Let's Talk
Since the old Denver Python meetup seemed to have petered out, Fusionbox decided to start its own. The turnout was fantastic. At least 30 (and I think probably more like 40) people showed up to talk about Python, enjoy beer and pizza, and hear a short talk. We had people at all different skill levels, from beginners to developers with many years of Python experience show up, and it was a great chance to meet and talk to other people who love Python.
Alex Bliskovsky gave the talk, which was about the alternative Python shells
bPython and iPython. While the default python shell works fine, there's a
lot that a modern shell can do that the default shell doesn't. Alex walked us
through a bunch of the neat features available in the two shells including
bPython's syntax highlighting, and slick autocompletion, and iPython's
impressive array of powerful magic functions. After Alex' talk I personally
made the switch to bPython (iPython seemed a bit much for my first foray
away from the default shell), and the syntax highlighting alone justifies the
change. If you haven't given one of these alternative shells a try, you're
missing out!
Beyond Alex's talk (which was excellent), the real core of the meetup was just a bunch of Python enthusiasts hanging out and geeking out about Python and programming generally over beers. The meetup started at 6:00 PM and a bunch of us were still hanging out and chatting until something like 8:30 or 9:00. So I'm ready to call the meetup a resounding success.
Since we had so much fun, we're planning to keep these meetups going (quarterly for now). If you're in the Denver area, and you're reading this blog post, you should definitely plan on going! Also, if you have any ideas for a short Python-related talk that you'd like to hear (or give) yourself, let us know with a post at the meetup page.