helping PL/SQL to suck less...
I want to start with a package for Pythonic string manipulation:
'The {0} brown fox jumped over the {1} dog'.format('quick','lazy')
.join()
.split()
.splitlines()... and so forth
I think this package would not just implement the ones that don't exist in SQL or PL/SQL, it will provide Pythonically familiar names and interfaces to the ones that do exist.
Granted, there's only so Pythonic you can get in PL/SQL. A perfect set of packages would be a heroic task. Still, it's easy to imagine helping PL/SQL to suck less...
Sunday, April 18, 2010
templating engine cookoff
There are more Python string templating engines in the world than homemade chili recipes. Which is tastiest? Let's have a cookoff!
We all have different criteria, of course. The only organized comparisons I've seen between them are based mostly on measuring speed of rendering. Huh? I have never said to myself, "Wow, I'm wasting so much time because these templating engines aren't rendering fast enough. If only they would finish in 0.4 seconds each instead of 0.6!"
I have said to myself, "Wow, I'm wasting so much time because there are errors in my templates, and my templating engine isn't helping me find them." Writing templates is tricky. Errors are common. So, for me, clear error messages are the key virtue. My cookoff focuses on recognizing the engines that report the filename and the offending string when a rendering failure occurs. It also displays a typical simple syntax for writing and using each type of template (so it can serve as a cheatsheet as well).
My results? So far, only jinja2 and genshi report both filename and the error-causing string. The jinja2 error stack is more concise overall, so I award it the prize by a nose.
I'm really happy with the framework I wrote for doing the cookoff, too, so I posted it on Launchpad. It is really, really easy to add new engines for comparison - feel free to suggest or submit them! In fact, I hope that others can adapt my cookoff framework to other situations that call for side-by-side package comparisons.
Incidentally, why are comparisons like this usually styled "smackdowns" or "shootouts"? What's up with that? We're not trying to put anybody in the hospital! We're just trying to select our favorite from a banquet of delicious offerings. Eat up!
We all have different criteria, of course. The only organized comparisons I've seen between them are based mostly on measuring speed of rendering. Huh? I have never said to myself, "Wow, I'm wasting so much time because these templating engines aren't rendering fast enough. If only they would finish in 0.4 seconds each instead of 0.6!"
I have said to myself, "Wow, I'm wasting so much time because there are errors in my templates, and my templating engine isn't helping me find them." Writing templates is tricky. Errors are common. So, for me, clear error messages are the key virtue. My cookoff focuses on recognizing the engines that report the filename and the offending string when a rendering failure occurs. It also displays a typical simple syntax for writing and using each type of template (so it can serve as a cheatsheet as well).
My results? So far, only jinja2 and genshi report both filename and the error-causing string. The jinja2 error stack is more concise overall, so I award it the prize by a nose.
I'm really happy with the framework I wrote for doing the cookoff, too, so I posted it on Launchpad. It is really, really easy to add new engines for comparison - feel free to suggest or submit them! In fact, I hope that others can adapt my cookoff framework to other situations that call for side-by-side package comparisons.
Incidentally, why are comparisons like this usually styled "smackdowns" or "shootouts"? What's up with that? We're not trying to put anybody in the hospital! We're just trying to select our favorite from a banquet of delicious offerings. Eat up!
Monday, April 12, 2010
I'm speaking at Penguicon
Ren'Py: A Visual Novel Engine
Computer gaming, anime/manga, Python programming, fiction writing: Ren'Py is everything you love about Penguicon rolled up into one. It's an open-source visual novel engine that lets you program graphical games and stories with the greatest of ease. Creating basic linear or branched stories is almost as easy as writing them on paper - yet Ren'Py is also a full-fledged Python environment, so there's no limit to what you can program as you learn. This intro will show you everything you need to start creating your own masterpiece. Ikimashou, otaku-san!
