Attendee Pricing for PyWorks 2008

Pricing has been set for PyWorks 2008.

All packages include both the php|works and PyWorks conferences and/or tutorial day, lunch and snacks, evening events, and a free one-year subscription to either php|architect or Python Magazine (Print + PDF). See the signup page for more details.

Also remember that the speaker package includes free access to the conference, a travel and housing allowance, and a stipend for each presentation. Refer to our call for papers page if you are interested in presenting a talk or teaching a tutorial.

PyCon 2008 | And Now For Something Completely Different, April 2008

PyCon 2008 was held March 12-20 in Chicago. The explosive growth in attendance of the conference translated to an increase in energy and enthusiasm, from both attendees and organizers.

This column was originally published by Python Magazine in April of 2008.

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PyWorks conference blog

As I've previously mentioned MTA, publishers of Python Magazine, has announced the PyWorks conference to be held in Atlanta, GA on November 12-14, 2008.

We've started a blog so anyone interested in the conference can keep up with announcements. If you think you might want to attend or present at the conference, check it out!

Automated Testing with unittest and Proctor

Automated testing is an important part of Agile development methodologies, and the practice is seeing increasing adoption even in environments where other Agile tools are not used. This article discusses testing techniques for you to use with the open source tool Proctor. By using Proctor, you will not only manage your automated test suite more effectively, but you will also obtain better results in the process.

This article was originally published in Python Magazine in March of 2008.

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PyWorks 2008: Call for papers

MTA, publishers of Python Magazine, are pleased to announce the first PyWorks conference to be held in Atlanta, GA on November 12-14, 2008.

We are currently looking for speakers and tutorial instructors on a wide range of topics. The deadline for proposals is July 25, so check out the site for details about how to submit yours today!

Python Magazine for June 2008

The June issue is available for download now.

Grig Gheorghiu's cover story on Pybots talks about the fantastic automation system that has been put in place to make sure new releases of Python software are as robust and stable as possible.

In the second part of his PyGame series, Terry Hancock adds some interactivity to the simple game he started building in the May issue. This tutorial is shaping up to be a great introduction for new programmers.

JC Cruz returns this month with another article on combining Python and OS X. This time, he shows us how to create a Cocoa application with PyObjC and Xcode 3.0. This is a topic I've been wanting to dig into myself for some time, so I was glad to have a chance to read his article.

And rounding out the features this month, Massimo Di Pierro introduces web2py, a relative newcomer on the web framework front. While originally designed primarily as a teaching tool, Massimo explains why that includes many features that make it attractive for rapid application development situations, too.

Our columns this month are all about the future:

Mark Mruss takes us quite literally into the __future__ by talking about how to take advantage of some features of Python 3.0 that are already available now in Python 2.5.

Jesse Noller talks with Adam Olsen about the "safe thread" project, a set of patches for the C interpreter that eliminate the Global Interpreter Lock and that may eventually be included in the Python core.

Steve Holden responds to Tim Bray's post Multi-Inflection-Point Alert by fixing his attention on a few technology trends and looking for portents in their convergence.

And finally, this issue also marks the transition as I take over from Brian Jones as Editor in Chief. I want to thank Brian for all he has done to teach me about the position and magazines in general. I'm looking forward to working with the excellent team of reviewers and editors we have put together as we continue to shape the magazine to be something we can all be proud to be a part of.

I'll give more details about our road ahead in another post, but for the time being go download the June issue and enjoy!

Static Code Analizers for Python | And Now For Something Completely Different

Old-school developers remember lint, the static code analysis tool for C programs. There are several similar programs available for Python, and they can all help you clean up your act.

This column was originally published by Python Magazine in March of 2008.

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How to Write (in a thousand words or less) - Stepcase Lifehack

Dustin Wax gives us 17 concise tips on How to Write (in a thousand words or less) over at lifehack.org. They are a good reminder of some basic dos and don'ts.

IPython and virtualenv | And Now For Something Completely Different, Feb. 2008

IPython is a feature-rich interactive shell for Python developers. Virtualenv creates isolated development environments so you can test or install packages without introducing conflicts. In this column, I examine how both tools can make your life a little easier.

This column was originally published by Python Magazine in February of 2008.

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Testing Tools for Python | And Now For Something Completely Different

Test Driven Development and Test Automation are all the rage, and Python developers have no shortage of tools for testing their own applications. This column looks at tools for testing your libraries and applications. It isn't a comprehensive survey, but should give you some idea of the kinds of tools available.

This column was originally published by Python Magazine in January of 2008.

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Python Magazine for May 2008

The May issue is available online now.

Our cover story this month is the first of a 3 part series from Terry Hancock introducing Python programming with PyGame. Terry does an excellent job of covering the basics, and while the article is targeted at younger readers, it isn't dumbed down at all. I've read the rest of the series already (perks of being on the staff), and I highly recommend it as a summer project if you have someone interested in learning about programming while having fun with basic animation techniques.

Also up this month, Michael Foord explains how to use ConfigObj to manage the configuration files for your application. It has many features that may make it a more attractive option than the core module ConfigParser.

Jon Miller makes a strong argument for using LDAP to establish consistent system configurations in his piece, titled LDAP backed initScripts in Python. LDAP was new territory for me, and I think the idea of using a central server to host all of the configuration for your data center makes a lot of sense.

Paul McGuire's article, Writing a Simple Interpreter/Compiler with Pyparsing, brought back a lot of memories from some of my favorite topics in college. The language he chose to implement as an example is pretty twisted, to say the least. If you have a parsing task, Pyparsing may be the tool for you.

