PyDev of the Week: Philip James

PyDevOfTheWeek, Python

This week we welcome Philip James (@phildini) as our PyDev of the Week! Philip is a core contributor for Beeware project. He has worked on several  other open source projects that you’ll learn about in this interview. He is also a popular speaker at PyCons and DjangoCons. You can find out more about Philip on his website or check out his work on Github.

Let’s spend some time getting to know Philip better!

Can you tell us a little about yourself (hobbies, education, etc):

My name is Philip, but I’m probably better known on the internet as phildini. That nickname came from a stage name; I used to do magic shows in high school for pocket money. In the Python community, I’m maybe best known as a frequent conference speaker, I’ve spoken at PyCons and DjangoCons around the world for the past 5 years. Beyond being a speaker, I’ve helped organize some Python meetups and conferences, and I serve on the PSF Conduct Working Group as it’s Chair. I’m also one of the early Core Contributors to the BeeWare project.

I’m the Head of Engineering at a personal finance company called Trim, where we try to automate saving people money on things like their Internet bill. I also co-run a publishing company and print shop called Galaxy Brain with a friend I met while I was at Patreon. We started as a Risograph print shop, making a zine about wine called Adult Juice Box and doing art prints. Galaxy Brain has been moving into software with the pandemic, because accessing our studio is harder, but we’re planning on keeping the printing going once things calm down. It’s kind of hilarious to us that we moved into software as an afterthought; I think we both resisted it for so long because the software is our day job. Continue reading PyDev of the Week: Philip James →

Python 101 – Launching Subprocesses with Python

Python,

There are times when you are writing an application and you need to run another application. For example, you may need to open Microsoft Notepad on Windows for some reason. Or if you are on Linux, you might want to run grep. Python has support for launching external applications via the subprocess module.

The subprocess module has been a part of Python since Python 2.4. Before that you needed to use the os module. You will find that the subprocess module is quite capable and straightforward to use.

In this article you will learn how to use:

  • The subprocess.run() Function
  • The subprocess.Popen() Class
  • The subprocess.Popen.communicate() Function
  • Reading and Writing with stdin and stdout

Let’s get started! Continue reading Python 101 – Launching Subprocesses with Python →

PyDev of the Week: Florian Dahlitz

PyDevOfTheWeek, Python

This week we welcome Florian Dahlitz (@DahlitzF) as our PyDev of the Week! Florian is a contributor to the CPython programming language and the PyTest framework. He is also a contributor to Real Python. You can check out Florian’s personal blog or get his newsletter to keep up-to-date with him.

Let’s spend some time getting to know Florian!

Can you tell us a little about yourself (hobbies, education, etc):

My name is Florian and I’m studying applied computer-science in Germany. I’m currently working on my bachelor thesis focusing on natural language processing. In my free time I code as much as possible, write blog posts about things I discovered or learned, and I’m doing a lot of sports! Continue reading PyDev of the Week: Florian Dahlitz →

Creating a Photo Slideshow Application with wxPython (Video)

Screencast, Video, wxPython,

In this tutorial, you will learn how to improve the image viewer application that you created in the previous video tutorial to make it load up a folder of images.

Then you will add some buttons so that the user can go forwards and backwards through the images or play a slideshow of the images.

Related Reading

Python 101 – Working with Files

Python,

Application developers are always working with files. You create them whenever you write a new script or application. You write reports in Microsoft Word, you save emails or download books or music. Files are everywhere. Your web browser downloads lots of little files to make your browsing experience faster.

When you write programs, you have to interact with pre-existing files or write out files yourself. Python provides a nice, built-in function called open() that can help you with these tasks.

In this chapter you will learn how to:

  • Open files
  • Read files
  • Write files
  • Append to files

Let’s get started! Continue reading Python 101 – Working with Files →

Relaunch of Mouse Vs Python YouTube Channel

Python, Screencast

I recently decided to relaunch the Mouse vs Python YouTube channel. I am working on new tutorials from the 2nd Edition of Python 101 as well as starting some new content on regular Python tutorials and wxPython tutorials.

Here are a few examples of the new content:

I have lots of ideas for other Python series but I am open to your suggestions too. Feel free to let me know what you would like to see covered here in the comments, over on the YouTube channel or on Twitter.