Sentry

Dave Beazley - Episode 72

August 27, 2016

Summary

Dave Beazley has been using and teaching Python since the early days of the language. He has also been instrumental in spreading the gospel of asynchronous programming and the many ways that it can improve the performance of your programs. This week I had the pleasure of speaking with him about his history with the language and some of his favorite presentations and projects.

Brief Introduction

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
  • Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
  • We are also sponsored by Sentry this week. Stop hoping your users will report bugs. Sentry’s real-time tracking gives you insight into production deployments and information to reproduce and fix crashes. Check them out at getsentry.com and use the code podcastinit at signup to get a $50 credit!
  • Hired has also returned as a sponsor this week. If you’re looking for a job as a developer or designer then Hired will bring the opportunities to you. Sign up at hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus.
  • Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch.
  • To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers
  • Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
  • Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
  • Today we’re interviewing Dave Beazley about his career with Python

Interview with Dave Beazley

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python? – Tobias
  • How has Python and its community helped to shape your career? – Tobias
  • What are some of the major themes that you have focused on in your work? – Tobias
  • One of the things that you are known for is doing live-coding presentations, many of which are fairly advanced. What is it about that format that appeals to you? – Tobias
    • What are some of your favorite stories about a presentation that didn’t quite go as planned? – Tobias
  • You have given a large number of talks at various conferences. What are some of your favorites? – Tobias
  • What impact do you think that asynchronous programming will have on the future of the Python language and ecosystem? – Tobias
  • Are there any features that you see in other languages that you would like to have incorporated in Python? – Tobias
  • On the about page for your website you talk about some of the low-level code and hardware knowledge that you picked up by working with computers as a kid. Do you think that people who are getting started with programming now are missing out by not getting exposed to the kinds of hardware and software that was present before computing became mainstream?
  • You have had the opportunity to work on a large variety of projects, both on a hobby and professional level. What are some of your favorites? – Tobias
  • What is it about Python that has managed to hold your interest for so many years? – Tobias

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The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

GenSim with Radim Řehůřek - Episode 71

August 20, 2016

Summary

Being able to understand the context of a piece of text is generally thought to be the domain of human intelligence. However, topic modeling and semantic analysis can be used to allow a computer to determine whether different messages and articles are about the same thing. This week we spoke with Radim Řehůřek about his work on GenSim, which is a Python library for performing unsupervised analysis of unstructured text and applying machine learning models to the problem of natural language understanding.

Brief Introduction

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
  • Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
  • We are also sponsored by Sentry this week. Stop hoping your users will report bugs. Sentry’s real-time tracking gives you insight into production deployments and information to reproduce and fix crashes. Check them out at getsentry.com and use the code podcastinit at signup to get a $50 credit on your account.
  • Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch.
  • To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers
  • Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
  • Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
  • Today we’re interviewing Radim Řehůřek about Gensim, a library for topic modeling and semantic analysis of natural language.

Interview with Radim Řehůřek

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
  • Can you start by giving us an explanation of topic modeling and semantic analysis? – Tobias
  • What is Gensim and what inspired you to create it? – Tobias
  • What facilities does Gensim provide to simplify the work of this kind of language analysis? – Tobias
  • Can you describe the features that set it apart from other projects such as the NLTK or Spacy? – Tobias
  • What are some of the practical applications that Gensim can be used for? – Tobias
  • One of the features that stuck out to me is the fact that Gensim can process corpora on disk that would be too large to fit into memory. Can you explain some of the algorithmic work that was necessary to allow for this streaming process to be possible? – Tobias
    • Given that it can handle streams of data, could it also be used in the context of something like Spark? – Tobias
  • Gensim also supports unsupervised model building. What kinds of limitations does this have and when would you need a human in the loop? – Tobias
    • Once a model has been trained, how does it get saved and reloaded for subsequent use? – Tobias
  • What are some of the more unorthodox or interesting uses people have put Gensim to that you’ve heard about? – Chris
  • In addition to your work on Gensim, and partly due to its popularity, you have started a consultancy for customers who are interested in improving their data analysis capabilities. How does that feed back into Gensim? – Tobias
  • Are there any improvements in Gensim or other libraries that you have made available as a result of issues that have come up during client engagements? – Tobias
  • Is it difficult to find contributors to Gensim because of its advanced nature? – Tobias
  • Are there any resources you’d like to recommend our listeners explore to get a more in depth understanding of topic modeling and related techniques? – Chris

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The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Python on Windows with Steve Dower - Episode 70

August 13, 2016

Summary

In order for Python to continue to attract new users, we need to have an easy way for people to get started with it, and Windows is still the most widely used operating system among computers. Steve Dower is the build maintainer for the Windows installers of Python and this week we spoke with him about his work in that role. He told us about the changes that he has made to the installer to make it easier for new users to get started and how modern updates to the packaging ecosystem for libraries has simplified dependency management. He also told us about how the Visual Studio team is building a set of tools to make development of Python code more enjoyable and how Microsoft’s adoption of open source is making Windows a more attractive platform for developers.

