[pydotorg-www] project plan

[Michael Foord]

On 21/04/2010 18:25, skip at pobox.com wrote:
>      >>  - I wonder if the PSF might consider funding a competent technical
>      >>  writer with essentially no programming experience to learn the
>      >>  language and produce a good tutorial aimed at complete novices.
>
>      Michael>  Whilst *evaluating* tutorials can be done (and perhaps is best
>      Michael>  done) by those with little experience I don't think that
>      Michael>  absolute Python newbies can *create* a very good tutorial.
>
> My implicit point was that I think it's difficult for experienced
> programmers to write documentation which is suitable for non-programmers.  I
> don't know what the resolution will be, but there is certainly tension
> between the two extremes.
>    

Hehe. As a (relatively) experience Python developer and a writer I don't 
think it is that hard if you have the right mindset and skills. I don't 
think it is *possible* for a real newbie to write useful documentation 
though. Having a technical-but-python-novice as a reviewer would be very 
helpful though.

>      >>  - Would Google App Engine be a suitable environment for an interactive
>      >>  Python exploratorium?
>      >>
>
>      Michael>  I'd rather not have our core services dependent on external
>      Michael>  providers - but am not *strongly* against it for some of the
>      Michael>  details.
>
> I only mentioned GAE because presumably they've solved the problem of
> someone entering something simple like
>
>      print 1000 ** 1000 ** 1000
>    

Ah - you're talking about an "interactive Python exploratorium", I 
missed that. Yes, implementing it on top of google app engine would be 
sensible.

If you're not ideologically opposed to Silverlight then I have already 
implemented something like this called "Try Python" (unfortunately not 
yet compatible with Silverlight 4 which has just been released - I need 
a free weekend): http://www.trypython.org/

The advantage of Silverlight is that the code runs on the client not the 
server. The disadvantage is that it is only installed on 50% of browsers 
and has poor Linux support (works great on the Mac though).

All the best,

Michael



> which will likely take awhile to run.  GAE probably also has more hardware
> available so that the above sort of construct (if it hasn't been addressed)
> is unlikely to be an effective denial-of-service attack.  At most the PSF
> will probably devote a few boxes to such an application.  Execute that a few
> times and things can go to pot pretty quickly.  Not to mention
> security/sandbox issues.
>
> S
>    


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