Ideas for Academic Programmes focussed on Python

Python Tutorial Series

[Parthan] A series of Python tutorials, starting from the very basics of Python programming and then covering topics like Python CGI and application of Python in Web Development, GUI development with Python, System side applications of Python, etc. The tutorial may be split into seminars and hands-on sessions.

[Ramdas]

1st level

  • Fundamentals of programming
  • Types, loops, conditions, strings
  • Lists, dictionaries and tuples,
  • Directies, I/O, file management,
  • OOP stuff - classes, inheritance etc.
  • Threading, windows

2nd level

  • Web programming with Djanjo/TG/Pylons/Zope (Preferably only with Django, I see Django winning this race on a longer run)

3rd Level

  • .Net with ironPython
  • J2EE with Jython
  • Win32 programming with Python
  • GUI programming with PyGTk/wxPython

[Pradeep]

  • Django could be first option because of its ability to be quick and dirty 'getting-the-job done'.
  • However, Pylons is an excellent platform to learn "The Next Generation(TNG)" web applications using python - because, Pylons has got the *right ideas*, like WSGI integration, Code reuse across frameworks via paste and ReST and has implemented them well. Of course, using solid components Myghty,SQLAlchemy and Paste helps a lot too.
  • WSGI is going to be a very important concept to persue for a web developer once he realises that, no one framework is going to be perfect fit all that he wants to do, and he has a lot of code lying around in various frameworks, which can be reused.
  • Of course there are other wsgi oriented frameworks like colubrid, but by far Pylons is the one with most mature components and code to show.
  • Also, if you are a pythonista who is being swayed by Ruby on Rails for all its coolness, take a dip into pylons. It might clear your conscience.
  • Django will definitely give us the Fish(which is very important :), but I think studying Pylons will give the knowledge to build a better net.

So, lets have both Django and Pylons.

Relevant reading:

[Anand Pillai]

There can be a system/networking course which introduces the

basics/advanced concepts of:

Threading & Asynchronous I/O

o Threads, Timers, Events, Conditions, Semaphores, Locks and Queues o asyncore, Twisted

Distributed Programming

o Pyro, Fnorb, Rpyc etc

XML frameworks

o PyXML o Elementtree o Gnosis o lxml o 4Suite

Also don't forget metaclasses. Here is a recipe for advanced OOP

Advanced OOP

o Meta-classes o Descriptors o Design patterns in Python

[R.Sathish Kumar]

Does Python XML Framework support XPath and XQuery ?

If so, then it must be also included in the XML Frameworks syllabus!

[Sanjay]

When it comes to Frameworks, I would vote for Turbogears. It is quite mature and already uses SQLAlchemy etc. for giving instant Fish today. Also, it is forward looking - TG 2.0 would be on Pylons. I think Pylons with some top level layer like TG 2.0, can be much more preferable to Django in future.