Sidnei da Silva

Python 3.0 is out... and we are pretty much ready for it

2008-12-06T13:14:00.002-02:00

As pretty much everyone I know has announced, Python 3.0 is out. Pop your bottles open! Fireworks!

What's more important to end-users though is that third-party libraries are usable with Python 3.0, and not many of them are right now. One particular library has a special place in my heart, and is getting pretty close to being fully compatible with Python 3.0: PyWin32, the Python for Windows Extensions.

I first asked Mark about a year ago if he ever thought that PyWin32 would be ported to Python 3.0, and he was very pessimistic about it. Things changed recently though, and with the "2to3" library getting more mature, so did the chances of PyWin32 being ported to Python 3.0 increase.

Mark sent a status update with a detailed explanation of the process mid-November (http://tinyurl.com/py3k-win32-status-1) and another two (http://tinyurl.com/py3k-win32-status-2, http://tinyurl.com/py3k-win32-status-3) more recently. I recommend reading those to anyone thinking about porting their libraries to Python 3.0, there's a lot of great insight there.

To summarize, the great news is that PyWin32 will soon be capable of running on Python 3.0 without being forked: a single installer will work for Python 2.x and Python 3.x thanks to the "2to3" translation library!

So many thanks to Mark Hammond, Roger Upole and Vernon Cole for their work. To me, the fact that a gigantic and complex library like PyWin32 can be made to run on Python 3.0 at all is the best validation that the Python Developers could possibly get for their work. You did a really amazing job!

Oh, and in case you didn't notice, PyWin32 is now hosting a Bazaar mirror on Launchpad (https://code.edge.launchpad.net/pywin32), and that's where Mark is hosting his py3k-integration branch too. Go Launchpad!

The Website Is Down: Sales Guy vs. Web Dude

2008-06-28T14:00:00.001-03:00

Hilarious.

Special Effects on Google Maps

2008-06-24T11:17:00.000-03:00

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Wishes for GSoC'08

2008-04-08T18:23:00.002-03:00

I must mention that this year I will be mentoring some students for the Plone Foundation and Zope Foundation. That is, if any of the student's I am targeting get approved.

But other than those students that I might possibly be mentoring directly, there is a new cool project from the Jython community, through the Python Software Foundation that will be receiving attention from me. I volunteered to co-mentor a student that will be looking at getting Zope to run on Jython.

If this student is sucessful, I would be extremely happy. There are several implications to this, some of which are not immediately visible, but exciting nonetheless.

I wish good luck to all of this year's students!

Spreading Some Summer of Code Love

2008-03-19T01:01:00.009-03:00

Today I had the chance to plug some Google Sumer of Code love at my (ex)University. Dorneles, which was a Mentor for the Plone Foundation in 2006, joined me on stage.

We had some 60-70 people in the room, I believe. Mostly students in their first semester. They were in general very interested. Only two or three came talk to us after the presentation though.

We're now in contact with one of the heads of the CS department to get some flyers around the campus.

In other news, Google announced yesterday the list of 175 selected projects for this year's SoC. Since last year we had 130 projects and roughly 900 students, my estimative is that this year we will easily cross the 1000 mark, possibly hitting 1200. That unless Google reduces the number of slots for some mentoring organizations compared to last year.

Lastly, I would like to remind fellow SoCers out there to hang out in the #gsoc IRC channel on freenode. You never know who you're going to find in there. For example, I joined the channel a bit before writing this post and see what happens...

[12:39am] kfogel joined the chat room.
[12:41am] sidnei: hey kfogel, are you the author of producingoss or another kfogel?
[12:42am] kfogel: sidnei: same kfogel, hi there
[12:42am] sidnei: kfogel: hey! loved the book, cited you on my graduation thesis
[12:43am] mlankhorst: The soc2007 book?
[12:43am] sidnei: yep
[12:44am] kfogel: sidnei: wow, umm, *blush*. Thank you!
[12:44am] kfogel: sidnei: which project are you working on?
[12:45am] sidnei: kfogel: plone foundation, student last year, mentoring this year
[12:46am] kfogel: that's a nice trajectory

Then I got the chance to chat in private with Karl Fogel and plug the interviews I did for my graduation thesis, based on some questions that came to my mind after reading his book. Super!

Update: Leslie Hawthorn posted more updates on the Google Open Source blog.

Google Groups: GSoC Students at FISL 9.0

2008-02-29T11:35:00.002-03:00

If you are a GSoC participant (not necessarily Brazilian!) and are planning to attend FISL 9.0, please join our Google Group to help with the planning for actions.

Brazilian GSoCers at FISL 9.0

2008-02-25T20:38:00.004-03:00

In a few days (more precisely 51 days from today), the 9th International Free Software Forum (widely known as FISL) will take place in Porto Alegre.

Some of us Brazilian GSoCers have been contacted by Leslie Hawthorn about getting together at FISL and talking about our experiences with the Google Summer of Code program.

I will be posting more updates here as it goes. I also plan to interview some fellow GSoCers and make the interviews available here in podcast form.