The Python Podcast.__init__

Standardizing On Python For All Software Projects At Ascend.io

Listen Later
Summary

Every software project is subject to a series of decisions and tradeoffs. One of the first decisions to make is which programming language to use. For companies where their product is software, this is a decision that can have significant impact on their overall success. In this episode Sean Knapp discusses the languages that his team at Ascend use for building a service that powers complex and business critical data workflows. He also explains his motivation to standardize on Python for all layers of their system to improve developer productivity.

Announcements
  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python’s role in data and science.
  • When you’re ready to launch your next app or want to try a project you hear about on the show, you’ll need somewhere to deploy it, so take a look at our friends over at Linode. With their managed Kubernetes platform it’s easy to get started with the next generation of deployment and scaling, powered by the battle tested Linode platform, including simple pricing, node balancers, 40Gbit networking, dedicated CPU and GPU instances, and worldwide data centers. And now you can launch a managed MySQL, Postgres, or Mongo database cluster in minutes to keep your critical data safe with automated backups and failover. Go to pythonpodcast.com/linode and get a $100 credit to try out a Kubernetes cluster of your own. And don’t forget to thank them for their continued support of this show!
  • Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Sean Knapp about his motivations and experiences standardizing on Python for development at Ascend
    • Interview
    • Introductions
    • How did you get introduced to Python?
    • Can you describe what Ascend is and the story behind it?
    • How many engineers work at Ascend?
      • What are their different areas of focus?
      • What are your policies for selecting which technologies (e.g. languages, frameworks, dev tooling, deployment, etc.) are supported at Ascend?
        • What does it mean for a technology to be supported?
        • You recently started standardizing on Python as the default language for development. How has Python been used up to now?
          • What other languages are in common use at Ascend?
          • What are some of the challenges/difficulties that motivated you to establish this policy?
          • What are some of the tradeoffs that you have seen in the adoption of Python in place of your other adopted languages?
            • How are you managing ongoing maintenance of projects/products that are not written in Python?
            • What are some of the potential pitfalls/risks that you are guarding against in your investment in Python?
            • What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Python used where it was previously a different technology?
            • What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on aligning all of your development on a single language?
            • When is Python the wrong choice?
            • What do you have planned for the future of engineering practices at Ascend?
              • Keep In Touch
              • LinkedIn
              • @seanknapp on Twitter
                • Picks
                • Tobias
                  • Delver Lens app for scanning Magic: The Gathering cards
                  • Sean
                    • Typer
                    • DuckDB
                    • Amp It Up book (affiliate link)
                      • Closing Announcements
                      • Thank you for listening! Don’t forget to check out our other shows. The Data Engineering Podcast covers the latest on modern data management. The Machine Learning Podcast helps you go from idea to production with machine learning.
                      • Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.
                      • If you’ve learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected]) with your story.
                      • To help other people find the show please leave a review on iTunes and tell your friends and co-workers
                        • Links
                        • Ascend
                          • Data Engineering Podcast Episode
                          • Perl
                          • Google Sawzall
                          • Technical Debt
                          • Ruby
                          • gRPC
                          • Go Language
                          • Java
                          • PySpark
                          • Apache Arrow
                          • Thrift
                          • SQL
                          • Scala
                          • Snowflake runtime for Python Snowpark
                          • Typer CLI framework
                          • Pydantic
                            • Podcast Episode
                            • Pulumi
                              • Podcast Episode
                              • PyInfra
                                • Podcast Episode
                                • Packer
                                • Plot.ly Dash
                                • DuckDB

                                  • The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

                                  ...more
                                  View all episodesView all episodes
                                  Download on the App Store
                                  The Python Podcast.__init__By Tobias Macey
                                  • 4.4
                                  • 4.4
                                  • 4.4
                                  • 4.4
                                  • 4.4

                                  4.4

                                  100 ratings

                                  More shows like The Python Podcast.__init__

                                  View all
                                  The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source by Changelog Media

                                  The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

                                  285 Listeners

                                  Data Skeptic by Kyle Polich

                                  Data Skeptic

                                  470 Listeners

                                  Chat With Traders by Tessa Dao

                                  Chat With Traders

                                  1,984 Listeners

                                  Talk Python To Me by Michael Kennedy

                                  Talk Python To Me

                                  586 Listeners

                                  Software Engineering Daily by Software Engineering Daily

                                  Software Engineering Daily

                                  628 Listeners

                                  Super Data Science: ML & AI Podcast with Jon Krohn by Jon Krohn

                                  Super Data Science: ML & AI Podcast with Jon Krohn

                                  296 Listeners

                                  Python Bytes by Michael Kennedy and Brian Okken

                                  Python Bytes

                                  213 Listeners

                                  Data Engineering Podcast by Tobias Macey

                                  Data Engineering Podcast

                                  140 Listeners

                                  Machine Learning Guide by OCDevel

                                  Machine Learning Guide

                                  763 Listeners

                                  Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats by Wes Bos & Scott Tolinski - Full Stack JavaScript Web Developers

                                  Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

                                  988 Listeners

                                  DataFramed by DataCamp

                                  DataFramed

                                  269 Listeners

                                  Practical AI by Practical AI LLC

                                  Practical AI

                                  190 Listeners

                                  The Real Python Podcast by Real Python

                                  The Real Python Podcast

                                  136 Listeners

                                  Confident Business English by Anna Connelly

                                  Confident Business English

                                  136 Listeners

                                  All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

                                  All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

                                  8,773 Listeners