Talk proposals for RuPy 2008
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Proposal 1: How to build an Open Source Community
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So you've a great piece of code and people start actually using it? How do you
ensure the growth of the community and the future well-being of your project?
Or you want to start a Python or Ruby User Group? How do you organise your
meetings and get people to help out and contribute talks and other things to
keep the meetings interesting and make first time attendants come again next
time?

In this talk I will address the questions posed above in two ways. First
theoretically, by examining the inner workings of Open Source communities from
a socio-psychological point of view and then by giving practical advice on how
to put the results of this examination to actual use in your community.

Estimated duration: 40 min + 20 questions and discussion
Target audience: all conference attendants


Proposal 2: 10 things every Python developer should know about setuptools
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Eggs are a package format for distributing Python software and modules similar
to Gems for Ruby or JAR files for Java. The setuptools module provides the
infrastructure for users and developers to build, distribute and install eggs
and handlde dependencies between them. The documentation for setuptools is
quite voluminous and there are some less known goodies hidden in it.

This talks will present the most important recipes for handling eggs for
developers and package maintainers in a hands-on manner and demonstrates their
use with lots of examples.

Estimated duration: 30 min.
Target audience: Python developers and software maintainers


Proposal 3: How to write "pythonic" code
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Knowing the syntax and the standard library of Python alone doesn't make one a
good Python programmer. In more than a decade of increasing usage and
popularity of the language, Pythonistas have developed many typical Python
idioms and pythonic ways "to do it". These are either based on the fact that
in Python, being a highly dynamic language, many things necessary in more
static languages just make no sense or on the fundamental principles laid down
in the so-called "Zen of Python".

For the (Python or programming) novice, this talks tries to explain those
principles and how they translate into actual code. For the seasoned developer,
maybe coming from other languages, the talk shows how everyday problems and
common constructs are coded in Python and how your code can achieve the
(sometimes elusive) quality of being "pythonic". For both groups, the talk
delivers a cookbook of programming recipies, that every developer can use in
his programs and which have proven to work well for Python developers in general.

Estimated duration: 45 min + 10 min questions
Target audience: Everybody interested in programing with Python from the Novice
to the Advanced