Brief Introduction

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable.
  • Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
  • We are also sponsored by Sentry this week. Stop hoping your users will report bugs. Sentry’s real-time tracking gives you insight into production deployments and information to reproduce and fix crashes. Check them out at getsentry.com and use the code podcastinit at signup to get a $50 credit on your account!
  • Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch.
  • To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers
  • Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
  • Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
  • Today we’re interviewing Steve Dower about Python on Windows

Interview with Steve Dower

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
  • You are currently the release manager for Python on Windows. How did you end up with that responsibility? – Tobias
  • While Python has supported Windows for a long time, the overall experience has historically been rather poor. Can you give a bit of the background of why that was and tell us about some of the work that you and others have been doing to make it better? – Tobias
  • Given that a large percentage of users are still on Windows, having a good story for getting started with Python on that platform is important for adoption of the language. What are some of the areas where the current situation needs to be improved? – Tobias
  • What is the most difficult part of building a distribution of Python for a Windows environment? Has it gotten easier in recent years? – Tobias
  • When we were speaking at PyCon you mentioned that the most frequently downloaded version of Python from the python.org site is the 32 bit version for Windows. Do you think that is an accurate and useful metric? What other statistics do you wish you could capture or improve? – Tobias
  • How does Python Tools for Visual Studio compare with other Python IDEs like Pycharm? – Chris
  • What are some unique features that Python Tools for Visual Studio offers that other tools don’t? – Chris
  • Are there any compelling aspects of developing Python on Windows that could convince users on other platforms to make the switch? – Tobias
  • Could you give our listeners a whirlwind tour of the underlying implementation of PTVS? How does Visual Studio provide such in depth introspection for your Python code? – Chris

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The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

PyCon Canada with Francis Deslauriers and Peter McCormick - Episode 69

August 6, 2016

Summary

Aside from the national Python conferences such as PyCon US and EuroPyCon there are a number of regional conferences that operate at a smaller scale to service their local communities. This week we interviewed Peter McCormick and Francis Deslauriers about their work organizing PyCon Canada to provide a venue for Canadians to talk about how they are using the language. If you happen to be near Toronto in November then you should get a ticket and help contribute to their success!

Brief Introduction

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
  • Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
  • We are also sponsored by Sentry this week. Stop hoping your users will report bugs. Sentry’s real-time tracking gives you insight into production deployments and information to reproduce and fix crashes. Check them out at getsentry.com and use the code podcastinit at signup to get a $50 credit!
  • Hired has also returned as a sponsor this week. If you’re looking for a job as a developer or designer then Hired will bring the opportunities to you. Sign up at hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus.
  • Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch.
  • To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers
  • Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
  • Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
  • Today we’re interviewing Peter McCormick and Francis Deslauriers about their experiences organizing PyCon Canada

Interview with Peter McCormick and Francis Deslauriers

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
  • How did you get involved as an organizer of PyCon Canada? – Tobias
  • How does PyCon Canada, and other regional conferences, differ from PyCon US, both in terms of scale and overall experience? – Tobias
  • How do the audience and presenters differ from the US conferences? Is there perhaps a differen mix of industry versus academia, or maybe different disciplines? Chris
  • Are you thinking of trying to hold the conference in different cities across Canada, similarly to how PyCon US moves venues every two years? – Tobias
  • In addition to the national and regional conferences, there are a number of special interest Python conferences that take place (e.g. SciPy, PyData, etc.). What kind of relationship do you have with organizers of those events and how do they impact the kinds of talk submissions that you are likely to receive? – Tobias
  • There has been a lot of focus in recent years on trying to increase the diversity of conference speakers. What are some of the methods that you have used to encourage speakers of various backgrounds to submit talks? – Tobias
  • Organizing a conference involves a lot of moving parts. How do you structure the process to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for the attendees? – Tobias
  • What are some of the biggest logistical challenges you face as conference organizers? – Chris
  • Given that PyCon Canada is a regional conference, how has that affected your focus in terms of marketing and the general theme? – Tobias
  • Tell our listeners about your favorite PyCon Canada moments. – Chris
  • What has been the most surprising part of organizing the conference? – Tobias

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The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Test Engineering with Cris Medina - Episode 68

July 30, 2016

Summary

We all know that testing is an important part of software and systems development. The problem is that as our systems and applications grow, the amount of testing necessary increases at an exponential rate. Cris Medina joins us this week to talk about some of the problems and approaches associated with testing these complex systems and some of the ways that Python can help.

