Alex Martelli

Python for Programmers

This talk is a broad overview of Python concepts and features, with examples harnessing Google App Engine. Within this context, the talk mentions some important design patterns and idioms, as well as some "best practices" for software development, architecture, and design, especially in scenarios such as web services, applications, and sites.

Python is a dynamic general-purpose programming language and is getting more and more widespread. This talk targets an audience with at least minimal knowledge of Python, as can be had by following its online tutorial and/or dabbling with Python through a weekend. He will touch on some of the most interesting similarities and differences wrt other languages (Java, C, C++), and highlight some of Python's most useful features. To get the most out of the examples, download App Engine's open source SDK, and work through its "hello world" exercise, before the talk.

About Alex Martelli

Alex Martelli holds a Laurea in Ingegneria Elettronica (MSEE) from Bologna University; his publications include books ("Python in a Nutshell", "Python Cookbook"), a chapter in "Beautiful Teams", and many articles, essays, presentations and keynotes, mostly on Python. Since 2005, he works for Google, Inc. in California; previously, he worked at Texas Instruments, IBM Research, think3 inc, and as a freelance consultant, mostly for AB Strakt (now Open End AB). He won the 2002 Activators' Choice Award, the 2006 Frank Willison Award for contributions to the Python community, and three Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards from IBM. He has taught courses on programming, development methods, technical management, object-oriented design, and numerical computing, at Ferrara University and other venues.

Time and Location

Saturday, October 17th at 6:30 PM in 1404 Siebel Center