In his Welcome to Python column this month, Mark Mruss covers descriptors and properties for new-style classes. No more __getattr__() methods with case statements in them!

Steve Holden presents his PyCon report, including his own Teach me Twisted session. I had to leave early from that session, so I was glad to hear that it went well.

Brian Jones wonders about training and certification for Python programmers. There has been some discussion of certification online recently, too. I'm not sure where I stand on the idea, yet. What do you think, do we need a standard certification program?

And my own column covers virtualenvwrapper, a couple of bash shell functions to making Ian Bicking's virtualenv even more useful.

Check it out, and as always let us know what you think!

Python in Science: How long until a Nobel Prize?

As I write this, the Nobel Prizes for 2007 are being announced. During the week of announcements, each day includes news of another award being bestowed for outstanding contributions in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace, and economics. As a technophile, the science awards have always been the most interesting to me. This year, prior to the awards, new releases of several scientific packages on PyPI caught my eye and I was struck by the coincidence. I started to wonder: How long before a Nobel Prize is awarded to a scientist who uses Python for their work in some significant way?

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This column was originally published by Python Magazine in November of 2007.

October 2007 column for Python Magazine

Has your multi-threaded application grown GILs? Take a look at these packages for easy-to-use process management and interprocess communication tools.

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This article was originally published by Python Magazine in October of 2007.

Command line programs are classes, too!

Most OOP discussions focus on GUI or domain-specific development areas, completely ignoring the workhorse of computing: command line programs. This article examines CommandLineApp, a base class for creating command line programs as objects, with option and argument validation, help text generation, and more.

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This article was originally published by Python Magazine in January of 2008.

Caching RSS Feeds With feedcache

The past several years have seen a steady increase in the use of RSS and Atom feeds for data sharing. Blogs, podcasts, social networking sites, search engines, and news services are just a few examples of data sources delivered via such feeds. Working with internet services requires care, because inefficiencies in one client implementation may cause performance problems with the service that can be felt by all of the consumers accessing the same server. In this article, I describe the development of the feedcache package, and give examples of how you can use it to optimize the use of data feeds in your application.

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This article was originally published by Python Magazine in November of 2007.

Working with IMAP and iCalendar

How can you access group calendar information if your Exchange-like mail and calendaring server does not provide iCalendar feeds, and you do not, or cannot, use Outlook? Use Python to extract the calendar data and generate your own feed, of course! This article discusses a surprisingly simple program to perform what seems like a complex series of operations: scanning IMAP folders, extracting iCalendar attachments, and merging the contained events together into a single calendar.

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This article was originally published by Python Magazine in October of 2007.

Python Magazine promotion for user groups

Over at Python Magazine we're running a subscription promotion for members of user groups. If you help to organize a group that meets on a regular basis and discusses Python (possibly among other topics), drop me a line (doug dot hellmann at pythonmagazine dot com) and I'll give you the details.

Python Magazine for April 2008

The April issue of Python Magazine is ready for download now.

This month's cover story from Zach Voase introduces bioinformatics with Python using BioPython. It's amazing how easy it is to work with gene sequences in Python.

Jeff Scudder provides an excellent article about using the Google Spreadsheet API like a database. We use Google Spreadsheet to manage some parts of the magazine, so I'm definitely looking forward to applying some of these techniques myself.

You will recognize Eugen Wintersberger from previous issues. This month he returns to explain how to use PyTables and HDF5 to work with large datasets. As compute power and storage capacity have increased over the years, the algorithms and tools for processing those datasets have evolved to take advantage of them.

Every good editor and IDE includes customization features, and Mac OS X's XCode is no exception. JC Cruz introduces techniques for customizing XCode through Python scripts.

Mark Mruss' column this month features the AVC library for GUI programming. The "Application View Controller" connects the widgets on the screen to variables, automatically syncing between them, saving you a lot of manual work.

To cap off the issue, we also have plenty of PyCon 2008 coverage from both Steve Holden and me. I had a lot of fun, and I'm already planning my trip for next year.

I hope you'll head over to the site and download your copy now!

February issue of Python Magazine now available

The February issue of Python Magazine is available for download now.

This month's cover story by Chad Cooper is Mapping point locations with Python and Microsoft Live Search Maps. It's all about visualizing your database of points on a map using their web service.

Arkadiusz Wahlig's piece, Extending Skype using Python tells you the basics you need to write a Skype bot to add features to the popular chat and VOIP client.

In Using Python with SOAP to create a CLI for JIRA, Matthew Doar introduces SOAPpy and discusses how he has used it to create a command line tool for working with the JIRA bug tracker.

And our very own Brian Jones writes about common data modeling pitfalls this month in Identifying Data Badness.

Mark Mruss discusses documenting your code with docstrings in his latest Welcome to Python column.

Steve Holden's column about using Python's DB API meshes nicely with Brian's article.

And last, in my column this month I explore two more tools you should have in your toolbox: virtualenv and IPython.

So head over to the site and grab your copy today. As always, feedback is welcome via our contact page.

Testing Python Linters

Based on recommendations via comments on an earlier post, my March column is a survey of a few different "lint" programs for Python (it looks like I'll stick to PyChecker, pylint, and PyFlakes for now). I need some sample code to run through all 3 programs so I can compare the output reports. I have a few ideas for common "mistakes" to include, but I'm looking for other suggestions.

So, what kinds of things are these tools good at finding, and where do they need more work? Are there any false-positivies I should make sure to include?