[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



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