Brief Introduction

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
  • Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
  • We are also sponsored by Sentry this week. Stop hoping your users will report bugs. Sentry’s real-time tracking gives you insight into production deployments and information to reproduce and fix crashes. Check them out at getsentry.com
  • Hired has also returned as a sponsor this week. If you’re looking for a job as a developer or designer then Hired will bring the opportunities to you. Sign up at hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus.
  • The O’Reilly Velocity conference is coming to New York this September and we have a free ticket to give away. If you would like the chance to win it then just sign up for our newsletter at pythonpodcast.com
  • To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, and tell your friends and co-workers
  • Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
  • Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
  • Today we’re interviewing Cris Medina about test engineering for large and complex systems.

Interview with Cris Medina

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
  • To get us started can you share your definition of test engineering and how it differs from the types of testing that your average developer is used to? – Tobias
  • What are some common industries or situations where this kind of test engineering becomes necessary? – Tobias
  • How and where does Python fit into the kind of testing that becomes necessary when dealing with these complex systems? – Tobias
  • How do you determine which areas of a system to test and how can Python help in that discovery process? – Tobias
  • What are some of your favorite tools and libraries for this kind of work? – Tobias
  • What are some of the areas where the existing Python tooling falls short? – Tobias
  • Given the breadth of concerns that are encompassed with testing the various components of these large systems, what are some ways that a test engineer can get a high-level view of the overall state? – Tobias
    • How can that information be distilled for presentation to other areas of the business? – Tobias
    • Could that information be used to provide a compelling business case for the resources required to test properly? – Chris
  • Given the low-level nature of this kind of work I imagine that proper visibility of the work being done can be difficult. How do you make sure that management can properly see and appreciate your efforts? – Tobias

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The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Crossing The Streams - Talk Python with Michael Kennedy - Episode 67

July 23, 2016

Summary

The same week that we released our first episode of Podcast.__init__, Michael Kennedy was publishing the very first episode of Talk Python To Me. The years long drought of podcasts about Python has been quenched with a veritable flood of quality content as we have both continued to deliver the stories of the wonderful people who make our community such a wonderful place. This week we interviewed Michael about what inspired him to get started, his process and experience as Talk Python continues to evolve, and how that has led him to create online training courses alongside the podcast. He also interviewed us, so check out this weeks episode of Talk Python To Me for a mirror image of this show!

Brief Introduction

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
  • Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
  • We are also sponsored by Sentry this week. Stop hoping your users will report bugs. Sentry’s real-time tracking gives you insight into production deployments and information to reproduce and fix crashes. Check them out at getsentry.com
  • Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch.
  • To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers
  • Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
  • Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
  • Today we’re interviewing Michael Kennedy about his work with Talk Python to Me, another podcast about Python and its community, and on-demand Python trainings. Michael has also offered to give away one of each of his Python courses to our listeners. If you would like the chance to win, then sign up for our newsletter at pythonpodcast.com, or our forum at discourse.pythonpodcast.com. If you want to double your chances, then sign up for both!

Interview with Michael Kennedy

  • Introductions
  • How did you get into programming?
  • How did you get introduced to Python? (Chris)
  • What is the craziest piece of software you’ve ever written? – Tobias
  • You’ve taken some pretty drastic steps around Python and your career lately. What inspired you to do that and how’s it going?(yes, quit my job, focus only on podcast and online courses).
  • You are basically self-taught as a developer, how did you get into this teaching / mentor role?
  • Why did you first get started with Talk Python to Me? – Tobias
  • Did you know when you started that it would turn into a full-time endeavor? – Tobias
  • For a while there weren’t any podcasts available that focused on Python and now we’re each producing one. What’s it like to run a successful podcast? – Tobias
  • What have been your most popular episodes? Tell us a bit about each – Tobias
  • In your excellent episode with Kate Heddleston you talked about how we tend to bash other programming languages. We’ve done a fair bit of Java bashing here. How can we help get ourselves and others in our community out of this bad habit? – Chris
  • How do you select the guests and topics for your show? – Tobias
  • What topics do you have planned for the next few episodes?
  • How do you prepare the questions for each episode? – Tobias
  • What is the most significant thing you’ve learned from the podcasting experience?
  • What do you wish you did differently and how are you looking to improve? – Tobias
  • I had a great time hanging out with you at PyCon this year. What was your impression of the conference?
  • What were your favorite sessions and do you have any shows scheduled to follow up on them? – Tobias
  • Your sites are 100% “hand-crafted” as they say. Can you give us a look inside? What are the moving parts in there?
  • So you stirred things up with Stitcher this week. What’s up with that?
  • Can you recommend some podcasts? What’s in your playlist?
  • Final call to action?

