Labels: CodeMash, IronPython, WoW

---

---

Labels: .NET, CODE Magazine, IronPython, PyCon

The language junkie in me spoke on Python to the .NET group, and of course, leave it to me to remember to tie in IronPython - the .NET implementation of Python.

My slides are here:


All of my sample code has been zipped up and is available here.

I'd like to thank all those who came out. I had a very inquisitive and interactive audience, which made my presentation that much easier to deliver. It was great to present tech to one of my home user groups, and I hope to speak more around town.

Labels: C#/VB.NET SIG, IronPython, presentation, python

I get to add another talk to my list of Python/IronPython talks, as I've been asked to speak at the Cleveland C#/VB.NET SIG for their June meeting. The talk will start with a focus on Python, giving my fellow SIG members a glimpse at yet another language to add to their toolboxes. We'll take a look at what it is, how it compares to C# and VB.NET, where it is strong and where it is weak. If time allows, I will use one of its weak points to transition into IronPython, which is the best of both worlds, bringing .NET to the Python language.

If you're interested in heckling me or maybe even seeing my talk and learning about the language, here are the details:

• What: "Python 101 for the .NET Developer" with Sarah Dutkiewicz, Cleveland C#/VB.NET SIG


• When: Tuesday, June 23, 6:30-8:30pm


• Where: Beacon Place Conference Center, Beacon Place Office Building, 6055 Rockside Woods Blvd, Lower Level, Independence, OH 44131


• Other things to note:
  
  
  
  • Thanks to Sogeti for sponsoring the food and venue. Please be sure to RSVP (see the Cleveland/VB.NET SIG site for details) so that they can get an accurate headcount for ordering pizza.
  
  
  • This group meets afterwards at Mavis Winkle's in Independence. There's a lot of networking and socializing, so come on out and have fun with us.
  
  
  
  

Hope to see you there!

Labels: C#/VB.NET SIG, IronPython, python

As I finally settle back into side projects after work, I realize that I need to recap my PyCon experience. Since I blogged about my goals, let's see how they went.

Goal #1: Present at PyCon. (accomplished)

My presentation was at 10am on Sunday morning, and it was an experience that I won't forget. It started out with video difficulties, and then we ran into audio issues as well. We heard the start of Mark Ramm's Paver talk in our room. Of course, I had to run with it - I couldn't let that throw me off. I did have a great audience, and that helped as well.

It was the largest group I've presented for, and it's been the largest room that I've presented in on my own - the only other experience that compares is my CodeFest panel at OOPSLA '99. Despite the nervousness, I moved right along.
I was able to show some basic examples of what you can do with IronPython, including a cross-platform form that uses the Environment.OSVersion property to show which operating system was running. This cross-platform was the only demo I ran in Windows. Everything else ran in openSUSE thanks to Mono.

After I finished presenting, I had to check the pycon Twitter feed to see what was said. Yes, I was using vim for my editor. This time around, I used an openSUSE VM in VirtualBox. I've given this presentation before in Ubuntu, but I wanted to use the IronPython 2 bits, which aren't in a package yet for Ubuntu. (This would involve compiling from source, and there's a problem with that - so no package yet.)

I still need to get my demos online, but my slides are available on my Slideshare.

Goal #2: Meet some of the IronPython people. (accomplished)

When I arrived at PyCon on Friday, I managed to make it in time for the Python VMs panel. When Harry walked in, Dino yelled to him, and that's when I made the note that these guys were here in person. After the panel, I talked with Harry a little, and then I ran into Michael Foord.

It was great to hear Jim Hugunin's talk on IronPython, immediately following the Python VMs panel.

On Saturday, I went and hung out at the IronPython open space with these guys and a few others. It was nice to hear the other guys asking about IronPython and talking about using it.

Finally, on Sunday, I saw these guys in my audience for my presentation, and I stayed for Dino's talk as well.

It has been great to meet these guys in person, and I hope to run into them again sometime.

