New Year’s Python meme: 2012 edition

Partially as a year-in-review kind of action, and partially to reinvigorate my writing, I thought I’d participate in Tarek Ziade’s New Year’s Python meme:

1. What’s the coolest Python application, framework or library you have discovered in 2011?

Flask. Django was the only Python web framework I’d worked with until this last November, so it was nice to see things from Flask’s much more minimalistic perspective. I know Flask isn’t news to anyone in the Python world, but I suspect there are a lot of people who like or are simply comfortable with the kitchen-sink approach of Django and haven’t seen what mini frameworks can do. I was one of those until very recently.

For the record, I haven’t built much in Flask. But I did get involved in a rapid-prototyping exercise where Django’s complexity would only have gotten in the way. Flask’s simplicity let me get a simple REST-ish API up and running in a matter of hours from the point of introduction. I may continue using it beyond the prototype stage, or I may branch out even further. But I’m glad I dove in as much as I did.

2. What new programming technique did you learn in 2011?

Message queues. Specifically, I got to work with celery and django-celery to offload things like external API interactions within our Django apps. I’d done similar previous work when doing batch processing on a mainframe, so the idea of offloading computationally expensive work wasn’t new. But doing it within Python was.

I learned at the same time that MQs can’t be the solution to all of your problems. I’ve seen MQs back up by orders of magnitude due to major, production-crippling failures elsewhere. And in cases like that, it’s often not the case that you want a lot of processing waiting in line to be processed later.

3. What’s the name of the open source project you contributed the most in 2011? What did you do?

Sadly, I only contributed once — to Django. It was at an early stab at sprinting (leading up to AWPUG’s foundation), and we collectively worked on this bug. The patch itself is pretty simple, but I got to see more of Django’s internals than I previously had, and it gave me a chance to meet folks I’ve come to really enjoy working with.

But I also worked extensively on the PyTexas conference, which — though not strictly an “open source project” — represented the bulk of my contribution to the community at large. I’m really looking forward to this next year and some of the things we might be able to do.

4. What was the Python blog or website you read the most in 2011?

Like many who’ve participated in this, Planet Python and the Python subreddit have been my go-to resources this year.

5. What are the three top things you want to learn in 2012?

  • MongoDB and pymongo: We use these at the day job, and right now I shy away from them just out of ignorance fear. This is silly and must be fixed.
  • an async framework (likely Tornado): This kind of development is paradigmatically different from other things I’ve done, but a lot of people think it’s a good idea. That’s reason enough for me. I can also think of a few good use cases for it in work I’ll be doing in the near future.
  • Python packaging: I’ve run into a lot of cases this year where better knowledge in this area would have been useful. Every time I’ve needed to maintain something internal developed by someone who “gets” packaging, it’s taken me way more time than I feel is necessary. I’d love to know more about this area and contribute back to it if possible.

6. What are the top software, app or lib you wish someone would write in 2012?

  • I want to see microformats or some other kind of standardized interchange format for workout/fitness information. This is really specific to my work at MMF, but it would be enormously helpful. Every vendor in this space uses something different.
  • I want to see a platform for [redacted] in real-time. In my side project I’m working on this one right now. 😉
  • Is it okay to ask for docs? Because I’d love to see grok-able explanations for certain advanced topics (e.g., metaprogramming, packaging) become standard — such that I don’t have to Google “wtf is python metaprogramming” and dig through blog posts, because there’s just one (excellent) doc out there describing it.

 

Want to do your own list? Here’s how:

  1. Copy and paste the questions and answer to them in your blog
  2. Tweet it with the #2012pythonmeme hashtag

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