[Python-Dev] Topic suggestions from the PyCon feedback

[Alex Martelli]

On Mar 13, 2006, at 7:22 PM, A.M. Kuchling wrote:
    ...
> Design Patterns in Python  (3)
> Anything Alex Martelli wants to talk about.    (3)
    ...
> Language howtos (I really enjoyed Alex Martelli's talk last year on  
> itertools)  (1)

Wow, I'm blushing;-).  I promise and swear I'll do the utmost to  
attend Pycon 2007 -- this year, what between work-related issues AND  
the 2nd edition of the Nutshell, it was, alas, really unfeasible:-(.

The *ONE* thing I dislike about working in the US is vacations -- I  
get about half of what I would expect in Europe, and that's with my  
employer being reasonably generous... in practice, given I NEED some  
time to go visit family and friends back in Italy, this means I can't  
really take vacations to do conferences, but rather I must convince  
my boss that conference X is worth my time (basically, this means  
that by attending I can hope to help *HIRE* somebody -- otherwise,  
I'm fighting uphill!-).

> In the first entry, "new/advanced features" = a fuzzy set containing
> generators, iterators, metaclasses, __slots__, and decorators.  When
> 2.5 is released, this set will probably grow to include the 'with'
> statement's context managers and coroutines.  Some of the other
> entries in the above list overlap with the first entry.

Wow, I'm RARIN' for a go at that -- I did the former more than once,  
and 'with' and coroutines sound right up my alley -- if I get any  
chance to practice them, I might even be able to present related  
*patterns*...;-)

> In particular: if you're going to attend PyCon 2007, EuroPython, or
> some other conference (even a non-Python one), please consider
> submitting a talk proposal covering one of the above topics.  Such
> presentations would find a receptive audience, I think.

A-yup.  Most presentations cover specific project, which is fine, but  
there's an unsatisfied demand for talks on how best to use certain  
language features, and design patterns around them -- I suspect  
that's a big reason why I was singled out by name (that kind of thing  
is generally what I address in my talks).


Alex