Slides TOC

• Opener

  • Subtitle: 20 cool things you can do with Python

• Who am I

  • History
  • Credentials

• Who uses Python?

  • Everyone!
  • Who doesn’t use Python?
  • NASA, Canonical in Ubuntu, Google, et al
  • Startups, Scientists, Animation Studios, et al

• What is Python?

  • 20 years old and mature
  • A programming language named after Monty Python
  • Dynamically typed scripting language

• Python is similar to:

  • Ruby
  • Lisp
  • et al

• Python is different than:

  • Ruby
  • Java
  • Lisp

• Core concepts

  • Philosophy of Core devs

    • Conservative growth
    • We read Knuth so you don’t have to
    • Aim for simple implementation

  • Zen of Python

    • A few of my favorite lines

  • PEP-8

• Which Python to use?

• 20 Cool things you can do with Python

1. Learn it fast

   • Experienced developers take a week to get competent in Python
   • Java takes 6 months
   • C takes 2 years

2. Introspect

   • String basic type
   • dir
   • help

3. Play with Strings

   • Concatenation
   • String formatting
   • Join iterables

4. Express yourself to laymen

   • Don’t know Python? Bet you can read this!

5. Play with the REPL

   • Standard python shell
   • ipython
   • bpython

6. List Comprehension

   • [x for x in range(15)]
   • List Generators for ultimate power

7. Generate Exceptions

8. Create small, isolated environments for installing packages

   • Good for testing different versions of the same library:

   easy_install pip pip install virtualenv virtualenv my_env source my_env/bin/activate

9. Generate the code coloration used in these slides.

   • http://pygments.org/
   • Show demo
   • Mention that both bitbucket and github use Pygments to colorize code.

10. Go faster than C and Javascript

    • Everyone knows C is fast, right?
    • And JavaScript on V8 is really fast too.
    • PyPy, an implementation of Python written in Python, runs faster.
    • Faster than JavaScript, in some cases faster than C.
    • Benchmarks, et al
    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PyPy
    • http://speed.pypy.org/
    • http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2012/01/numpypy-progress-report-running.html
    • http://blog.bossylobster.com/2011/08/lesson-v8-can-teach-python-and-other.html
    • Quora is the best known prominent user at this time
    • Integration with numpy and other scientific libraries in progress

11. Persist

    • LRU caching
    • Connect to SQL databases
    • Connect to NoSQL

12. Build websites

13. Internationalize

    • unicode
    • gettext implementation