[NCLUG] ANN: Fort Collins Pythonistas Kickoff Meeting - 6 Nov 2008 @ 6 pm

[Paul Hummer]

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>> What software will we need?
> 
> All you will *NEED* is the base Python environment, preferably version 2.6,
> though anything older than this will be usable though with some
> corner-cases being unavailable.
> 
> Some sort of editor will probably make your life easier, particularly
> something that does Python syntax highlighting.  I will probably use vim
> for basic editing.  See:
> 
>    http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEditors
> 
> I will use ipython for most of my examples because it's a very nice
> interactive Python environment.  So you may want this as well.
> 
> For an IDE I expect to be using wingware, which is commercial software with
> a free trial available:
> 
>    http://wingware.com/wingide/trial
> 

I can show up early to get people going.  I think that would be ideal.  It's
just a quick download and install on Windows, MacOS Leopard has 2.5 installed,
as does Ubuntu and Fedora's recent offerings.  Anything older and we can get
something installed.

> Another IDE like IDLE (which is free) may be basically as useful, but I
> honestly don't use IDEs much so I can't honestly say.  Why Wing?  I had a
> hard time deciding on this, because it's commercial.  However, they do have
> a free version available, as well as trials, it's a "best of breed" IDE,
> and the Wing folks are very active in the community.
> 
> I'm still deciding exactly what I want to do for materials, but I'll
> probably use Dive Into Python, which has a free download, or is around $40
> for a hard-copy.
> 

$40 is a GREAT deal on this book.  It's been helpful for me through beginning
all the way to being the experienced (for various definitions of experienced)
python developer I am today.  I highly suggest picking it up.  It doesn't last
on the B&N shelves too long here it FtC, but it's overpriced anyway, so buy the
book on Amazon.

>> I know I can do Python in a terminal on a Linux box, but what
>> IDE, if any, is suggested?
> 
> Answered above.
> 
>> What if people will be using a Mac or, gasp, windows computer?
> 
> Shouldn't be a problem...  Python is available for basically everything.
> Wing IDE is supported on all the above, and I think Stephan of Wing uses
> MacOS as his primary system.  Python core developers use all of the above.
> 
>> Also, I read recently that Python released version 3 and that it wasn't
>> entirely compatible with prior versions. Which version will we be looking at
>> and if it's version 3 is there a special upgrade we need? If we are just
>> learning should we be learning 3 so we don't have to "unlearn" later or is
>> it too early to worry about that?
> 
> I decided to avoid Python 3.0 because it's just so new.  The thing about
> version 3 is that it's deliberately incompatible with previous releases, so
> that the developers can fix long-standing warts that have remained because
> of compatibility.
> 
> However, this means that currently the amount of software that runs under
> Python 3 is quite limited.  One of the benefits of Python is that there is
> such a rich set of additional software and libraries around it, for doing
> things like GUIs, web development, network programming, games...  Most if
> not all of this software is unavailable under Python 3.0 right now.
> 
> So, if you were to pick up Python 3 right now, you'd have what's in the
> standard library, which is pretty good, but you'd be missing out on a lot
> of things.  The Python community has a plan to bridge this gap, via the 2.6
> release.  2.6 is backwards compatible with 2.6, but also includes features
> making it easy to build code that will run on both Python 2.6 and 3.0.  2.6
> just came out, and so this porting effort has really only just begun.  In a
> year, it would probably be reasonable to start looking at teaching Python
> 3, but right now it is not.
> 
> You can definitely start developing 2.6 code that will be able to be easily
> (probably automatically) ported to 3.  And it's not like someone who knows
> Python 2.6 is going to have a lot of problems going to 3.0.  It's not like
> learning a completely new language.  It won't be a huge learning curve.
> 
>> Also very cool. Should we plan on pitching in and will there be non-meat
>> options?
> 
> While I do eat meat, I have no problems eating non-meat choices.  So, I
> would support non-mean selection.  tummy.com will put in $100 towards the
> food and beverage fund.
> 

Iron Lion Consulting will also be contributing to this (I was planning on
footing the whole bill, so thanks Tummy, for also contributing).

- --
Paul Hummer

http://theironlion.net
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