The Python Podcast.init

By Tobias MaceyTechnology Education

The Python Podcast.init episodes

December 04, 2015Stuart Mumford on SunPy
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
What is Solar Physics? How does it differ from AstroPhysics? What does this all have to do with Python? In this episode we answer all of those questions when we interview Stuart Mumford about his work on SunPy. So put on your sunglasses and learn about how to use Python to decipher the secrets of our closest star.
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+
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
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.
Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $10 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
We are recording today on November 17th, 2015 and your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing Stuart Mumford about SunPy
Use the promo code podcastinit10 to get a $10 credit when you sign up!
On Hired software engineers & designers can get 5+ interview requests in a week and each offer has salary and equity upfront. With full time and contract opportunities available, users can view the offers and accept or reject them before talking to any company. Work with over 2,500 companies from startups to large public companies hailing from 12 major tech hubs in North America and Europe. Hired is totally free for users and If you get a job you’ll get a $2,000 “thank you” bonus. If you use our special link to signup, then that bonus will double to $4,000 when you accept a job. If you’re not looking for a job but know someone who is, you can refer them to Hired and get a $1,337 bonus when they accept a job.
Interview with Stuart Mumford
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
Can you explain what the research and applications of solar physics are and how SunPy facilitates those activities? – Tobias
What was your inspiration for the SunPy project and what are you using it for in your research? – Tobias
Can you tell us what SunPy’s map and light curve classes are and how they might be used? – Chris
Are there any considerations that you need to be aware of when writing software libraries for practitioners of the hard sciences that would be different if the target audience were software engineers? – Tobias
Can SunPy consume data directly from telescopes and other observational apparatus? – Chris
I noticed on the project site that SunPy leverages AstroPy internally. Can you describe the relationship between the two projects and why someone might want to use SunPy in place of or in addition to AstroPy? – Tobias
Looking at the documentation I got the impression that there is a fair amount of visual representation of data for analysis. Can you describe some of the challenges that has posed? Is there integrated support for project Jupyter and are there other graphical environments that SunPy supports? – Tobias
What are some of the most interesting applications that SunPy has been used for? – Chris
Picks
Tobias
Elm
Avro
Common Sense Media

Chris
Massdrop
21st Amendment Fireside Chat
Extra Creditz

Stuart
Live ISS Stream with space-to-ground radio
Live ISS HD video stream 24/7
yt
Calf Studio – Live Audio Processing

Keep In Touch
Twitter(@sunpyproject)
SunPy.org
GitHub
IRC
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
41 min
November 25, 2015 Maneesha Sane on Software and Data Carpentry
The Software and Data Carpentry organizations have a mission of making it easier for scientists and data analysts in academia to replicate and review each others work. In order to achieve this goal they conduct training and workshops that teach modern best practices in software and data engineering, including version control and proper data management. In this episode we had the opportunity to speak with Maneesha Sane, the program coordinator for both organizations, so that we could learn more about how these projects are related and how they approach their mission.
45 min
November 25, 2015Maneesha Sane on Software and Data Carpentry
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
The Software and Data Carpentry organizations have a mission of making it easier for scientists and data analysts in academia to replicate and review each others work. In order to achieve this goal they conduct training and workshops that teach modern best practices in software and data engineering, including version control and proper data management. In this episode we had the opportunity to speak with Maneesha Sane, the program coordinator for both organizations, so that we could learn more about how these projects are related and how they approach their mission.
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+
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
This episode is sponsored by Zato – Microservices, ESB, SOA, REST, API, and Cloud Integrations in Python. Visit zato.io to learn more about how to integrate smarter in the modern world.
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.
Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $10 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
We are recording today on November 10th, 2015 and your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing Maneesha Sane about Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry
Interview with Maneesha Sane
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python?
Can you explain what the Software and Data Carpentry organizations are and what their respective goals are?
What is the history of these organizations and how are they related?
What does a typical Software Carpentry or Data Carpentry workshop look like?
What is the background of your instructors?
Can you explain why Python was chosen as the language for your workshops and why it is such a good language to use for teaching proper software engineering practices to scientists?
In what ways do the lessons taught by both groups differ and what parts are common between the two organizations?
What are some of the most important tools and lessons that you teach to scientists in academia?
Do you tend to focus mostly on procedural development or do you also teach object oriented programming in Software Carpentry?
What is the target audience for Data Carpentry and what are some of the most important lessons and tools taught to them?
Do you teach any particular method of pre-coding design like flowcharting, pseudocode, or top down decomposition in software carpentry?
What scientific domains are most commonly represented among your workshop participants for Software Carpentry?
What are some specific things the Python community and the Python core team could do to make it easier to adopt for your students?
What are the most common concepts students have trouble with in software & data carpentry?
How can our audience help support the goals of these organizations?
Picks
Tobias
Vivaldi Browser
vyte.in
Pocket Casts

