[IPython-dev] PyCon Canada keynote went great: thanks to all of you for making me look good!

[Brian Granger]

Fernando,

Glad it went well!


On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 9:34 PM, Fernando Perez <fperez.net at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> I just completed a mini-marathon with two talks at U. Toronto and the
> closing keynote for PyCon Canada, which went unusually well.  It's not
> very often that I get two or three applause interruptions during a
> conference talk and a standing ovation at the end.  I really, really
> want to thank everyone here who is basically working so hard to
> ultimately make me look good; I feel almost like I'm stealing a
> thunder that collectively is nothing but the result of *your* work.
>
> When I started IPython, back in 2001, it was basically a crazy excuse
> to not work on my dissertation and a way to teach myself Python (I'd
> read about the language a few weeks earlier and IPython was my first
> Python program).  I had to justify to my classmates (and later
> colleagues) why I thought there was any value in this, when all they
> saw was a 'pastime that was distracting me from doing real and useful
> work'.  Seeing the wider community accept it now should make all of us
> proud.
>
>
We are so glad you were irresponsible in not working on your thesis!  I
just wish I had been around at the time to join you early on.  Even though
it was your first python project, and by now we have refactored/rewritten
most of the code, there is one thing that is perfectly clear.  Your vision
for the project, from day one, was spectacular.  You knew exactly what
people wanted and needed when working interactively - and the entire user
experience reflects that.  Along with your extremely generous leadership,
that vision has provided a laser focus for the project that has helped us
to not get too distracted with all of the new stuff.  In fact, when I was
designing the notebook last summer, I continually made choices to try and
keep the IPython DNA in the notebook experience.


> I especially want to thank Brian and Min, who did believe the crazy
> original idea that controlling one interactive interpreter well was
> the right core abstraction to build an interactive parallel computing
> library, back in 2004/5.  They poured their amazing talent (and
> patience) into this effort, and there's no way we'd be where we are
> without them: I'm positive I would have abandoned IPython some time
> back if we hadn't had this small but dedicated team that believed
> there were genuinely good ideas worth persevering for.  Ville was also
> instrumental in keeping things moving forward in that period, even if
> he has now moved on to work on other projects.   And in the last few
> years,  things have really taken off,  with first Thomas, then
> Matthias, Paul, Brad, Evan, JD March, Jorgen, David W-F and everyone
> else who now keeps us forever behind on our pull request queue.
>
>
Again, your generosity at work ;-)  But it really is *our* pleasure.

Cheers,

Brian


> Really, thanks to all of you for keeping such an amazing project
> moving forward.  The reception we are getting is a testament to the
> fact that we are doing things right, and all the real credit goes to
> you guys.
>
> I'm going to crash now, and with David W-F's help will tomorrow see
> how many candidates we get for sprints work here in Toronto.  It will
> feel good to get back to code, given how the last few months have been
> pretty much nothing but grants, travel and talks...
>
> Cheers,
>
> f
>
> ps - if anyone is curious, my slides are here, but it's fairly similar
> material to what I have in other talks (just presented with a
> different emphasis for this audience):
>
> https://speakerdeck.com/fperez/science-and-python-a-interactively-biased-retrospective-of-a-mostly-successful-decade
>
> I'll post the video link once it's up.
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>



-- 
Brian E. Granger
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
bgranger at calpoly.edu and ellisonbg at gmail.com
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