[Baypiggies] newbie nuggets

[Brent Tubbs]

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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