Goal #3: Meet with the PyOhio team. (accomplished)

On Saturday night, I went to the PyOhio open space, and I was quite impressed with the turnout. We had Eric, the token Columbus python rep. The Cleveland group was there in rare form (or maybe just in their normal insanity), and Cincinnati was also well-represented. We also had at least a guy from Maryland, a guy from Texas, and a guy from Utah.

In the hour that we met, we were able to cover quite a few issues and get a few volunteers. I have volunteered to help them with publicity, and I will also be carrying the IronPython torch there as well. (If you're on Twitter, make sure to follow @pyohio.)

Goal #4: Check out the Stackless python presentation by CCP. (failed)

This was my only goal that I didn't make. I managed to make it to the room just as the presentation was starting, but the snow outside kept bugging me and so I gave up the fight. We had a 6.5 hour ride home, and I didn't want to take any chances with it.

Final Thoughts

This was my first python event, and it was great to see such an awesome community. People from all over the world came together to talk about, hack in, and show off Python and its various implementations. I look forward to PyCon 2010 in Atlanta!

Labels: IronPython, PyCon

As I'm finishing up my slides and looking at my "Search:pyohio" column on TweetDeck, I'm reminded of the many things I hope to accomplish while at PyCon.

Goal #1: Present at PyCon.

On Sunday, I will be giving my talk on IronPython. My timeline is slightly skewed from what I had anticipated, but that's because I've got more slides and a better VM to work with. I had a couple questions come up that I've included this time around. So if you're at PyCon and want to hear what I have to say on IronPython, I'm speaking in Ballroom D at 10:00am (Chicago time, that's 11:00am EDT).

Goal #2: Meet some of the IronPython people.

While we're all spread throughout the world, there are other IronPython people out there that will be at PyCon. I've followed them on Twitter for awhile, and I'm hoping I get to finally meet them while at the event. If you see me there, feel free to yell "Hey, sadukie!" and I'll most likely respond.

Goal #3: Meet with the PyOhio team.

PyCon is the national event, but PyOhio is the statewide python mini-conference. It's held usually at the end of July down in Columbus. I want to meet them and help where I can, and it'll be good to carry the IronPython torch for them as well. It does seem a little odd, though, that we have to leave our state to meet, but hey, whatever works!

Goal #4: Check out the Stackless python presentation by CCP.

Of all the presentations out there, I really want to see this one, as I've been an EVE Online player for awhile now. I'm typically mining or building things, and I've also had the joys of rooting for my alliance (Manifest Destiny) in the alliance tournaments. But having experienced the update as user is one thing - I'm very curious to see what this will be like from a developer's standpoint.

I'm leaving later this week, and I look forward to arriving in time for the talks on Friday. Hope to see some of you there!

Labels: EVE Online, IronPython, PyCon, PyOhio, sadukie

I've been asked by Manning to review Michael Foord and Christian Muirhead's IronPython in Action. As many people know, I recommend technical books typically based on their reference value, as I usually get bored within the first few sentences and end up turning them into references rather than reading through them. This book, however, was one that I read cover-to-cover.

What I liked best about this book was how it was broken down and how those parts come together. The 15 chapters are broken up into 4 parts - Getting Started with IronPython, Core Development Techniques, IronPython and Advanced .NET, and Reaching Out with IronPython.

The pace of this book is great for someone just learning IronPython. The book mentions using IronPython Studio and also brings up Mono, an alternative version of .NET that adds cross-platform abilities and supports IronPython. It also addresses IronPython from both perspectives - what Python is for a .NET programmer and what .NET is for a Python programmer.

IronPython in Action covers everything from the basic "HelloWorld" in C# (a language most .NET developers are familiar with) versus Python to getting into Silverlight. There are plenty of examples of Python and its data structures, which gives the .NET reader the basic building blocks to follow along through the rest of the examples in the book. There are also plenty of examples of .NET code for Windows Forms, .NET types (strings, numbers, and Booleans), delegates, and event handlers. I've found these introductory chapters to set a great base for developers from either camp - .NET or Python.

