[Baypiggies] meetings, linuxworld, oscon, objects, etc.

[wesley chun]

hi everyone,

couple of things to general populus that i didn't get a chance to
make at tonite's meeting -- great talks by both drew and david!!

1.  meeting at IronPort vs. Google is no longer an issue.  because
    JJ is leaving IronPort, all meetings will be at Google unless
    otherwise planned at other venues.  if we have SF or EB
    volunteers, it would be great to have occasional meetings
    in other Bay Area locales.

2.  other than donna and JJ, is anyone else going to be at LinuxWorld
    @ Moscone this week (mon-thu 8/14-17)?  does anyone know if there
    will be any Python presence at that convention?

3.  anyone who went to OSCON a few weeks ago want to report on talks
    they attended?

4.  the company i'm currently working for on a part-time, telecommute,
    and contract basis is still soliciting resumes. skills desired are:
    Python, WebWare, Cheetah, XML, SQL/DB/SqlObject, FormEncode. those
    of you who replied to me please contact me again as i accidentally
    deleted the email folder.

5.  for those who asked (you know who you are!), "Core Python" is
    almost here. it was supposed to have been sent to the printers for
    production and binding as of *today*.  hands are finally OFF it!!
    the current scheduled street date is 9/8. thanks for everyone's
    support and well-wishes.

6.  on a related note with regards to the post last month, "Trip-up",
    regarding a variety of issues:

    >>> a = 123456
    >>> b = 123456
    >>> a is b
    False
    >>> 123456 is 123456
    True

    this is a common thing that people run into quite often.  i've
    even got a section on this stuff in "Core Python." it's got to
    do with 3 different things:

    a. object *identity* comparison vs. object *value* comparison

    most of the time, people are going to compare values.  it is
    rarely the case where you would compare the objects themselves
    unless it is in a situation like "is (not) None" where it does
    matter that you're *not* comparing just the values.

    b. "interning"

    in the current version of Python, integers in range(-1, 100)
    have special meaning.  compare the above output to this:

    >>> a = 10
    >>> b = 10
    >>> a is b
    True
    >>> 10 is 10
    True

    Python caches aka "interns" such numbers because they are likely
    to be used often, and serves as an optimaization to share the
    same object rather than creating new ones. however, i would not
    program to this in case it ever changes in the future.

    c. (im)mutable objects

    the normal case of using 123456 is expected behavior. aside
    from the exception we just mentioned, any time you assign an
    immutable object to a variable, a new object is created.
    that is why 'a' is *not* 'b', e.g., a is b --> False. this
    is for all immutable objects, not just for numbers.

7.  there is still room in our Python training class next week... the
    intensive intro course runs wed-fri 8/16-18 down the hill from
    IronPort at the bottom of the hill here across street from the
    San Bruno BART, close to CalTrain, and 101/380/280.
    http://cyberwebconsulting.com

cheers,
-wesley

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Core Python Programming", Prentice Hall, (c)2007,2001
    http://corepython.com

wesley.j.chun :: wescpy-at-gmail.com
python training and technical consulting
cyberweb.consulting : silicon valley, ca
http://cyberwebconsulting.com