[073] An introduction to Python resources - Part 2/2 (2/2)
in series: Resources for Python Newbies
video tutorial by Ian Ozsvald
Name:
[002] Ian Ozsvald
Member:
51 months
Authored:
181 videos
Description:
I am the co-founder of ShowMeDo (see http://showmedo.com/about), author of `The Screencasting Handbook <http://thescreencastinghandbook.com>`_ and the founder of the professional screencast production ...
Our authors tell us that feedback from you is a big motivator. Please take a few moments to let them know what you think of their work.
Here in the second ShowMeDo I discuss some Python news sites and blogs, Google Groups and the community and mention some of the notable Python projects that you may have heard about.
Uploaded on 20th October 2006, running time 16 minutes.
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I reference the following resources:
- Daily Python News (blog aggregator)
- Python Cookbook - tasty programming recipes and example code
- Python Cheeseshop (list of Python modules and projects)
- Vaults of Parnassus (older list of Python projects)
- PythonNewbie blog (warning: a recent blog, no guarantee of longevity)
- LearningPython blog
- From Java to Python blog (web development)
- PyBlagg - list of most Python blogs
- Python mailing lists and community links
- Links to comp.lang.python.*
- Comp.lang.python Google Group - lots of Python discussion, great place to ask questions (remember newsgroup etiquette)
- Project: IPython enhanced shell
- Project: MatPlotLib plotting library
- Project: wxPython GUI library
- Project: Django web framework
- Project: TurboGears web mega-framework (as used by ShowMeDo)
Video Tutorials related by tag:
Got any questions?
Get answers in the ShowMeDo Learners Google Group.
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- Published: Sometime before 1st March 2007 (in other words - we don't remember!)
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Very useful but a bit outdated.
applause
Again, nice presentation of resources.
Thanks for saving me a lot of time as you provided a great overview of the resources available for new python programmers!
looks great
even more useful than the first. can you do some more about transitioning from c# and MS-DOS
Thanks Ian. You mention that it is possible to get up and running making screencasts, but then don't point to those resources. For example, what software actually records the screen image with that yellow dot??
Thanks for your help. I'm ten years old and I'm just learning. I want to learn to program games : ) From Henry.
I am on [073] An introduction to Python resources - Part 2/2 (2/2). This two part video segment was a helpful refresher for me. After the video and underneath the 'click to play' area I like the text based notes about what was in the video and section of this page entitled "Video Tutorials related by tag:" With respect to the tags themselves it almost looks like they are listed in a reverse alphabetical order with different font sizes based on some factor, maybe like number of videos related. is that roughly true ? linking to other videos via these related tags could be a handy way to 'surf', though understanding how those tags are displayed in that section of this page would be potentially helpful. nice job, thanks -Matt
Really perfect tuts. Optianlly list of tuts very impressive.
thx from Abkhaz.
i found the recommendation for gui python helpful, I would like to learn to use python gui that is as easy to use as i have learned in visual studio.
OK, Thanks
Very good, thanks. I'd recommend to the watcher at the beginning that this particular sort of webcast (e.g. "Python resources") is kind of useless unless you take notes. I watched both "resource" videos while taking notes, and I now have a list of 21 things to check-out post video. There's no way I'd remember them all otherwise, and it's unlikely that I'll ever rewatch the video (one advantage of text: it's easier to scroll through).
thank you again another good intro to python websites
Berni
Could you please create list of bookmarks
thank you for this video!
To someone who likes to learn like a magpie just having books and websites has never been enough. So to discover ShowMeDo this morning could possibly be exactly what I need.
As I would love to become a hobbyist Python user/programmer, your podcasts should add greatly to the enjoyment of learning and achieving this little goal of mine.
Thank you for your time and effort.
ehm, to the previous anonymous poster. The links mentioned are clickable in the video description. No need to type by hand.
Decent couple of videos. But to be honest, I would have done better when a well-created wiki page with organized links with your comments.
I've since visited all resources mentioned - it's annoying to retype URLs - and I've done this for myself.
Maybe I just work different from other people, but for me a screencast is only useful if there is some need to actually visually show something or show something changing. In some cases, there just being images and a voice isn't anywhere near as helpful as text.
Thank you so much Ian! Very informative introduction to python resources. Your efforts are appreciated.
Thanks again,
alex
I liked this screencast quite a bit. There are a lot of Python resources out there, and it is nice to get some idea of what they contain and who they are for before wasting an evening blindly surfing.
Thanks for the effort.
You know what would really be cool? A compilation of a bunch of stuff made with python to give newcomers an idea what python is capable of. Just a thought.
Thank you for the great overview and websites! It is a good start for me to make sense of an overwhelming world of Python resources.
Any great resource!!! Thanks for all of your hard work. Could you please add some resources on using tk as the GUI, Thanks, once again keep up the good work.
Review of An introduction to Python resources - Part 2/2
It was very informative. Thanks, for all your hard work!
Anon - I've never seen the @ on a returns line, I wonder if you're confusing your syntax with Python's decorators? You can see examples of decorators here:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-cpdecor.html
If you need further help then your best bet is probably the Python Tutor mail list:
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Cheers,
Ian.
I am a newbie to Python, but still verry interested in learning it, what does the @sign mean in front of the code like,
class foo:
@returns(int)
Ian,
Very helpful. I know there are tons of site out there to help but ... One I have found very useful is http://awaretek.com/tutorials.html it boast more
than 300 Python tutorials. It is how I found ShowMeDo.
Bill
great and great!
