Brett Cannon
Python core developer. Works on Python at Microsoft/Azure Data Group. Tall, snarky Canadian.
Why Python 3 exists
Or, the whole unicode/str/bytes thing was done for a reason
This month I held a Q&A at PuPPy (the Puget Sound Python users group) that eventually led to me explaining why Python 3 came into existence and the whole string/bytes deal. I ended up receiving a compliment on the explanation which somewhat surprised me since I naively assumed people knew at this point why Python 3 was created. In . . .
Posted in: programmingpython
If I were designing Python's import from scratch
Or, Lessons learned from implementing import
Talk to any developer that inherits some large, old code base that has developed semantics as time has gone on and they will always have something they wished they could change about the code they inherited. After inheriting import in Python, I too have a list of things I would love to see changed in how it works to make it a bit more sane . . .
Posted in: programmingpython
Comparing Twitter & Google+ engagement
Or, I don't know how much longer I will bother with G+
I was employed at Google when Google+ launched. Like many Googlers, I tried it out, loved the sharing model, and stuck with the platform. People always joked that Google+ was made up of Googlers, their family, or photographers, but I still enjoyed the engagement I had on Google+ as it typically was a bit better than other places. But after . . .
How I stay happy making open source software
Or, what you can do to help make OSS contributors feel appreciated
Over the past month I have become aware of multiple people either stepping away from open source or trying to figure out how not to burn out from it [1, 2, 3,4]. After telling Thomas Caswell -- one of the project leads on matplotlib -- how I cope with open source contributions and him subsequently saying he liked what I said, I figured I . . .
Why I bought a Google OnHub router
Or, why auto-updates and looks matter more than speed in a router
When the Google OnHub router was announced, I was excited. Not just because the client software was developed at Google Waterloo where I used to work, but because the router represents Google continuing to take seriously the fact that how people get on to the internet is as important as what they use on it (the first play being Google Chrome . . .
Posted in: google ontechnology
Try to not use the Python C API directly
Or, help make it easier to get rid of the GIL
If there is one persnickety thing people ask of python-dev it is for the GIL to go away. People view it as this great bugaboo of performance that hinders CPython in a world where single-core chips are becoming extremely rare. Whether the GIL is really a performance killer as some people believe (it really depends on the type of work you want . . .
Posted in: cprogrammingpython
Trying out Jupyter Notebooks
Or, my experience porting the "Porting Python 2 code to Python 3" HOWTO to a notebook
I happen to be on the team at Microsoft which recently launched an in-preview Jupyter Notebook service in Azure ML Studio. Before this I had heard of Jupyter Notebooks (nee IPython Notebooks) but I had never bothered installing the requisite software to give them a shot. Perhaps it was knowing that scientists seemed to be the major users of . . .
Posted in: programmingpython
Cover image credit: http://goo.gl/photos/re3FDeopYikjWfbK8
You can also find Brett Cannon on Twitter, GitHub and Stackoverflow. Get in touch by Email.
