Sticky threads and Python???

There are a few topics which seem to come up over and over again, often in a short space of time.. i.e. Python books, tutorial, docs etc.

Anyway rather than just doing somthing i'd like your oppinion! Spacifically on what you think of Sticky threads? And what info you would find useful or think would be useful if we do deside too get sticky

Mark.

Do you mean like a sticky post containing FAQ's? If so, I think thats a good idea. I'm new to the forum here, but have seen it in many other forums I participate in.

thats exactly what i ment O2! Thanks for the input.. also if you don't mind tellin me what kind of things would you like to see in a sticky?

Mark.

Yes, good idea, even though of course lots of people would ignore it You could include:

What is Python? Where do I get more information about it?
=> links to python.org and other good sites

Where should I start if I want to learn Python?
=> links to good online tutorials and a list of good books

Where can I find more modules than are in the standard library?
=> links to parnassus, pypi and other places people might know of

Pointers to key items on the Python.org would be nice for beginners--like the FAQ, the tutorial, etc. The site has quite a bit of content and sometimes its hard to take it all in at once. Also, links to the Python section on faqts.com (http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/index.phtml/fid/199) and activestate.com. (http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Python/Cookbook/). Both have some great code snippets available. Vaults of Parnassus link would be nice too (http://www.vex.net/parnassus/). Descriptions of what can be found on each of the sites would be nice too .

I don't see any reason for us to duplicate all of the content on either site, but providing links to some of the better tutorials (we can all define "best") wouldn't be a bad idea.

Also, I've come across (as have others I'm sure) some good articles: http://zephyrfalcon.org/labs/python_pitfalls.html, http://manatee.mojam.com/~skip/python/fastpython.html,
http://www.python.org/doc/essays/list2str.html,
http://www.ferg.org/projects/python_gotchas.html,
http://mechanicalcat.net/cgi-bin/lo...#anti-pitfalls,
http://www.amk.ca/python/writing/warts.html

We could also put pointers to the charming python series on IBM developerworks,http://www-106.ibm.com/developerwor...rming+python%3A , and the Python devcenter on onlamp.com, http://www.onlamp.com/python/.

Links to free e-books as well: David Mertz's Text Processing in Python comes to mind, http://gnosis.cx/TPiP/, Learn to Program Using Python by Alan Gauld, http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/,
Thinking in Python by Bruce Eckel, http://mindview.net/Books/TIPython, and Dive into Python by Mark Pilgrim, http://diveintopython.org/.

Also, I think it would be nice to have a consolidated list of Python-related blogs. I know there are at least two out there (http://simon.incutio.com/, http://dev.r.tucows.com/blog/Python)

Thats all off the top of my head--if I come up with more I'll let you know

Thanks guys,

i'll try get onto it as soon as i have enough free time to put together a good Sticky (which seems to be getting rarer as we get closer to Xmas).

Wow ok 02, did you just go into a spac-attack and blurt our like an database after a bad meal or what

Which reminds me, telex hows the DBI coming?

Mark.

Ohh, it's coming along OK To be honest it falls well short of a DBI-like module; I've also only implemented a MySQL backend. I'm really working at the moment on finishing off other aspects of my new web site before I look at developing the db module into something really useful.

I might do that if and when I get the time to clean up and release the whole web site code, which I call 'techne'. It's a mix of Python, htmltmpl, MySQL, Apache's mod_redirect and various other bits and bobs to make running my site very easy, with a reasonably sophisticated stats engine. You can have a look at the 'result' here if you like (click on the little chart at the bottom of any page to access the stats engine).

First point you want to stress in the FAQ is:
USE CODE TAGS when posting a question on this forum.

For other forums, this is probably not that important (but does make code much more readable), but for a python forum this is the most important thing, since indentation is a feature of the language.

Def, noted Scorpi , very important point! thanx

Well the website loaded quick, to be honest i'm looking forward to seeign what you come up with telex! Let us when your done if you can i for one would be very interested!

Also, when you've finished with the MySQL bit i could always write you an SQLite backend! But i'll give you time to get everything stable first

Mark.

Will do Actually, my next move will be to write a GEDCOM backend to the db module for the family tree scripts I'm going to write, which will make it unusual to say the least

A recent python mailing list thread mentioned the "Python Learning Foundation", but gave no link (at the time of this post). I did a quick search on google and found this: http://www.awaretek.com/plf.html
MIght want to link to that.

Also, links to the various projects would be nice too maybe--twisted, mod_python, etc. Most are easily found with a google search of course, but it would be nice to have a consolidated list of the various GUI toolkits, IDE's, and frameworks listed together.