Once that base is established, the rest of the book gets into marrying Python and .NET into the wonderful language known as IronPython. The examples that are covered include (but are not limited to) working with XML, tabbed dialogs, modal dialogs, object serialization, testing with unittest, working with various mock libraries, monkey patching, dependency injection, metaprogramming, WPF, shell scripting, data binding, Silverlight, and extending the language with languages the .NET programmers are familiar with (C# and VB).

Overall, I would recommend IronPython in Action for anyone wanting to learn IronPython. The examples in this book were easy to follow and very applicable to everyday programming. Even if you're an experienced IronPython programmer, IronPython in Action would be great to have on hand as a reference. I'm looking forward to buying the final copy once it comes out, just to have as a reference (and to plug in my future IronPython talks).

Want to hear what other people are saying about this book? Check out other reviews that the authors are tracking!

Labels: Christian Muirhead, IronPython, IronPython in Action, Manning, Michael Foord

The PyCon 2009 team has posted the talks. It looks like they have a little something for everyone.

I will be speaking at PyCon on IronPython (#12 in the talk list). For those who saw my presentation at CodeMash, my presentation at PyCon will be a condensed version of the CodeMash talk.

I am interested in seeing the presentations "Making games in Python - Tools and techniques at CCP" and "Stackless python in EVE, pt. 2", as I've been a huge fan of EVE Online. When I'm not blogging or coding, I can be found mining in game, to help my husband and some of our friends in manufacturing items. One of my side projects currently is to help my husband master the game of "playing spreadsheets". He's got an Excel spreadsheet with the cost accounting for some of his manufacturing projects in game, but he recently hooked me up with a database dump, from which I was able to create most of his spreadsheet programmatically.

Looking at the talks list, there is one other IronPython presentation, given by Dino Viehland, the lead developer of IronPython at Microsoft. While I will be presenting what IronPython is at the beginner level (what it is, what you need to run it, some neat things with it), he will be presenting some of the internals of the language. He will also be representing IronPython on the Python VMs Panel. So if you are attending PyCon 2009 and are interested in learning more about IronPython, check out our talks - "Pumping Iron into Python: Intro to FePy" and "IronPython Implementation".

I hope to meet some of you there!

Labels: CCP, EVE Online, IronPython, PyCon, talks

I was catching up on RSS feeds when I noticed that I was tagged to write another post. So you guys can thank Jeff for getting me to post some of my goals for 2009.

Grow Cleveland Tech Events.

This was a site that I launched in October, and I'm hoping to get it to take off in 2009. The more I get involved in the Cleveland technical community, the more people I talk to, the more publicity this site gets. Not familiar with it yet? Check out the website or follow @clevtechevents on Twitter.

Give more presentations.

It all started at Cleveland Day of .NET 2008, and I'm slowly making my rounds on SQL 2008 and IronPython, separately. I'm hoping to add a Mono presentation to the mix. A list of my current presentations can be seen here. My general focuses in 2009 will be on databases, social networking, and web development. I have a goal of 12 presentations, but I plan on exceeding that.

Talk more about IronPython.

I started tinkering with this language for fun in 2008, and I hope to get a bit more serious about it in 2009. I've already presented on it at CodeMash. I'm scheduled to speak about it at PyCon. It's also been suggested that I possibly present on IronPython at PyOhio. The more people tell me they want to hear about it, the more likely I'll have awesome demos and a lot more energy in my presentations. If you want to hear me speak on IronPython, email me at sarah at codinggeekette dot com.

Grow this blog.

Almost a year ago, I started blogging here, starting my first technical blog. Over 100 posts later, my post count and RSS subscriber count are at about a 1:1 ratio. This year, I would like to gain more readers. In order to do that, I hope to have more posts with code and interesting examples. There isn't a concrete goal yet, but give me a few days and I'll come back and edit that in here.

Breathe easier.

After a year of unknown health problems, I finally got a diagnosis. So in 2009, my goal is to get better control of my disease and hopefully start breathing easier. With the help of specialists and hopefully rehab, this can happen.