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The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Zorg with Gunther Cox and Kevin Brown - Episode 66

July 17, 2016

Summary

Everyone loves to imagine what they would do if they had their own robot. This week we spoke with Gunther Cox and Kevin Brown about their work on Zorg, which is a Python library for building a robot of your own! We discussed how the project got started, what platforms it supports, and some of the projects that have been built with it. Give it a listen and then get building!

Brief Introduction

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
  • Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
  • We are also sponsored by Sentry this week. Stop hoping your users will report bugs. Sentry’s real-time tracking gives you insight into production deployments and information to reproduce and fix crashes. Check them out at getsentry.com
  • Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch.
  • To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers
  • Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
  • Your host as usual is Tobias Macey
  • Today we’re interviewing Gunther Cox and Kevin Brown about Zorg, a Python framework for robotics and physical computing

Interview with Gunther Cox and Kevin Brown

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python? – Tobias
  • What is Zorg and what is its origin story? – Tobias
  • How would you define and differentiate the concepts of robotics, physical computing, and the internet of things? – Tobias
  • I noticed in the documentation that Zorg is based on the Cylon.js project. How closely does the implementation of Zorg stick to that of Cylon and how much needs to be changed due to differences in the language? – Tobias
  • Is Zorg useful for production applications or is it primarily intended for educational purposes and hobby projects? – Tobias
  • Zorg currently only supports the Intel Edison, with plans for Raspberry Pi and Arduino Firmata support in the works. What is involved in adding compatibility with other platforms? – Tobias
  • What are some of the most interesting projects that you have seen created using Zorg? – Tobias
  • How does Zorg compare to other Python robotics projects such as ROSPy? – Tobias
  • Robotics is a large and complex problem space. What are some of the other features and projects in Python that are often used when building robots? – Tobias

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The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Mypy with David Fisher and Greg Price - Episode 65

July 10, 2016

Summary

As Python developers we are fond of the dynamic nature of the language. Sometimes, though, it can get a bit too dynamic and that’s where having some type information would come in handy. Mypy is a project that aims to add that missing level of detail to function and variable definitions so that you don’t have to go hunting 5 levels deep in the stack to understand what shape that data structure is supposed to be. This week we spoke with David Fisher and Greg Price about their work on Mypy and its use within Dropbox and the broader community. They explained how it got started, how it works under the covers, and why you should consider adding it to your projects.

Brief Introduction

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
  • Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
  • We are also sponsored by Sentry this week. Stop hoping your users will report bugs. Sentry’s real-time tracking gives you insight into production deployments and information to reproduce and fix crashes. Check them out at getsentry.com
  • Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch.
  • To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers
  • Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
  • Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
  • Today we’re interviewing David Fisher and Greg Price about Mypy, a library for adding optional static types to your Python code.

es

Interview with David Fisher and Greg Price

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
  • Can you explain a bit about what Mypy is and its origin story? – Tobias
  • What are the benefits of using Mypy for both new and existing projects? – Tobias
  • How does the Mypy compilation step work? – Tobias
  • What are the biggest technical challenges in implementing Mypy? – Chris
  • Are there any limitations imposed by the syntax of Python that prevented you from implementing any features or syntax that you would have liked to include in Mypy? – Tobias
  • In Guido’s keynote from this year’s PyCon he mentioned some tentative plans for adding variable type declarations to the Python syntax in one of the next major releases. How much of that idea was inspired by Mypy? – Tobias
  • Type theory is a large and complex problem domain. Can you explain where Mypy falls in this space? – Tobias
  • Which language(s) had the biggest influence on the particular syntax and semantics used in Mypy? – Tobias
  • What kinds of type definitions and guarantees can be encoded using Mypy? – Tobias
  • Can you talk a bit about user defined types as implemented in Mypy? – Chris
  • How has the inclusion of the typing module in the Python standard libary influenced the evolution of Mypy? – Tobias
  • Did the inclusion of multiple inheritance add any implementation complexity to Mypy? – Chris
  • Do you know of any formal studies that have been performed to research the ergonomics or efficiency gains of static or gradual type systems? – Tobias
  • What does the future roadmap for Mypy look like? – Tobias

