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Silicon Valley Code Camp : Nov 8th and 9th, 2008Session

What is Python?

About This Session

Python is an agile object-oriented programming language that is continuing to build momentum... popular with Win32 programmers because of its ease of creating COM clients plus IronPython for the .NET world, Jython for Java developers, and always popular with the LAMP and Linux/*BSD/Solaris/MacOS X crowd for applications and web development -- especially for Python's frameworks that compete with Rails: Django (including Google App Engine), TurboGears, Pylons, Zope and Plone (all RIA platforms), plus Trac and Mailman, the wiki+issue-tracker and popular mailing list manager, respectively. Web developers know about JSON already, but did you know that it maps nearly identically to Python's dictionary/hash type? Of course Python can do XML/ReST/XSLT, multithreading, SQL/databases, GUIs, hardcore math/science, Internet client/server systems and networking (heard of Twisted?), GIS/ESRI, QA/test, automation frameworks, plus system administration tasks too! Python can also be found at the heart of the OLPC. If Python doesn't do what you want, you can extend it in C/C++, Java, or C# (and even VB.NET)! Have you noticed the huge growth in the number of jobs on Monster and Dice that list Python as a desired skill?

Python can do everything Java, C/C++/C#, Ruby, PHP, and Perl can do, but it's much easier and more fun! You can code as fast as you think! Because of Python's simple yet robust syntax, it's a great tool to teach programming (heard of Alice before?) with as well as a solid (first) language to learn for non-programmers and other technical staff. Come find out why Google, Yahoo!, Disney, Cisco, YouTube, BitTorrent, LucasFilm/ILM, NASA, Ubuntu, Slide, and Red Hat all use Python! This seminar is designed by Wesley Chun, software engineer, technical trainer, and author of Prentice-Hall's bestseller "Core Python Programming" (and co-author of the forthcoming "Python Web Development with Django" and "Python Fundamentals" LiveLessons DVD video course), for those wanting to find out what Python is all about!

We have had great success and feedback giving this seminar in the past, such as at other conferences as well as to academia:


http://cc07.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Sessions.aspx?OnlyOne=true&id=162

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2006/view/e_sess/9468

http://cs.sfsu.edu/news/pernet/05/10-12-05.html

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2003/view/e_sess/4539

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/15/bof.html#tuesday

http://csociety.ecn.purdue.edu/pipermail/plug/2000-August/002739.html

If you want to learn about how to use Python to control Office applications, be sure to attend our "Programming Microsoft Office with Python" talk, also being given at CodeCamp this year again.

  • Time Not Available x
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The Speaker(s)

Wesley Chun

Wesley Chun

developer advocate, CyberWeb & Google

WESLEY CHUN is author of the "Core Python" books and an engineer & Developer Advocate at Google.