PyCon 2007:
This Post from Jeff Rush should be read by everyone.
I've been looking over the mix of talk proposals we have so far for PyCon 2007. We're got 17 so far, with a good number of case histories. Now case histories are good, don't get me wrong, we want Python to be successful and it is interesting to hear how it is being used. But according to the feedback forms from last year, we need more talks that actually teach you how to be better programmers, especially if we want to bring new talent into the community.
I have to disclose the fact that I am/was one of the people asking for things like this after pycon last year, quite vocally in fact.
I've pondered doing a talk like this, or a Python 101/mid-level intro talk but frankly, I'm daunted by trying to teach programmers things when I am still learning nuances of the language myself. Not to mention, I am not an advanced developer, or even on the high-end myself. I can't do cross language comparisons, etc.
I still think it's needed, and I am going to take another look and see if I think I can propose something I feel comfortable in pulling off.
October 25th, 2006 at 4:44 am
If you are not comfortable doing an intro to python talk, there are a number of related topics. Maybe an introduction to 5 of the standard library modules you find most useful?
There is a wiki for talk and panel ideas:
http://us.pycon.org/TX2007/TalkIdeas
October 25th, 2006 at 11:46 am
I’m actually stepping up and drafting a Python 101 “Without the Bells and whistles” talk. We’ll see if they like it!
October 26th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
From my experience of teaching Python (not very extensive), it is not so important, that you cover too much ground but that you know the specifics of Python very well. For example, what does it mean exactly that variables in Python are only references? - in theory and in practice. Why don’t you need getter/setter methods in Python where you would need them in more static languages? How to use the power of default/keyword arguments and how they relate to method overloading in other languages. And so on…