On Thursday 18 March 2010 03:51:58 pm Brian Wisti wrote: > I must see C'Dent. Maybe April will be the month I stop lurking?
And I thought it was Arthur Dent. No time traveler, just a hitchhiker, though. > > Kind Regards, > > Brian Wisti > http://coolnamehere.com > > > > > > ________________________________ > From: Ingy dot Net <[email protected]> > To: A group of Python users in Seattle <[email protected]> > Sent: Thu, March 18, 2010 3:37:10 PM > Subject: Re: [SEAPY] Activity ideas for SeaPIG meetings > > Hi All, > > I knew this Brian Ingerson guy back in the day. He was actually a time > traveler from a distant galaxy. He left our world sometime in late 2005, > IIRC. Before he left, he asked me if I would carry on his work here in this > world. I graciously accepted his offer. I can say with complete certainty > that Brian will not be speaking at your upcoming meeting. However, I would > be more than happy to give a talk in his place. :) > > Given that, I would like to present to all of you, a talk on some of my > latest work, C'Dent. C'Dent is a new programming language made out of old > ones (like Perl & Python). It's purpose is to create portable modules via > the HOPE (Hack Once, Please Everyone) model of software development. I will > show you how you can write a Python module and use it in Perl, Ruby, PHP, > JavaScript, Perl 6, Python 3000 and many others. I'll also show you how you > can use Python modules that were written in Perl, Ruby, etc. > > It is very fitting that I am giving this talk to seapig. The entire C'Dent > language is being prototyped in Python. I am finding Python to be a good > language for getting the job done. > > Some of you oldtimers might recall that Brian attended seapig back in the > day. He was really into Perl. I think Perl is a nice language too, but I > have the conviction that great programmers need to think past their > language boundaries and create things that move programming forward as a > whole. I call this belief, Acmeism, and I'll talk a bit about that as well. > > I'm really looking forward to meeting you, > > Ingy döt Net > > > On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 2:02 PM, Mike Orr <[email protected]> wrote: > > I replied to a comp.lang.python post on the Python-URL, and there were > > >>some ideas for code-sharing activities we might want to try. > >> > >>By the way, Brian Ingerson is preparing a talk for the April meeting. > >>He has a programming-language translator built in Python, which > >>involves a language-neutral AST that can generate code in several > >>languages. I think it can transform higher-level functions as well as > >>primitive commands. > >> > >> > >>---------- Forwarded message ---------- > >>From: Mike Orr <[email protected]> > >>Date: Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 1:52 PM > >>Subject: Re: Need advice on starting a Python group > >>To: [email protected] > >>Cc: Mike Orr <[email protected]> > >> > >>On Mar 11, 7:57 am, gb345 <[email protected]> wrote: > >>> I'm hoping to get advice from anyone with prior experience setting > >>> up a Python group. > >>> > >>> A friend of mine and I have been trying to start a > >>> scientific-programming-oriented Python group in our school (of > >>> medecine and bio research), with not much success. > >>> > >>> The main problem is attendance. Even though a *ton* of people have > >>> told us that it's a great idea, that they're *very* interested, > >>> and have asked to be added to our mailing list, the attendance to > >>> our first few meeting has never been more than 5, including my > >>> friend and I. Last time just he and I showed up. > >>> > >>> The second problem is getting content. The format we'd envisioned > >>> for this group was centered around code review (though not limited > >>> to it). The idea was that at every meeting a different member > >>> would show some code. This could be for any of a number of reasons, > >>> such as, for example, 1) illustrate a cool module or technique; 2) > >>> present a scientific research problem and how they used Python to > >>> solve it, or get help solving it; 3) get general feedback (e.g. on > >>> code clarity, software usability, module architecture, etc.). But > >>> in principle just about anything is OK: e.g. a talk on favorite > >>> Python resources, or a comparison of Python with some other language, > >>> or an overview of Python gotchas would all be fair game. > >> > >>I've been involved in a Python users group since 2000, and have > >>attended or heard about a few others. The ones that have 20+ attendees > >>have a speaker every month. Our group is usually a show-and-tell and > >>open discussion, so we get around six people each month (but not the > >>same six). We've decided to solicit more talks as a way to increase > >>attendance. > >> > >>I have never heard of a Python group focusing on code review, so I > >>don't know what attendance to expect for that. One problem is that > >>much of people's code is private at their workplace, and they can't > >>bring it to a meeting. I'd suggest expanding the focus a bit: code > >>review, writing unit tests for each other, pair programming, some open > >>"How do I do this in Python?" discussions, etc. > >> > >>You're also limiting the pool of potential attendees by targeting one > >>institution. There are only a subset there who are interested in > >>Python, a smaller subset who can attend meetings, and an even smaller > >>subset who are willing to attend meetings even if they can. A citywide > >>group or at least bringing in other institutions would hopefully > >>increase attendance. Although it may be harder to keep the scientific > >>focus with that. But on the other hand, here the specialized groups > >>are getting more attendance than the general groups are. The local > >>Plone and Django groups get more people than the Python group does. > >> > >>--Mike > >> > >> > >>-- > >>Mike Orr <[email protected]>