May 1, 2010, 12 noon - 1 PMDetroit Marriott Troy200 W. Big Beaver Rd.Detroit MI 48084
YOU: Okay... but will you give the presentation wearing a homemade Elizabethan-era dress?
ME: Yes!
YOU: Cool! Um... why?
ME: Because this is Penguicon!
What's Penguicon? It's an open-source software conference... it's a science fiction fandom conference... it's an awesome hybrid of the two! Super-sharp technical people come for some awesome knowledge sharing, and the SF fans help make the atmosphere even more relaxed and imaginative than at a normal FOSS con. I love both sides of the con and especially the ways they mix together, which is why I wanted to give a talk this time that would really encompass it all. (Costumes are totally optional, by the way. But they sure are fun!)
(Psst - if you install Operator, you'll be able to automatically process the microformatted data in this post and add it to your calendar. Cool, huh?)
See you in Detroit!
PyOhio Call for Proposals
PyOhio's http://www.pyohio.org/CallForProposals is out, due May 10. Let your imagination run wild; PyOhio is what we make it, no more and no less. Help us make this year's PyOhio the best yet!
Friday, April 09, 2010
daytontechevents
daytontechevents.com
A free service aggregating information about tech events in Dayton
There's too much geeky awesomeness going on in town to track with your brain alone. daytontechevents fixes that. If you're in or near Dayton, keep an eye on it so that you don't miss something fantastic! If you know of a group or event around here that isn't yet on daytontechevents, add it!Thanks to Sarah Dutkiewicz, who got the idea and put the infrastructure in place not just for Dayton, but also for Columbus and her hometown Cleveland. Ohio thanks you, Sarah!
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Pooled nonprofit IT
File this one under "Daydreaming".
There are lots of small, local nonprofit organizations that really can't afford to do their IT well. They can't afford a full-time professional, so they make do with unskilled labor, plus a smattering of donated services and what short-term contractual help they can afford. Each time, the solutions implemented depend on the skills and tastes of the implementor, and rarely build usefully on what has been implemented before.
Imagine the efficiencies if many organizations could share a small, full-time IT staff dedicated to their needs. Most organizations share many of the same needs, and could share the same set of solutions. A full-time pro would become familiar with those needs and could efficiently apply a well-known solution to each group. (S)he would provide continuity, well-informed decisionmaking, and perfectly specialized skills.
Providing this would seem like a natural role for, say, an organization like the United Way; or perhaps for a small meta-charity created for the purpose. I'm sure private firms have attempted to set themselves up in this role, but anything that demands a steady funding outflow from the benefiting agencies is a tough sell, no matter how beneficial it would be in the long run.
I'm just daydreaming, but I'm interested in people's comments. Has anybody heard of something like this being done?
There are lots of small, local nonprofit organizations that really can't afford to do their IT well. They can't afford a full-time professional, so they make do with unskilled labor, plus a smattering of donated services and what short-term contractual help they can afford. Each time, the solutions implemented depend on the skills and tastes of the implementor, and rarely build usefully on what has been implemented before.
Imagine the efficiencies if many organizations could share a small, full-time IT staff dedicated to their needs. Most organizations share many of the same needs, and could share the same set of solutions. A full-time pro would become familiar with those needs and could efficiently apply a well-known solution to each group. (S)he would provide continuity, well-informed decisionmaking, and perfectly specialized skills.
Providing this would seem like a natural role for, say, an organization like the United Way; or perhaps for a small meta-charity created for the purpose. I'm sure private firms have attempted to set themselves up in this role, but anything that demands a steady funding outflow from the benefiting agencies is a tough sell, no matter how beneficial it would be in the long run.
I'm just daydreaming, but I'm interested in people's comments. Has anybody heard of something like this being done?
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Community Service Award
Facundo Batista and I received the 4th-quarter Python Software Foundation Community Service Awards!
