Go back to: General discussion
Greetings web-crafters!
The last class for Basic Python Web Services will be tonight at the
usual time (21:00 PST). Today, we'll go over people's projects. Even
if you're not finished, I'm more curious about how far you got, what
difficulties you had along the way, and what you'd like to do for the
project in that mystical universe where everyone had time to work on
it. I also think it would be helpful (maybe even fun) to share with
the class what you did. Class will be on IRC in the channel found on
the p2pu page.
Thank you all for participating. I really hope you got something out
of the course.
I'm sorry I haven't been more communicative or helpful as the class
has gone on. I started the course with the best of intentions, but
soon got really busy with work and, even though the class was my
second priority, between work and not feeling well much of the time,
I didn't give as much attention to the class as I would have wished.
I'm also sorry (still) for the awful time-slot. I didn't realize when
I proposed the course that I wouldn't be able to find a better
reliable time-slot. Again, thank you all for putting up with me and
for being part of this experiment. If I teach the course again, I'll
try to correct these things.
It was a pretty ambitious course. We had people of all different
backgrounds and skill levels. The material goes through basics of
python to HTTP to web service architecture. I still feel that the basic idea,
that building web services is a great way to learn about python and
about how the web works, is a valid one. I'm not sure how well I
communicated these things. This is my first experience teaching an
online course, so that aspect is completely new to me. While I've
taught several "brick and morter" courses, they have all been amongst
my duties so I could better allocate time for them, and for my failure
to do so here, I apologize.
The course was inspired by kinda two things:
- I was reading about a course covering PHP for beginners. While I
have reservations about the language as a whole, I think it is not
the best language to teach beginners. While the basics are easy to
learn, it is complicated (there are at least as many exceptions as
there are rules) and it is very difficult to teach best practices
in. I wanted to teach a course that, while centered on
introductory web technologies, would give a solid basis to
understand best practices going forward and give people skills they
could really build on. While python and webob were not the only
choices that would fulfill these requirements, I think they are
good choices and hopefully would be helpful understanding the
breadth and depth of the technologies available.
- I had been a web programmer for a few years, and while I understand
HTTP, like most web programmers I had only used high-level
frameworks. It wasn't until I programmed my own blogging software
(http://k0s.org/bitsyblog [*]) with webob and had to deal with HTTP
at a low-level that it became a native language to me.
([*] not that bitsyblog is particularly well written. There are
parts I like and parts I'm embarassed about, but it was certainly a
great learning experience.)
While I feel that I have not really fulfilled my dreams for this
course, I hope that I have given some inklings to these things at
least to a few of you. If anyone got something out of the course,
then it was well worth my time and effort. I learned a few things too
:)
Thanks again for being a part of my class! I hope you will keep
learning and keep up your interest in python, the web, and writing
software to manifest your intent.
Jeff
Last class! Thanks for participating!
Greetings web-crafters!
The last class for Basic Python Web Services will be tonight at the
usual time (21:00 PST). Today, we'll go over people's projects. Even
if you're not finished, I'm more curious about how far you got, what
difficulties you had along the way, and what you'd like to do for the
project in that mystical universe where everyone had time to work on
it. I also think it would be helpful (maybe even fun) to share with
the class what you did. Class will be on IRC in the channel found on
the p2pu page.
Thank you all for participating. I really hope you got something out
of the course.
I'm sorry I haven't been more communicative or helpful as the class
has gone on. I started the course with the best of intentions, but
soon got really busy with work and, even though the class was my
second priority, between work and not feeling well much of the time,
I didn't give as much attention to the class as I would have wished.
I'm also sorry (still) for the awful time-slot. I didn't realize when
I proposed the course that I wouldn't be able to find a better
reliable time-slot. Again, thank you all for putting up with me and
for being part of this experiment. If I teach the course again, I'll
try to correct these things.
It was a pretty ambitious course. We had people of all different
backgrounds and skill levels. The material goes through basics of
python to HTTP to web service architecture. I still feel that the basic idea,
that building web services is a great way to learn about python and
about how the web works, is a valid one. I'm not sure how well I
communicated these things. This is my first experience teaching an
online course, so that aspect is completely new to me. While I've
taught several "brick and morter" courses, they have all been amongst
my duties so I could better allocate time for them, and for my failure
to do so here, I apologize.
The course was inspired by kinda two things:
- I was reading about a course covering PHP for beginners. While I
have reservations about the language as a whole, I think it is not
the best language to teach beginners. While the basics are easy to
learn, it is complicated (there are at least as many exceptions as
there are rules) and it is very difficult to teach best practices
in. I wanted to teach a course that, while centered on
introductory web technologies, would give a solid basis to
understand best practices going forward and give people skills they
could really build on. While python and webob were not the only
choices that would fulfill these requirements, I think they are
good choices and hopefully would be helpful understanding the
breadth and depth of the technologies available.
- I had been a web programmer for a few years, and while I understand
HTTP, like most web programmers I had only used high-level
frameworks. It wasn't until I programmed my own blogging software
(http://k0s.org/bitsyblog [*]) with webob and had to deal with HTTP
at a low-level that it became a native language to me.
([*] not that bitsyblog is particularly well written. There are
parts I like and parts I'm embarassed about, but it was certainly a
great learning experience.)
While I feel that I have not really fulfilled my dreams for this
course, I hope that I have given some inklings to these things at
least to a few of you. If anyone got something out of the course,
then it was well worth my time and effort. I learned a few things too
:)
Thanks again for being a part of my class! I hope you will keep
learning and keep up your interest in python, the web, and writing
software to manifest your intent.
Jeff