New Years’ Python Meme 2012

Participating for once in this idea, more like a test. Don’t expect me to do it again. With thanks to Tarek Ziadé for the idea and to @Pybonacci for disseminating it.

1. What’s the coolest Python application, framework or library you have discovered in 2012?

PyMongo: the very smooth Python API on top of MongoDB, and the best way by far I found to teach a very short introductory explanation of map-reduce to my class!

2. What new programming technique did you learn in 2012?

Map-reduce initial flirting; but note: “learn” is a huge overstatement.

3. What’s the name of the open source project you contributed the most in 2012? What did you do?

Second answer first: start it. So it does not exist yet, but I hope to see it grow in 2013. First answer second: PyDaMelo. However, this means “contributed the most” is evaluated in terms of internal importance. In terms of mental effort it would be going on with yacaree, and in terms of relevance it would be the yacaree port into KNIME (but this last is not Python).

4. What was the Python blog or website you read the most in 2012?

Easy… python.org

5. What are the three top things you want to learn in 2012?

Answer restricted to Pythonic worlds. A glimpse of Pygame (already underway), further PyMongo, many pending further explorations of the wonderful mere standard library.

6. What are the top software, app, or lib you wish someone would write in 2013?

I would like to be able to use convex optimization easily. By “easily” I mean that the user manual may assume that every now and then I import numpy and import scipy, yet I know essentially nothing about convex optimization. In particular, no idea of what all these BLAS and LAPACK dependencies are about, so whenever the OS complains, as often happens with scipy, that something went wrong at configuration, I just move off to another task. There is CVXOPT but it seems to have its own “numpy-array-like” variation? Anyone out there knows for sure whether it is numpy-compatible?

Want to do your own list ? here’s how:

• copy-paste the questions and answer them in your blog,
• tweet the blog post link with the #2012pythonmeme hashtag!