The Python Podcast.init

By Tobias MaceyTechnology Education

The Python Podcast.init episodes

March 18, 2016VPython with Ruth Chabay and Bruce Sherwood
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, join our community, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to generate interactive 3D visualizations of physical systems in a declarative manner with Python? In this episode we spoke with Ruth Chabay and Bruce Sherwood about the VPython project which does just that. They tell us about how the use VPython in their classrooms, how the project got started, and the work they have done to bring it into the browser.
Brief Introduction
Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or RSS
Follow us on Twitter or Google+
Give us feedback! Leave a review on iTunes, Tweet to us, send us an email or leave us a message on Google+
Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
I would also like to thank Hired, a job marketplace for developers and designers, for sponsoring this episode of Podcast.__init__. Use the link hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus.
Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing Ruth Chabay and Bruce Sherwood about their work on VPython
Interview
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
What is VPython and how did it get started? – Tobias
What problems inspired you to create VPython? – Chris
How do you design an API that allows for such powerful 3D visualization while still making it accessible to students who are focusing on learning new concepts in mathematics and physics so that they don’t get overwhelmed by the tool? – Tobias
I know many schools have embraced the open curriculum idea, have any of your physics courses using VPython been made available to the non matriculating public? – Chris
How does VPython perform its rendering? If you were to reimplement it would you do anything differently? – Tobias
One of the remarkable points about VPython is its ability to execute the simulations in a browser environment. Can you explain the technologies involved to make that work? – Tobias
Given the real-time rendering capabilities in VPython I’m sure that performance is a core concern for the project. What are some of the methods that are used to ensure an appropriate level of speed and does the cross-platform nature of the package pose any additional challenges? – Tobias
How does collision detection work in VPython, and does it handle more complex assemblies of component objects? – Chris
Can you talk a little bit about VPython’s design, and perhaps walk us through how a simple scene is rendered, say the results of the sphere() call? – Chris
Keep In Touch
VPython Forum
Glowscript Forum
Github
Picks
Tobias
Land of Lisp by Conrad Barsky M.D.

Chris
The Magicians
Swift
Atari Logo

Bruce
VPython.org
Glowscript.org

Ruth
matterandinteractions.org/student
NetLogo

Links
Coursera GATech Intro to Physics
Alice Project
glowscript.org
Jupyter VPython
RapydScript
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
1 hr 4 min
March 12, 2016 PyData London with Ian Ozsvald and Emlyn Clay
Ian Ozsvald and Emlyn Clay are co-chairs of the London chapter of the PyData organization. In this episode we talked to them about their experience managing the PyData conference and meetup, what the PyData organization does, and their thoughts on using Python for data analytics in their work.
1 hr 4 min
March 12, 2016PyData London with Ian Ozsvald and Emlyn Clay
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, join our community, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
Ian Ozsvald and Emlyn Clay are co-chairs of the London chapter of the PyData organization. In this episode we talked to them about their experience managing the PyData conference and meetup, what the PyData organization does, and their thoughts on using Python for data analytics in their work.
Brief Introduction
Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or RSS
Follow us on Twitter or Google+
Give us feedback! Leave a review on iTunes, Tweet to us, send us an email or leave us a message on Google+
Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
I would also like to thank Hired, a job marketplace for developers and designers, for sponsoring this episode of Podcast.__init__. Use the link hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus.
Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing Ian Ozsvald and Emlyn Clay about their work with PyData London, a group within the PyData organization. PyData London represents the largest Python group in London at ~2850 members, they hold regular monthly meetups for ~200 members at AHL near Bank and a yearly conference for around ~300 members. Last year, they and their sponsors raised over £26,000 to sponsor the development of core numerical libraries in Python.

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Interview
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
What is the PyData organization, how does PyData London fit into it and what is your relationship with it? – Tobias
In what ways does a PyData conference differ from a PyCon? – Tobias
Does PyData do anything in particular to encourage users from disciplines that might not be aware of how much our community has to offer to choose the Python suite of data analysis tools? – Chris
You have both spent a good portion of your careers using Python for working with and analyzing data from various domains. How has that experience evolved over the past several years as newer tools have become available? – Tobias
For someone who is just getting started in the data analytics space, what advice can you give? – Tobias
How can conferences like PyData help strengthen the bonds and synergies between the Python software community and the sciences? – Chris
There are a number of different subtopics within the blanket categorization of data science. Is it difficult to balance the subject matter in PyData conferences and meetups to keep members of the audience from being alienated? – Tobias
Data science is a young field and we’ve yet to see lots of examples of the successful use of data. How are London-based companies using data with Python? – Ian
Is there a Python data science library you think needs a little love? – Emlyn
Keep In Touch
Ian
Blog
Twitter

