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Showing posts from March, 2007

One thing I don't hate about Python

Sure, some things about Python bug me. But that's not what this is about. I wanted to react to Jacob Kaplan-Moss's gripes instead of promulgating my own. Specifically, his problem with Python's interfaces, or lack thereof. I think I can keep this brief: interfaces are a hack that Java uses because Gosling et al thought multiple inheritance was too confusing and/or dangerous. (I believe I've read something recently where Gosling said that this was one decision he might do differently if he were re-designing Java now with the benefit of hindsight, but I can't find the source. Anyone remember seeing that?) Python has MI. It doesn't need interfaces. I'm a little baffled that someone on the django core team would cite this as a problem with Python. Jacob's precise objection is, I shouldn’t need to care care about the difference between something that pretends to be a list and something that really is a list. That's just it! You don't

Introduction to Python at UGIC conference

I'll be giving a (very!) introductory Python workshop at the Utah Geographic Information Council conference in April. After my 90 minutes, Kevin Bell -- also of the utah python user group -- will present on specific GIS applications. (Apparently Python is particularly big in GIS these days because one of the big vendors, ERSI, takes Python pretty seriously .)