I actually heard about it several days ago, and have been tongue-tied (keyboard-tied?) since then. I'm mostly seen in and around Ohio these days, but I grew up thoroughly Minnesotan. If you pay Minnesotans a really extravagant compliment, you'll send them into a kind of blushing panic. All of our ancestors who enjoyed the limelight were found and eaten by bears, you see, so we evolved a genetic terror of having attention called to us.
Anyway, this is one of the most flattering honors I've ever received. THANK you, PSF! I hope I'll always be one of the Python world's many valuable contributors.
I actually heard about it several days ago, and have been tongue-tied (keyboard-tied?) since then. I'm mostly seen in and around Ohio these days, but I grew up thoroughly Minnesotan. If you pay Minnesotans a really extravagant compliment, you'll send them into a kind of blushing panic. All of our ancestors who enjoyed the limelight were found and eaten by bears, you see, so we evolved a genetic terror of having attention called to us.
Anyway, this is one of the most flattering honors I've ever received. THANK you, PSF! I hope I'll always be one of the Python world's many valuable contributors.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
cmd2 0.6.1
Many thanks to the audience at my PyCon cmd/cmd2 talk for your interest and enthusiasm! It was my first full-scale PyCon presentation and I absolutely loved it.
I need to follow up on three things I claimed in my talk:
1. "My presentation is already online at http://pypi.python.org/pypi/cmd2". FALSE (at the time I said it, and for several days afterward). I actually had posted the docs and edited the PyPI page to point to them, but forgot to update url in setup.py, so it overwrote the link when I registered cmd2's 0.6.0 release.
It's fixed now, though. The cmd2 PyPI page has a link to the cmd2 documentation, which in turn links to my talk slides. You can also watch the talk thanks to the fantastic PyCon video crew!
2. "A more stable version will be out within a couple weeks of PyCon." TRUE. 0.6.1 is not exactly stable stable, but I think I've smoothed out bugs that snuck in while I was pushing to release 0.6.0 for PyCon.
3. "sqlpython will be more presentable in a couple weeks, too." TRUE. The new sqlpython 1.7.1 brings the postgreSQL functionality (thanks Andy!) to pretty near 100% (except for the can't-see-other's-schemas problem, which should be fixed for 1.7.2.) I believe that MySQL should be fully functional, too, but that's very lightly tested because I barely use MySQL and don't know much about how to test it.
I need to follow up on three things I claimed in my talk:
1. "My presentation is already online at http://pypi.python.org/pypi/cmd2". FALSE (at the time I said it, and for several days afterward). I actually had posted the docs and edited the PyPI page to point to them, but forgot to update url in setup.py, so it overwrote the link when I registered cmd2's 0.6.0 release.
It's fixed now, though. The cmd2 PyPI page has a link to the cmd2 documentation, which in turn links to my talk slides. You can also watch the talk thanks to the fantastic PyCon video crew!
2. "A more stable version will be out within a couple weeks of PyCon." TRUE. 0.6.1 is not exactly stable stable, but I think I've smoothed out bugs that snuck in while I was pushing to release 0.6.0 for PyCon.
3. "sqlpython will be more presentable in a couple weeks, too." TRUE. The new sqlpython 1.7.1 brings the postgreSQL functionality (thanks Andy!) to pretty near 100% (except for the can't-see-other's-schemas problem, which should be fixed for 1.7.2.) I believe that MySQL should be fully functional, too, but that's very lightly tested because I barely use MySQL and don't know much about how to test it.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Computer Engineer Barbie
I'm happy about Computer Engineer Barbie. No doll will save the world, but every little bit helps.
It's annoying, though, that some people only see one more opportunity to trot out this classic:
It's annoying, though, that some people only see one more opportunity to trot out this classic:
def belittle(geek):
prejudice = "Well, then, she's not much of a {0}, is she?"
if geek.is_femme:
excuse = 'geek'
else:
excuse = 'woman'
return prejudice.format(excuse)
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