[Baypiggies] newbie nuggets

[Daryl Spitzer]

+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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