Calling out others...

Just as Jeff did, I am calling out some others to post their goals for 2009:

• James Bender


• Matt Casto


• Jason Farrell


• Joe Fiorini


• GayleForce


• Michael Letterle


• Jeff McWherter


• Alex Moore


• Carey Payette


• Chris Smith


• Jay Wren

Labels: 2009 goals, IronPython, tagged in 2009

Last year, I wanted to learn another programming language. A part of me wanted to learn Ruby, since the cool kids were all doing it. But at the same time, I wanted to be different. One of my friends recommended that I look at python. When I saw that there was a .NET implementation, I decided to explore IronPython. Since about March of 2008, I've been reading up on IronPython and presenting on it a little in the area.

This year, I hope to get my IronPython resources section together here on CodingGeekette.com and blog about it a bit more. I will be talking about IronPython at CodeMash, PyCon, and quite possibly PyOhio. If other people want to hear me talk on it, just send me an email at sarah at codinggeekette dot com.

While looking at the session list, I noticed that there's a python implementation that's written in Java - Jython.

So today's languages are python, its Java implementation, and its .NET implementation.

Language: Python
Website: Python Programming Language -- Official Site

Language: Jython
Website: The Jython Project

Language: IronPython
Website: IronPython

Where will these be seen at CodeMash?

Python

• Precompiler Event CodeMash Code Jam


• Python Data Visualization and Imaging, presented by Zach Steindler

Jython

• JVM scripting with Jython, presented by Mark Ramm

IronPython

• Pumping Iron into Python: Intro to FePy, presented by Sarah Dutkiewicz

Where can I learn more about these languages?

For Python, check out The Python Tutorial, Dive Into Python, and Useless Python

For Jython, check out the Jython User Guide.

For IronPython, the places I tend to look the most are DevHawk's blog, The IronPython Cookbook, and Michael Foord's blog.

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette, IronPython, Jython, python

The big announcement came earlier this week - IronPython 2.0 is now released to the world. Check out the IronPython 2.0 Release Notes to see the changes.

In less than a month, I will be showing off IronPython in my "Pumping Iron into Python: Intro to FePy" talk at CodeMash. Coming from a mixed background, I'm hoping that I can show off the features of IronPython and what FePy can add to those who may not have a Windows background.

If you're interested in IronPython and are on Twitter, join the IronPython Twitter Group, and let's get a better way of seeing who all is using this language! I know that DevHawk is a prolific IronPython Twitterer, but there have got to be others. I'm sure there are other IronPython people out there wondering the same thing, so let's see who else is out there!

Labels: CodeMash, FePy, IronPython, Twitter

One of the latest talks that I will be adding to my list is "Pumping Iron into Python: Intro to FePy". Originally, I had named the talk "Pumping Iron into Python : Intro to IronPython", but that title was too long for the CodeMash submission page. So then I shortened the name, but in changing the name, it changed the context of my talk as well. My abstract changed from an intro to IronPython similar to the one I did at Cleveland Day of .NET to this:


As python grows in popularity, IronPython has started making more waves. What is IronPython and why should regular python programmers be familiar with it? This session will introduce the open source .NET implementation of python known as IronPython without using Windows. Come see FePy (IronPython community edition) in action via Mono -- a cross-platform open source implementation of the .NET framework.

I'm extremely excited to announce that it has been accepted for CodeMash, so I will be giving this talk in January 2009 at the conference at Kalahari resort in Sandusky.

When I first put together the abstract for this talk, I was looking forward to showing just IronPython. But after seeing Catherine's comment here and having to shorten my title for the CodeMash submission, I changed my perspective and decided to take this another way.

I decided to act on Catherine's comment and submitted this talk for PyCon 2009. That talk is currently in the review process. Now I've spoken at user groups and Days of .NET, and those submission processes are fairly short and straightforward. Even the CodeMash submission process was fairly painless, other than maybe for the decision makers since they had quite a few sessions to review. But the PyCon submission process has been probably the most interactive, most detailed process that I've gone through so far - and I definitely like it.

