Attendance:
LionKimbro -- secretary
- Brandon -- game developer guy with spiderman shoes
SethFalcon -- biology guy
BrianDorsey & Co.
Things we talked about:
PyGame bad performance, but there isn't any really good 2D library even in C. There are several open-source libraries that aren't quite there yet.
- Finding work - tough world right now.
- Technology boom bust cycles?
- What's next? Not biotech.
- Best way to find a Python job is to get a job where you can choose the language, or find a Python-friendly unit in a larger organization.
- Namespaces Problems
- A package you distribute shouldn't put utils in "utils." since that's too generic- You don't want to claim ownership of "utils" for all times and all peoples.
- Why "".join rather than [].join?
- Cool Python 2.3 features:
- sets are fast!
- enumerate: for index, element in enumerate(list_)
- Logging! It's LOG!
- optparse module
- csv module
- dict( key=value )
DocXMLRPCServer is one of the simplest ways to have a client-server model. You just create a server instance and register functions. Clients just create a client object through which they call your functions as methods. All XML is done behind the scenes. If a web browser contacts the server port, it gets back an HTML help page documenting your functions along with the standard XML-RPC services.
Use Futures to run multiple time-consuming tasks at the same time. (http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/84317) It does all of what many ppl need threading for. Just call a constructor with your function and args, and it will run it in a thread. Later call the instance, and it will either block or return the cached answer.
Leo outlining editor written in Python. Can convert a node to ReSTructured Text and HTML.
We didn't get to hear Seth talk about EpyDoc.
Trivia:
Rubber band ball -- it bounces
A History of the History of the Future (found after meeting)
Strange Adventures in Infinite Space, and also King of Dragon Pass