Emlyn
Twitter

Picks
Tobias
xcape
Keybase Filesystem

Chris
The Player of Games
Undertale
The Big Short

Ian
Seaborn: Python visualisation tool
Mastering Predictive Analytics with R: Rui Miguel Forte
Allergect Rhinitis research using ML
London Unreal City Audio Tour

Emlyn
ipython nbconvert –template flag
Damian Avila’s Blog post on making slides with iPython Notebook

The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
1 hr 4 min
March 04, 2016 Efene with Mariano Guerra
Efene is a language that runs on the Erlang Virtual Machine (BEAM) and is inspired by the Zen of Python. It is intended as a bridge language that serves to ease the transition into the Erlang ecosystem for people who are coming from languages like Python. In this episode I spoke with Mariano Guerra, the creator of Efene, about how Python influenced his design choices, why you might want to use it, and when Python is the better tool.
1 hr
March 04, 2016Efene with Mariano Guerra
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, join our community, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
Efene is a language that runs on the Erlang Virtual Machine (BEAM) and is inspired by the Zen of Python. It is intended as a bridge language that serves to ease the transition into the Erlang ecosystem for people who are coming from languages like Python. In this episode I spoke with Mariano Guerra, the creator of Efene, about how Python influenced his design choices, why you might want to use it, and when Python is the better tool.
Brief Introduction
Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or RSS
Follow us on Twitter or Google+
Give us feedback! Leave a review on iTunes, Tweet to us, send us an email or leave us a message on Google+
Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
I would also like to thank Hired, a job marketplace for developers, for sponsoring this episode of Podcast.__init__. Use the link hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus.
Your host today is Tobias Macey
Today we are interviewing Mariano Guerra about his work on the Efene language.
Interview with Mariano Guerra
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
So Efene is a language that runs on the BEAM VM which you say was at least partially inspired by the Zen of Python. Can you explain in greater detail in what form that inspiration manifested and some of the process involved in the creation of Efene? – Tobias
What inspired you to create Efene and what problems does it solve? – Tobias
How does Efene compare to other BEAM based languages such as Elixir? – Tobias
When would a Python developer want to consider using Efene? – Tobias
What benefits does the BEAM provide that can’t be easily replicated in the Python ecosystem? – Tobias
Does the Efene language ease the transition to a more functional mindset for developers who are already familiar with Python paradigms? – Tobias
I understand that you are experimenting with another language implementation that runs on the BEAM. Can you describe that project and compare it to Efene? What were your inspirations? – Tobias
Keep In Touch
Twitter
GitHub
Blog
Efene
Emesene
Python Argentina
Picks
Tobias
Dotphiles
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Dynamic Typing for Practical Programs

Mariano
Om Next
David Nolan on Om Next
Clojurescript
Things Network

Links
Erlang
Elixir
Lisp Flavored Erlang
Joxa
Rebar3
Erlang MK
Hex
Interfix
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
1 hr
February 29, 2016 Functional Python with Matthew Rocklin and Alexander Schepanovsky
What is functional programming, why would you want to use it, and how can you get started with it in Python? Our guests this week, Matthew Rocklin and Alexander Schepanovsky, help us understand all of that and more. Matthew and Alexander have each created their own Python libraries to make it easier to employ functional paradigms in your Python code. In this episode they help us understand the benefits that functional styles can have and the benefits that can be realized by trying them out for yourself.
1 hr 21 min
February 29, 2016Functional Python with Matthew Rocklin and Alexander Schepanovsky
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, join our community, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
What is functional programming, why would you want to use it, and how can you get started with it in Python? Our guests this week, Matthew Rocklin and Alexander Schepanovsky, help us understand all of that and more. Matthew and Alexander have each created their own Python libraries to make it easier to employ functional paradigms in your Python code. In this episode they help us understand the benefits that functional styles can have and the benefits that can be realized by trying them out for yourself.
Brief Introduction
Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or RSS
Follow us on Twitter or Google+
Give us feedback! Leave a review on iTunes, Tweet to us, send us an email or leave us a message on Google+
Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
I would also like to thank Hired, a job marketplace for developers and designers, for sponsoring this episode of Podcast.__init__. Use the link hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus.
Your host today is Tobias Macey
Today we are interviewing Matthew Rocklin and Alexander Schepanovski about their work on functional libraries for Python.
Interview with Alexander and Matthew
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
Can you first explain what functional programming is and how it differs from the procedural or object oriented programming that most Pythonistas are familiar with? – Tobias
How did you get started with functional programming? – Tobias
What are the benefits of functional programming and when might someone want to use functional paradigms in their projects? – Tobias
What is it about functional programming that people find so intimidating and what do you think has led to its recent rise in popularity? – Tobias
What aspects of the Python language lend themselves to being used in a functional manner and where does it fall down? – Tobias
Can you each describe what your respective libraries provide in terms of functional capabilities and what their particular focus is? Are they distinct enough from each other that it would make sense to use them both in a single project? – Tobias
What inspired each of you to create your respective libraries? – Tobias
There is a functools module in the Python standard library that provides some methods that enable functional paradigms. Where does that module fall short and how do your respective libraries augment or replace the functionality in that module? – Tobias
There is also a library named fn.py which provides functional paradigms for use in Python. Can you each compare and contrast it with your own work? – Tobias
There are a number of concepts involved in functional programming such as currying, function composition, immutable data, and pure functions. Can you describe some of those concepts and then explain which of them you tried to incorporate into your libraries? – Tobias
What are some of the resources that you have found to be most helpful when trying to learn and apply functional principles to your programs? – Tobias
Keep In Touch
Alexander
Twitter
Blog