I submitted the talk to PyCon on the same day I submitted it to CodeMash, before the November 3rd cutoff. Since then, I've had a few people look at my submission and comment on my submission. The comments came from my reviewers, who basically wanted to know more and had things to say about the topic with the description that I posted here. I was able to go in and hopefully answer their questions.

I liked that there was a way to interact with the reviewers. There are stricter guidelines and an agreement to be videotaped, amongst other things. This is what the PyCon submission timeline is for proposals. Now, I wait until December 15th or so, when I find out if my talk will be accepted.

However, I'm not really sitting and doing nothing while waiting. Remember... this talk has already been accepted for one conference, and I'm really looking forward to showing off IronPython in a different development environment besides Visual Studio. I'm looking forward to showing off Mono and developing with that. I will also be showing off some of the things that FePy has that makes it different from the standard IronPython implementation, as well as what IronPython has to offer for non-Windows users.

Look forward to hearing more about this talk as we get closer to CodeMash... teasers will definitely show up between now and then!

Labels: CodeMash, FePy, IronPython, Mono, presentation, PyCon

While working on my IronPython presentation, I came across the announcement for PyOhio. They are now calling for proposals and accepting submissions until June 1. It's good to see a familiar name to contact with proposal questions. Mat Kovach is a Cleveland-based developer who is involved with Northeast Ohio Open Source Society. He runs with my friend Martin, and he was also a presenter at Ohio LinuxFest 2007. He's definitely someone to be familiar with, especially if you're in the developer crowd in Cleveland.

If you're interested in Python, definitely check out the PyOhio website. It's taking place on July 26th in Columbus. As I hear more information about the PyOhio event, I will blog about it here!

Labels: IronPython, Mat Kovach, NOOSS, PyOhio, python

That's right - a bunch of us got together and said, "Cleveland needs one of these here!" So we're putting on a Day of .NET event on May 17th, with more details coming.



So, keep an eye on the Cleveland Day of .NET website for more details! And look forward to seeing more ads like this in the future.

Now if only I had Clippy.... ;)

Labels: Cleveland Day of .NET, Cleveland DoDN, IronPython

Music has always been part of my mind, body, and soul. From listening to it to practicing one of my instruments, I'm almost always doing something that involves music. Once I picked up programming, I wondered how to program sounds to come out of the PC speaker.

So I spent many nights on my parents' computer, tinkering in QBASIC. I eventually figured out how to get the sounds out of the PC speaker and how to get them to sound right so that a song could play. This is what I came up with:


DrMario$ = "O4L8A#BA#BAGGAA#BAGG"
PLAY "X" + VARPTR$(DrMario$)


As time went on, I figured out how to create MIDIs and would spend some spare time away from my computer keyboard to put my MIDI keyboard to use.

Now that I'm into programming again, my music talents are playing second (bass) fiddle. However, I've grown up since playing with QBASIC, and the PC speaker no longer easily amuses me. But I'm still curious about things that make sound, especially the Speech Synthesizer. So with IronPython, I figured I'd check out the Speech Synthesizer and how to invoke it. It was actually very easy to do. Here's what I created:


>>> import clr
>>> clr.AddReference('System.Speech')
>>> from System.Speech.Synthesis import *
>>> ssSpeech = SpeechSynthesizer()
>>> ssSpeech.SpeakAsync('Cleveland Day of .NET Rocks!')


I was watching a presentation this morning on IronPython that gave me some other ideas as well, but seeing how simple speech looked, I just had to try it out for myself.

If you're wondering why I chose IronPython for this, you'll have to come to the Cleveland Day of .NET on May 17 to see my presentation on IronPython. Details will be posted as they come, but definitely keep the date reserved and keep an eye on the site!

Labels: Cleveland Day of .NET, Cleveland DoDN, Day of .NET, DODN, IronPython, Master Chief, MIDI, music, QBASIC, sound, speech