[Baypiggies] newbie nuggets

[Stephen McInerney]

+1

Another aspect which as fallen away is that in the old days, we would encourage
newbies or a person who has never spoken to present something briefly
(whether it's a nugget, a mini-book-review or a how-to).
I think this is very important to encourage people to step forward and not be shy.

Stephen


> Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:57:46 -0700
> From: brent.tubbs at gmail.com
> To: baypiggies at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Baypiggies] newbie nuggets
> 
> Great big +1.
> 
> I've been doing little python programs for a couple of years, but am
> still firmly in the "newbie" camp.  For me, newbie nuggets are just
> the thing to tip the scales in favor of making an effort to get to the
> meetings.
> 
> On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 6:10 PM, Daryl Spitzer <daryl.spitzer at gmail.com> wrote:
> > +1
> >
> > I could stand to learn more about:
> >
> >> * Using IPython (and installing it with an egg).
> >> * Using "try/finally" with file handles vs. using the "with" statement.
> >
> > And since the best way to learn something in depth is to teach it, I
> > volunteer to present a "newbie nugget" (good name) on these.
> >
> > --
> > Daryl
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 4:30 PM, Anna Ravenscroft <annaraven at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 4:21 PM, Shannon -jj Behrens <jjinux at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> I was talking with a friend today, and he brought up the fact that we
> >>> hadn't had a newbies night in a long time.  I think that the problem
> >>> with having a newbies night every year or so is that there are
> >>> programmers who have to learn Python all year long.  Clearly, there
> >>> are training classes, but I think we could do more.
> >>>
> >>> I'd like to propose a slight addition to our normal meetings called
> >>> "newbie nuggest".  I propose that *at the beginning of each meeting*,
> >>> we have a *10 minute* section devoted to newbies in which we cover one
> >>> intermediate topic.
> >>
> >> Or pretty basic topics (not "this is a string" but "this is the new
> >> string templating")
> >>
> >>>   It doesn't make sense to cover how to write a
> >>> "for" loop every month, but it would make sense to cover something
> >>> like generators.
> >>>
> >>> The format is that one person covers one topic.  Slides are optional.
> >>> Showing some code, perhaps in the Python shell, is required.  I think
> >>> this would be a great way to give some of the less advanced Python
> >>> programmers something to contribute to BayPiggies.  Even if you don't
> >>> know what how to write a function decorator now, you could probably
> >>> learn it well enough to talk about it for 10 minutes before the next
> >>> meeting.
> >>>
> >>> Here are some suggested topics:
> >>>
> >>> * Function decorators.
> >>> * List comprehensions.
> >>> * Generators and generator expressions.
> >>> * Function pointers and map.
> >>> * Using "else" with "for",  "while", and "except".
> >>> * Using StringIO.
> >>> * Using IPython (and installing it with an egg).
> >>> * Using "try/finally" with file handles vs. using the "with" statement.
> >>> * Using lambda.
> >>>
> >> * Starting with pygame!
> >> * using datetime
> >> * using decimal
> >> * using pytz
> >> * file handling basics
> >> * string formatting/templating
> >>
> >>> I think these could be short, sweet, and helpful for a decent
> >>> percentage of our audience.
> >>
> >> +1
> >> Great idea JJ! And I like starting the meeting with newbie-friendly
> >> stuff - so they don't have to wait through more advanced stuff to get
> >> to something they can understand.
> >>
> >> --
> >> cordially,
> >> Anna
> >> --
> >> Walking through the water. Trying to get across.
> >> Just like everybody else.
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
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