Hi host many thanks for this presentation
I think i find what i looking for, to start learn python i did introduce to programming via C++ but I only know the basic not enough to make an app. I find prtty interesting an decide to learn python right away. Thanks again
Hmmm, tricky question! For a list of good examples see this page at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_software
Web-development work is a relatively new phenomenon (IMHO) with TurboGears and Django and other frameworks. Much of Python's past has been for rapid prototyping of apps, shell scripting and science work (at least, that's what *I've* seen).
I don't know about ERP I'm afraid.
I probably wouldn't use Python for cpu-intensive work if speed was the most critical feature - I'd probably use C++ (or <gasp> Fortran) to squeeze every last ounce of effort from the CPU.
If I was prototyping a app that *was* going to be speed critical then I'd still start with Python so I could get the algorithms right, then I'd move bits into C++ (I have a scientific apps and C++ background).
ShowMeDo is written in Python with TurboGears, my Artificial Intelligence research day-job is done using Python (and C++).
Hope that helps,
Ian.
What apps would you NOT use Python on and why?
I would also like to know what apps Python tends to be used on. I realise this means some sort of classification scheme and then % for each.
e.g. is it used as a fill in language for scripting quick admin jobs? Has an ERP been written in it? Is most work for www?
I think you get the general idea.
Hi Vincent. I quite agree - WinPDB is good. I covered it briefly a while back as it is integrated (loosely) with SPE:
http://showmedo.com/videos/video?name=DebuggingWithWinPDBFromWithinSPE&fromSeriesID=3
Nir was quite chatty when we spoke (ages back), seems to be a responsive and good chap.
Ian.
I have been using the Winpdb debugger for my current project, and I think it deserves a mention.
Although with Winpdb you have to use an external editor, and therefore do not have the cool code completion and refactoring features of the Pydev editing extensions for Eclipse, Winpdb seems to use a lot fewer resources than the Eclipse/Pydev combination, so I have been able to use it to debug scripts using larger data sets, which end up with correspondingly larger name spaces. It also seems faster with those scripts.
Version 1.0 of Winpdb was just recently released, and the current one as of today is 1.1.2. It seems stable enough to be quite usable, and the Nir Aides, who appears to be the lead developer, seems very interested in promptly fixing any bugs that may appear.
The main page for Winpdb is at http://www.digitalpeers.com/pythondebugger/
Thanks for the videos.
One think though, I would avoid using charged terms like 'dead tree' version. Something like 'Book form' would do fine.
Marc Desmarais
Yeah, the same author does another book for C++. (Essentially, the same layout as the Python one).
Hi aussiebear. I didn't know about Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner, but the ratings over at Amazon are very high and it sounds like a really good book.
Thanks for the tip!
Ian.
Another beginner book you didn't mention is:
Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner
by Michael Dawson
The author keeps things simple, and uses examples of making simple games to keep the reader interested.
Hi Horst, thanks for the kind words. Byte of Python is great, isn't it? I still refer to it and it comes up in lots of Google Python searches.
There is a python tutor news group - just google for 'python tutor list' and it is the first result, it is a great resource for newbies.
Cheers,
Ian.
Wow, what a good video!
very useful, lots of information.
For a total beginner the tutorials like "a byte of python" are worth looking at.
Also i heard there is a tutorial-python-newsgroup that is special newbie friendly.
Hi Felipe, thanks for the kind words. Do give me suggestions if there are more topics you'd like to see me cover, I'm always open to inspiration!
Regards,
Ian.
WOW, really great site very helpful, the clips are clear and understandable and overall great source. I appreciate your work and keep it up.
Hi Jshack - many thanks for the kind words :-) I have plans for more Python videos in the works. If you put yourself onto our Emails Notifications List then you'll hear about some of the plans.
Shortly I'll also be publishing our first paid-for video set, introducing Python Programming for Newbies on Windows XP. If you mail me (ian at showmedo.com) then I'll give you access to a (free) preview copy if you'd like, I'd welcome feedback.
Cheers! Ian.
Ian is a top notch producer and narrator. His screencasts are polished and compelling.
Excellent screencasts. This is a nice helpful way to dip into the Python Programming world.
Looking forward to more Python and Ruby related content.
I agree, this is a really good source of information and a great website. Keep up with a good work.
thanks.it is wonderful.
Wow! Wish I had found this first. Thanks Ian.
Thank you for the screen casts you have done. I have watched and listen to _An Introduction to Python Resources_ parts 1 and 2 as my first experience with showmedo.com, great site. I have been using Python since about 1997 but it is hard to keep up with where all the resources are located and this is very helpful. With part 2 of this intro I was curious that you did not include Zope or Plone with resources on Django and TurboGears although that type of Python use could be made into a screencasts itself showing the differences in those solutions. Looks like you already have many requests to choose from though.
A resource you may want to look at is <a href="http://www.voidspace.org/python/index.shtml">The Lair of Python</a>. I was sent a link to Python Search at this site and found it very useful.
It wish there were a repository for all python related links because there are so many useful ones. Even the Python.org site has a minimal set of links although good ones.
Keep up the good work and thanks again.
I thought the video was great, as was part I. The only thing you might want to mention for extreme newcomers like myself is the <a href="http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor">tutor email list</a>, which I found out about last week and which has already begun to help me get started with Python from zero programming background. Unlike the comp.lang.python group, the tutor list seems a little more approachable for real basic-level novice questions (though I do read the comp.lang.python list too).
All in all, I really appreciate these ShowMeDos and hope you, Kyran, and others will make many more.
Great video. Check out <a href="http://pleac.sourceforge.net/">PLEAC</a>. Keep up the good work.
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