Hi Mark,
First, congratulations with the book deal!
Regarding the 'internet class':
IMO. Python (and by extension TG) biggest advantage in the web-
framework arena, is that there is so much quality Python code around
which
can do pretty much anything you want.
If you want to 'webalize' some of the existing code base TG is great
because it stays out of your way.
The overhead added by TG is very low, so you can focus on your
application's problem domain.
One good way to teach TG could be to go trough projects that use/
integrate existing components.
Some examples (shoots from the hip) could be:
--- A widget:
Creating a 'plot' widget using Matplotlib (http://
matplotlib.sourceforge.net/).
The project should use setup tools to handle the dependencies to
Matplotlib.
Want a scatter plot? just add your plotWidget to your kid file, pass
the type and the data/functions to it and
tada:
http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/screenshots/scatter_demo2_small.png
-- An app:
Document management app. List directories, preview files, upload/
download. The os module make this a breeze.
To make it really useful integrate pylucene (http://
pylucene.osafoundation.org/) , to automatically index all documents
and provide
high quality search.
Add tagging capabilities by using Tasty (http://tasty.python-
hosting.com/) just to show how easy is to incorporate existing code.
-- A ToolBox tool
Use Pil to create a tool where the users can define a 'style' for a
text heading. They can upload fonts, set the foreground and
background colours
(or background image), set the padding and margin, the font weight
and font size. They can preview all changes in real time.
Once they save their style, they can refer to it on their kid
templates to automagically generate image text for their headings.
<h1 class="Zapfino16pxOnAGreenBackground">This text will be render as
an image</h1>
----
Other projects could show how to cannibalise on Python platform
specific integration (This is something really difficult from Java)
- import structure and data from an uploaded excel file (using win32
or pyExcelerator ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/pyexcelerator) )
- automagically migrate MS Access applications to TG using win32 to
read the table definition, create the corresponding SQLObject models,
import data, and let the user use TG's CRUD support to interact
with the app (or CatWalk).
- create a monitoring app with TG and pyObjectC to manage OSX
machines on a lab.
- use ctypes (http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/ctypes/) from
TG to webify a legacy application (maybe for house automation)
There are ton of great apps that can be created with TG with minimal
effort by combining existing projects, and this goes
along TG's spirit of using best of breed components.
I'm looking forward to the book and classes. If I can be of any help,
let me know.
Cheers
Ronald
On Dec 19, 2005, at 10:16 PM, Mark Ramm wrote:
On 12/19/05, Kevin Dangoor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
After a month of discussions with two different publishers (both of
which sounded quite excited about the project), Mark Ramm and I have
agreed to write a TurboGears book for Prentice Hall.
<Snip>
(Please wait a few months for delivery :)
Actually there are a couple of ways that you can get involved sooner
than that! ;)
I plan to test out a lot of the material for the book with a class
physically located in Ann Arbor, but available to others on the
Internet "somehow."
I'm also going to try to put together a series of monthly "code-walk
through" screencasts to highlight open-source TurboGears projects from
the community. I am convinced that one of the keys to a framework's
success is the ability to help developers get up to speed quickly.
People have a lot of choices, and the one that makes learning to do
cool new things easiest is going to win a lot of hearts and minds!
If you have ideas or experience running an "Internet available" class,
or want to participate in the class, please let me know. As soon as
more details are available, I will post them to the list, and on my
blog (http://compoundthinking.blogspot.com)
________________________________
Ronald Jaramillo
mail: ronald AT checkandshare DOT com
blog: http://www.checkandshare.com/blog
