Python meets Ruby - 7pm Thursday 17th May 2012

[safe....@sandacre.com]

Hi Everyone,

Owing to a quirk of fate, the Python and Ruby groups at Madlab will need to share a single room for our meetings next week!  Rather than sitting at opposite corners of the room and talking quietly, I reckon it might be an good idea to hold a joint meeting.

Ideas about how we might conduct such an event include:

- A couple of short Ruby/Python 101's from the respective camps.

- Working through Python/Ruby coding exercises.

- Chatting in the pub afterwards.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Safe

Safe Hammad

http://safehammad.com

@safehammad

[Ben Nuttall]

This should be a good evening! My housemate's a Rubyist who attends their group, and I know a lot of the guys there from the likes of XP Manchester. It'll be nice to meet with them for a change.

No doubt they'll outnumber us by a wide margin, but if Robie turns up we'll be better off, brainpower-wise.

One suggestion I have is from something we did at the Preston Codejo recently - we all pair off and look up something from the docs (us at Ruby docs, them at Python docs) and have a play with one of the constructs to see how they work in the other language - say I pick arrays, I read up on how arrays work in ruby, interesting examples of referencing, dereferencing, sub-arrays, etc. and briefly present my findings to the group.

We threw around a few ideas at last month's meet and said it would be good if we could have a bot tournament, Python vs. Ruby - but this requires some preparation from collaborating organisers from each party. Maybe some other time. Speaking of which, it was also suggested that we may wish to meet together regularly/periodically in future. What do people think?

Ben

[Chris Lyon]

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We will, of course, start with the video?

[Daley Chetwynd]

On 15 May 2012 00:56, Ben Nuttall <ben.nut...@gmail.com> wrote:

One suggestion I have is from something we did at the Preston Codejo recently - we all pair off and look up something from the docs (us at Ruby docs, them at Python docs) and have a play with one of the constructs to see how they work in the other language - say I pick arrays, I read up on how arrays work in ruby, interesting examples of referencing, dereferencing, sub-arrays, etc. and briefly present my findings to the group.

 

This would work quite well. I've only done a little bit of Ruby in the past, so I'd be interested in a Python vs Ruby comparison for the more widely used language features.

[safe....@sandacre.com]

I agree it'll be a good way for us to learn a "foreign language".  Though Ruby newbies like (some of) us will have to summon up courage to present our findings to the hardened Rubyists in the audience!

[Ben Nuttall]

One of the Ruby guys just tweeted this:

This month's @NWRUG is tomorrow/Thurs 17th. Interesting tmp merge - Intro to Python & Ruby Syntax w/ Katas : http://nwrug.org/events/may12

~ https://twitter.com/#!/oceanician/status/202715232588660736

 It seems they already have plans for what we'll be doing - see the link for the itinerary.

Ben

On Friday, 11 May 2012 09:29:12 UTC+1, Safe wrote:

[Safe Hammad]

On 16 May 2012, at 12:29, Ben Nuttall <ben.nut...@gmail.com> wrote:

One of the Ruby guys just tweeted this:

This month's @NWRUG is tomorrow/Thurs 17th. Interesting tmp merge - Intro to Python & Ruby Syntax w/ Katas : http://nwrug.org/events/may12

~ https://twitter.com/#!/oceanician/status/202715232588660736

 It seems they already have plans for what we'll be doing - see the link for the itinerary.

Sounds like a reasonable plan. Any volunteers to present a intro to Python? Anyone have a link to suitable Katas?

Ben

On Friday, 11 May 2012 09:29:12 UTC+1, Safe wrote:

Hi Everyone,

Owing to a quirk of fate, the Python and Ruby groups at Madlab will need to share a single room for our meetings next week!  Rather than sitting at opposite corners of the room and talking quietly, I reckon it might be an good idea to hold a joint meeting.

Ideas about how we might conduct such an event include:

- A couple of short Ruby/Python 101's from the respective camps.

- Working through Python/Ruby coding exercises.

- Chatting in the pub afterwards.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Safe

Safe Hammad

http://safehammad.com

@safehammad

--

[Simon Ward]

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 01:08:23PM +0100, Safe Hammad wrote:
> Sounds like a reasonable plan. Any volunteers to present a intro to
> Python? Anyone have a link to suitable Katas?

Are Katas really just patterns in new lingo? That’s what my searching
tells me at least.

Simon
--
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall

[Simon Ward]

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 05:09:37PM +0100, Simon Ward wrote:
> On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 01:08:23PM +0100, Safe Hammad wrote:
> > Sounds like a reasonable plan. Any volunteers to present a intro to
> > Python? Anyone have a link to suitable Katas?
>
> Are Katas really just patterns in new lingo? That’s what my searching
> tells me at least.

Ok, I found this:

http://codekata.pragprog.com/

This sounds like just the sort of stuff I had down as toy exercises to
try in each language I learnt. I didn’t need a name for it, I just did
it… who doesn’t?

[Daley Chetwynd]

It'd be good to pick a kata and then pair people up into one Python developer and one Ruby developer. We could then have 45 minutes implementing the kata in one language, then switch and do 45 minutes in the other language. It'd give people the opportunity to try different approaches to solving the kata, based on the language they were using in that iteration.

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[safe....@sandacre.com]

On 17 May 2012 00:00, Daley Chetwynd <pythons...@gmail.com> wrote:

It'd be good to pick a kata and then pair people up into one Python developer and one Ruby developer. We could then have 45 minutes implementing the kata in one language, then switch and do 45 minutes in the other language. It'd give people the opportunity to try different approaches to solving the kata, based on the language they were using in that iteration.

That sounds like a good approach.  Let's plan the evening with the Rubyists at the start of the session.

 

[Alan O'Donohoe]

Hi. I teach computing in a school in Preston. I'm trying to incorporate a speech module into the Python text based games that pupils in my classes have been building.

I have found 'pyspeech' and 'speech 0.5.1' - however, I am struggling to make them work. I have only a rudimentary understanding of Python.

I wonder if some one would help talk me through this, eg. Downloading, saving location etc.

An email would be helpful, a phone call would be even better.

Alan
---from my phone email client
Mr Alan O'Donohoe
@teknoteacher M- 07791126056
http://teachcomputing.wordpress.com/

[Jonathan Street]

Both those packages mention python 2.4 and 2.5 but not 2.6, 2.7 or 3.*

I suspect they're quite old and no longer being supported.

I suggest you try pyttsx ( http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyttsx/1.0 ).  I've just installed it on Windows 7 and it worked without problems.  It also indicates it should work on Mac and Linux as well.

You need to install the correct pywin32 package for your operating system and python version ( I got it from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/files/pywin32/Build%20217/ ) and then the windows installer for pyttsx.

How is the teaching going?