[Baypiggies] April agenda?
Ben Bangert
ben at groovie.org
Sat Apr 8 03:48:29 CEST 2006
On Apr 7, 2006, at 6:25 PM, Marilyn Davis wrote:
> Well, yeh. I guess that's the problem we're having. For any learning
> experience, many of us would save a lot of time and gas by just
> googling and studying at our desks. And there are some great python
> lists for asking questions from experts. There's no reason to confine
> ourselves to experts in the Bay Area when we need an answer.
I'd like to think Python is easy enough that there's few questions if
any a few local Python programmers shouldn't be able to answer.
> The internet environment is so good, so efficient, so useful.
For some things, sure. I've had more than a few 2 week internet
conversations over many e-mails, to resolve discussions that take
mere minutes in a face-to-face setting.
> But we're trying to find fun and interesting things to do together,
> face-to-face. We're looking for excuses to rub elbows.
>
> Or is face-to-face obsolete? Maybe we should be asking ourselves
> that.
Nope, it definitely isn't. :)
> I see. Well, that would be a different activity, an online language
> debate? Gee, that sounds like a useful thing, maybe an updated
> version of the old "hello world" site concept.
Debates are the last thing you want to happen on the internet... they
rarely shed as much light as having the same debate in person and
usually generate a lot more flak in the process whether through
misunderstandings or people taking sarcasm seriously because text and
a few smiley's is a lousy substitution for facial expressions and
tone of voice.
> But, what about face-to-face?
Rather than have a debate, why not let each group pick something they
think their language provides a unique way of solving it. Let each
group/individual give a short presentation on the problem, the
solution, and why they believe the language they're using makes it
easier. Then afterwards, others can maybe give a few pointers about
how they'd do it in Language X, etc.
This way no one is shoe-horned into making a "hello world" or some
other snippet that likely won't show off what truly is attractive
about the language. I think this could also apply if we have a Python
web programming comparison (as some other Python user groups have done).
Someone else mentioned the groups name being somewhat unprofessional.
I'd like to mention that I specifically avoid mentioning the name
whenever I talk about the group, cause going to "bay piggies" has
about zero appeal for anyone I know, even hardcore programmers. Is
that really the best name to be using? How did a piggie get
associated with the cool image of a Python? ;)
Cheers,
Ben
More information about the Baypiggies
mailing list