Chris
Chiptunes = Win
ESM – Electronic Study Music
Supergalactic Expansive

Maneesha
QPython
New Boston
Lunar Baboon

Keep In Touch
Twitter
@swcarpentry
@datacarpentry
@maneeshasane

Blog

Software Carpentry

Data Carpentry

Links
NumFocus
Software Carpentry GitHub – Training Courses
Instructor Training
Discussion Mailing List
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
45 min
November 20, 2015 Erik Tollerud on AstroPy
Erik Tollerud is an astronomer with a background in software engineering. He leverages these backgrounds to help build and maintain the AstroPy framework and its associated modules. AstroPy is a set of Python libraries that provide useful mechanisms for astronomers and astrophysicists to perform analyses on the data that they receive from observational equipment such as the mountain observatory that Erik was preparing to visit when we talked to him about his work. If you like Python and space then you should definitely give this episode a listen!
50 min
November 20, 2015Erik Tollerud on AstroPy
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, and subscribe to our mailing list.
Summary
Erik Tollerud is an astronomer with a background in software engineering. He leverages these backgrounds to help build and maintain the AstroPy framework and its associated modules. AstroPy is a set of Python libraries that provide useful mechanisms for astronomers and astrophysicists to perform analyses on the data that they receive from observational equipment such as the mountain observatory that Erik was preparing to visit when we talked to him about his work. If you like Python and space then you should definitely give this episode a listen!
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+
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
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.
Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $10 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
We are recording today on November 2nd, 2015 and your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing Erik Tollerud about AstroPy
On Hired software engineers & designers can get 5+ interview requests in a week and each offer has salary and equity upfront. With full time and contract opportunities available, users can view the offers and accept or reject them before talking to any company. Work with over 2,500 companies from startups to large public companies hailing from 12 major tech hubs in North America and Europe. Hired is totally free for users and If you get a job you’ll get a $2,000 “thank you” bonus. If you use our special link to signup, then that bonus will double to $4,000 when you accept a job. If you’re not looking for a job but know someone who is, you can refer them to Hired and get a $1,337 bonus when they accept a job.
Use the promo code podcastinit10 to get a $10 credit when you sign up!
Interview with Erik Tollerud
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python?
What was the inspiration to create AstroPy and what kinds of astronomical research can it be used for?
Can you tell us what AstroPy’s modeling functions are and give us examples of where they might be used?
Are there any considerations that you need to be aware of when writing software libraries for practitioners of the hard sciences that would be different if the target audience were software engineers?
What are some of the most interesting applications that AstroPy has been used for?
Are there open data sets that are available for people outside of academia to do analysis of astronomical data using AstroPy?
Have there been any useful discoveries made in this way?

Could you please tell us about AstroPy’s Virtual Observatory capabilities?

What are some interesting use cases for AstroPy’s Cosmological calculations?

Are there other libraries available that provide similar capabilities, perhaps in other languages? What makes AstroPy unique among them?

Can AstroPy consume data directly from telescopes and other observational apparatus?

The amount of data generated from observing astronomical phenomena must be immense. What are some of the tools used to manage that data and how does AstroPy interface with them?

How might AstroPy be used to prove or disprove the cold dark matter hypothesis?

What are some of the architectural choices that have been made to allow for the AstroPy library to serve as the core for a number of other add-ons?
Does AstroPy provide a common data format to allow for easy interoperability between the various addons?

I noticed that AstroPy adheres to the PSF code of conduct, as well as having adopted an enhancement proposal process modelled after PEPs. Can you explain why that is important and what kind of an impact it has had on the community around AstroPy?

Picks
Tobias
Citizen Ex
piprot
Open Culture

Chris
The Allusionist
Criminal
Hardcore History

Erik
HubbleSite
Great Courses – History of the Ancient World

Keep In Touch
astropy.org
AstroPy User Mailing List
AstroPy Dev Mailing List
Links
tutorials.astropy.org
AstroQuery
Cython
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
50 min
November 13, 2015 Dariusz Suchojad on Zato
Service integration platforms have traditionally been the realm of Java projects. Zato is a project that shows Python is a great choice for systems integration due to its flexibility and wealth of useful libraries. In this episode we had the opportunity to speak with Dariusz Suchojad, the creator of Zato about why he decided to make it and what makes it interesting. Listen to the episode and then take it for a spin.
43 min
November 13, 2015Dariusz Suchojad on Zato
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
Service integration platforms have traditionally been the realm of Java projects. Zato is a project that shows Python is a great choice for systems integration due to its flexibility and wealth of useful libraries. In this episode we had the opportunity to speak with Dariusz Suchojad, the creator of Zato about why he decided to make it and what makes it interesting. Listen to the episode and then take it for a spin.
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, leave us a message on Google+, or leave a comment on our show notes
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
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.
Linode is also sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $10 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project.
We are recording today on October 27th, 2015 and your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing Dariusz Suchojad about Zato
Interview with Dariusz Suchojad
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python?
Can you explain what Zato is and what motivated you to create it?
What makes Zato stand out from other service bus implementations?
What are some signs that someone should consider incorporating Zato into their software architecture?
Does zato perform well in restricted resource environments like ec2? What performance bottlenecks are common when using zato?
It seems that most other ESB projects are written in Java. What advantages does Python have over Java for this kind of project and in what ways is it inferior?
The architectural nature of ESBs are such that they form the central backbone of a software system. How have you been able to ensure an appropriate level of reliability and stability in Zato while still delivering new features and improvements?
What are the scalability and high availability characteristics of Zato?
Does zato run well using pypy?
For anyone wanting to use Zato, what are the infrastructure requirements for deployment?
What are some of the security ramifications you took into account in zato’s design?
What are some of the most novel uses for Zato that you have seen or heard about?
Picks
Tobias
SPY
Eric Royer’s One Man Band
pip-tools

Chris
Rational Security
New Rustacean Podcast
Johan Goes to Mexico

Dariusz
Sublime Text Editor

Keep In Touch
zato.io
Twiter
Github
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
43 min
November 06, 2015 Tom Rothamel on Ren’Py
Tom Rothamel is an embedded systems engineer who spends his free time working on Ren’Py, a visual novel engine written in Python. Ren’Py allows you to write interactive fiction experiences and deploy them across desktop and mobile platforms. By creating a purpose-built DSL for describing the interactions, users of Ren’Py can focus on crafting polished experiences without fighting through the vagaries of programming languages, while still providing access to the internals when necessary. Listen to our interview with Tom to learn more about this long-running project and what makes it so interesting.
59 min
November 06, 2015Tom Rothamel on Ren’Py
Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, and sign up for our mailing list.
Summary
Tom Rothamel is an embedded systems engineer who spends his free time working on Ren’Py, a visual novel engine written in Python. Ren’Py allows you to write interactive fiction experiences and deploy them across desktop and mobile platforms. By creating a purpose-built DSL for describing the interactions, users of Ren’Py can focus on crafting polished experiences without fighting through the vagaries of programming languages, while still providing access to the internals when necessary. Listen to our interview with Tom to learn more about this long-running project and what makes it so interesting.
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+
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
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.
Linode is also sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $10 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project.
We are recording today on October 19th, 2015 and your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Today we are interviewing Tom Rothamel about RenPy
On Hired software engineers & designers can get 5+ interview requests in a week and each offer has salary and equity upfront. With full time and contract opportunities available, users can view the offers and accept or reject them before talking to any company. Work with over 2,500 companies from startups to large public companies hailing from 12 major tech hubs in North America and Europe. Hired is totally free for users and If you get a job you’ll get a $2,000 “thank you” bonus. If you use our special link to signup, then that bonus will double to $4,000 when you accept a job. If you’re not looking for a job but know someone who is, you can refer them to Hired and get a $1,337 bonus when they accept a job.
Interview with Tom Rothamel
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python?
What is Ren’Py and what was your inspiration for starting it?
I noticed that Ren’Py supports a number of different styles of gameplay. Can you explain the differences between interactive fiction, kinetic fiction and RPGs?
I notice that RenPy has clearly been around a while (Some of the games for OSX are PowerPC binaries!) – what problems have you encountered maintaining such a long lived project and keeping it current?
What libraries does Ren’Py leverage and how did you go about selecting them to allow for cross-platform development and deployment?
What underlying Python graphics toolkit does RenPy use for display, and how did that choice affect RenPy’s design?
While reading through the quickstart in the documentation I noticed that there is a special syntax that you have created for defining the dialog and narratives. Can you explain how you created the DSL for building the storylines?
It feels to me like RenPy was heavily inspired by the JRPG genre and as such there are games where sex plays a prominent role(I noticed a mention of Hentai in the docs), which is less readily accepted in the west. Have you ever encountered any pushback on this issue?
I noticed that some of the games that were created with Ren’Py are available on the Steam platform. What elements of the Ren’Py project lend themselves to producing games with enough polish to be published on such a mainstream platform?
If you were just starting out today implementing RenPy, would you still use Python? Why?
Picks
Tobias
DJ Logic
git-extras
Radon

Chris
Narcos
The Rust Programming Language
Kent Falls Brewing Shower Beer

Tom
Cython
NPR One
The Seinfeld Method

Keep In Touch
renpy.org
Twitter
Links
Long Live The Queen
Moonlight Walks
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
59 min
October 31, 2015 Anthony Scopatz on Xonsh
Anthony Scopatz is the creator of the Python shell Xonsh in addition to his work as a professor of nuclear physics. In this episode we talked to him about why he created Xonsh, how it works, and what his goals are for the project. It is definitely worth trying out Xonsh as it greatly simplifies the day-to-day use of your terminal environment by adding easily accessible python interoperability.
58 min