Matthew
Website
Toolz
Twitter
GitHub

Picks
Tobias
DataDog

Alexander
The Expanse
Revolut

Matthew
Riemann
Five Dances
Distributed

Links
Rosetta Code
PyToolz
Funcy
Fn.py
MacroPy
Code Transformer
Simple Made Easy by Rich Hickey
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
1 hr 21 min
February 19, 2016 Cython with Craig Citro and Robert Bradshaw
Do you find yourself reaching for a different language when you need some extra speed? With Cython you can get the best of both worlds by writing your code in Python and executing it as compiled code. In this episode we were joined by Craig Citro and Robert Bradshaw from the Cython project to discuss how and when you might want to incorporate it into your applications.
53 min
February 19, 2016Cython with Craig Citro and Robert Bradshaw
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, join our community, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
Do you find yourself reaching for a different language when you need some extra speed? With Cython you can get the best of both worlds by writing your code in Python and executing it as compiled code. In this episode we were joined by Craig Citro and Robert Bradshaw from the Cython project to discuss how and when you might want to incorporate it into your applications.
Brief Introduction
Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or RSS
Follow us on Twitter or Google+
Give us feedback! Leave a review on iTunes, Tweet to us, send us an email or leave us a message on Google+
Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
I would also like to thank Hired, a job marketplace for developers, for sponsoring this episode of Podcast.__init__. Use the link hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus.
Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing Craig Citro and Robert Bradshaw
Interview with Craig Citro and Robert Bradshaw
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
What is Cython and how did the project get started? – Tobias
My understanding is that Cython can improve the performance of a Python program without even having to provide any type annotations. How does it manage to do that? – Tobias
Can a Cython module be used as a way to sidestep the GIL? What are some of the pitfalls that can be caused by doing so? – Tobias
Can you give some examples of how Cython can be used to improve the perfomance of Python programs? – Tobias
How does Cython work under the covers? – Tobias
What were some of the challenges during the creation of Cython and what design decisions were made to overcome them? – Tobias
Does Python’s cross platform nature create any unique challenges when compiling down to the C level? – Chris
What processor and system architectures does Cython support and are there plans to expand that support? – Tobias
How do generators and list comprehensions map to C, and did those higher level language constructs pose any special challenges in Cython’s design? – Chris
Would Rust ever be a potential compile target for performance and safety optimized modules? – Tobias
Keep In Touch
Craig
Twitter
GitHub
Website

Robert
Email

Picks
Tobias
Certificates, Reputation, and the Blockchain

Craig
Curious Kids Science Book by Asia Citro
dplyr
magrittr
Everything Is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us by Duncan Watts

Robert
Mo Willems
Philips Hue Lights
Sage Math Cloud

Links
Sage (Math)
Pyrex)
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
53 min
February 13, 2016 Airflow with Maxime Beauchemin
Are you struggling with trying to manage a series of related, interdependent batch jobs? Then you should check out Airflow. In this episode we spoke with the project’s creator Maxime Beauchemin about what inspired him to create it, how it works, and why you might want to use it. Airflow is a data pipeline management tool that will simplify how you build, deploy, and monitor your complex data processing tasks so that you can focus on getting the insights you need from your data.
1 hr 4 min