Keep In Touch

$ pip3 install mypy-lang

Bug reports, feature requests, questions welcome on issue tracker: github.com/python/mypy

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The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

BeeWare with Russell Keith-Magee - Episode 64

July 2, 2016

Summary

When you have good tools it makes the work you do even more enjoyable. Russel Keith-Magee has been building up a set of tools that are aiming to let you write graphical interfaces in Python and run them across all of your target platforms. Most recently he has been working on a capstone project called Toga that targets the Android and iOS platforms with the same set of code. In this episode we explored his journey through programming and how he has built and designed the Beeware suite. Give it a listen and then try out some or all of his excellent projects!

Brief Introduction

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
  • Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
  • We are also sponsored by Sentry this week. Stop hoping your users will report bugs. Sentry’s real-time tracking gives you insight into production deployments and information to reproduce and fix crashes. Check them out at getsentry.com and use the code podcastinit to get a $50 credit!
  • Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch.
  • To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers
  • Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
  • Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
  • Today we’re interviewing Russel Keith-Magee about the Beeware project, which is a collection of tools and libraries that are meant to be composed together for building up your Python development environment.

Interview with Firstname Lastname

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
  • What is the BeeWare project and what goals do you have for it? – Tobias
  • What kinds of projects are contained under the BeeWare umbrella and what inspired you to start creating these kinds of tools? – Tobias
  • Did each project arise from a particular need that you had at the time or has there been a logical progression from one tool to the next? – Tobias
  • At PyCon US of this year (2016) you made a presentation about the work that you have been doing to bring Python to the iOS and Android platforms. Can you provide a high-level overview for anyone who hasn’t seen that talk yet? – Tobias
  • Let’s talk about Toga – how does Toga differ from some of the other cross platform UI framework efforts for various languages like Kivy or Shoes? – Chris
  • What are some of the biggest challenges that you had to overcome in order to get Python to run on both iOS and Android? – Tobias
  • How does runtime performance for applications written in Python compare with the same program running in the languages that are natively supported on those platforms? – Tobias
  • Can you walk us through the low level flow of a single toga API request? – Chris
  • Do you view your work on Toga and the associated libraries as a hobby project or do you think that it will turn into a production ready tool set that people will use for shipping applications? – Tobias
  • IDEs like Android Studio and XCode have a lot of features that simplify the development and UI creation process. Do you have to forego those niceties when developing a mobile app in Python? – Tobias
  • Shipping Python applications is a problem that tends to pose a host of issues for people, which you are addressing with the Briefcase project. What are some of the biggest hurdles and design choices that you have encountered while working on that? – Tobias
  • Do you think that there will ever be a release of iOS or Android, or even a brand new mobile platform, that will ship with native Python support? – Tobias

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The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Armin Ronacher - Episode 63

June 26, 2016

Summary

Armin Ronacher is a prolific contributor to the Python software ecosystem, creating such widely used projects as Flask and Jinja2. This week we got the opportunity to talk to him about how he got his start with Python and what has inspired him to create the various tools that have made our lives easier. We also discussed his experiences working in Rust and how it can interface with Python.

Brief Introduction

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
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  • Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
  • Today we’re interviewing Armin Ronacher about his contributions to the Python community.

Interview with Armin Ronacher

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
  • What was the first open source project that you created in Python? – Tobias
  • What is your view of the responsibility for open source project maintainers and how do you manage a smooth handoff for projects that you no longer wish to be involved in? – Tobias
  • You have created a large number of successful open source libraries and tools during your career. What are some of the projects that may be less well known that you think people might find interesting? – Tobias (e.g. logbook)
  • I notice that you recently worked on the pipsi project. Please tell us about it! – Chris
  • Following on from the last question, where would you like to see the Python packaging infrastructure go in the future? – Chris
  • You have had some strong opinions of Python 2 vs Python 3. How has your position on that subject changed over time? – Tobias
  • Let’s talk about Lektor – what differentiates it from the pack, and what keeps you coming back to CMS projects? – Chris
  • How has your blogging contributed to the work that you do and the success you have achieved? – Tobias
  • Lately you have been doing a fair amount of work with Rust. What was your reasoning for learning that language and how has it influenced your work with Python? – Tobias
  • In addition to the code you have written, you also helped to form the Pocoo organization. Can you explain what Pocoo is and what it does? What has inspired the rebranding to the Pallets project? – Tobias

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The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA