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New Year’s Python Meme
1. What’s the coolest Python application, framework or library you have discovered in 2011?
I looked quite a lot into Pyramid and Flask and I like both. But at the end I was convinced that Django is the best for me.
2. What new programming technique did you learn in 2011?
Seriously, I'm more and more convinced that it is true that having a decent test suite is important (and no, it doesn't have to be 100% coverage), but that even more important is good documentation (this should cover 100%). This is not just good for the users but it helps me a lot to find bugs or inconsistencies within my applications.
A more practically one: I figured out a nice pattern to build complex HTML views where parts of them can be easily updated with subsequent AJAX requests. It's used in LFS.
3. What’s the name of the open source project you contributed the most in 2011? What did you do?
LFS by far. I'm the founder. I did a lot of coding, documentation and testing. But I also tried to convince developers to contribute and make it more popular. It's quite fun.
4. What was the Python blog or website you read the most in 2011?
Planet Python.
5. What are the three top things you want to learn in 2012?
Javascript (just kidding ;-).
I want to learn more about benchmarking, profiling and caching. And REST. Update: I also want to learn how to create a software foundation.
6. What are the top software, app or lib you wish someone would write in 2012?
All kinds of plugins for LFS. And a decent calendar app for Mac OS :-)
The Django way
The Django way to talk about sucking (and how it can be fixed):
1. Core developer asks Django guy to rant about Django
2. Django guy rants
3. Core developers are confronted with the rants in public
This happened at this year's Djangocon.
I actually like it ...
iPad Part 2
More random notes about the iPad:
- Sitting on the couch with the iPad is fun. Reading, watching video, browsing, twittering, etc. Will see how this works on the way (without the web).
- The battery seems to last forever.
- The screen is quickly full of finger presses which is annoying if you want to watch a movie after you have written some text for instance. Anyway, they can easily cleaned up, similiar to the iPhone.
- Reading outside in the sun is nearly impossible.
- I would really try out a complete qwerty keyboard (with numbers), even if the single keys have to be smaller then.
- I'm missing multitasking (never missed it on the iPhone).
- This device needs definitely a file system or a lot better file sharing.
- The new correction of the text input is very helpful. Just double tab a underlined word to get suggestions for replacement. And I just found the undo button - very helpful!
- The iWork suite is a nice start for productive apps, but I hope and think there will be a lot of improvements.
- The New York Times App is really great. Nice handling, images and videos can be watched inline or fullscreen with a tab or a pinch. I hope we'll get german counterparts soon. I would pay some money for it.
- Real Racing: Nice graphic and sound, it is cool to hold the iPad like the steering wheel in front of you.
- The Pinnball: Nice casual game.
- iPhone game, which is now fun: Earthquake Jim.
Random thoughts about the iPad
Generally
- It's crazy fast.
- It's heavier than expected (maybe a little bit to heavy)
- Writing with the keyboard works good. Within landscape mode I can even write with ten fingers.
- Safari rocks. It's really the web on your fingertips. It's very fast and inline videos (with fullscreen mode) are cool.
- iBook is great. Good handling, good looking, easy to use dictionary. (Kindle is also great)
- In general reading on the iPad is fun (but I also like reading on the iPhone).
- The speakers are good for me (but I'm not very demanding here).
Random 3rd Party Apps
- Penultimate (writing with a fingertip) looks good, will see how this is working in practice.
- AirVideo (Streaming video to the iPad) is stunning.
- Old iPhone games like Super Monkey Ball are fun again - actually more fun.
- WoframAlpha looks great and has a nice keyboard