Wesley Chun

Speaking Sessions

• What is Python?

  1:15 PM Sunday   Room: 8338

  Python is an agile object-oriented programming language that is continuing to build momentum year after year... popular with Win32 devs because of its ease of creating COM clients plus IronPython for the .NET world, Jython for Java developers, and always popular with the LAMP and Linux/*BSD/Solaris/MacOS X crowd for web apps -- especially for Python's frameworks that offer an alternative to Rails: Django, Google App Engine, and Pyramid, the Plone CMS, plus Trac and Mailman, the wiki+issue-tracker and popular mailing list manager, respectively. Web developers know about JSON already, but did you know that it maps nearly identically to Python's dictionary/hash type? Of course Python can do XML as well as multithreading, SQL/databases, GUIs, client/server systems and networking (heard of Twisted?), GIS/ESRI, QA/test, automation frameworks, plus system administration tasks too! If Python doesn't do what you want, you can extend it in C/C++, Java, or C# (and even VB.NET)! Have you noticed the huge growth in the number of jobs on Monster and Dice that list Python as a desired/required skill? Python can do everything Java, C/C++/C#, Ruby, PHP, and Perl can do, but it's more intuitive & fun! You can code as fast as you think! Because of Python's simple yet robust syntax, it's a great tool to teach programming (for those ready to move beyond Alice and Scratch) with as well as a solid (first) language to learn for non-programmers and other technical staff. You don't need a compute science major to using Python! Come find out why Google, Yahoo!, Disney, Cisco, YouTube, BitTorrent, LucasFilm/ILM, NASA, Ubuntu, Slide, and Red Hat all use Python! This mainstay CodeCamp lecture is designed by Wesley Chun, software engineer, technical trainer, and author of Prentice-Hall's bestselling "Core Python" book series (corepython.com), the companion lecture videos "Python Fundamentals," and co-author of "Python Web Development with Django" (withdjango.com), for those wanting to find out what Python is all about!

• Google, Developers, and Education

  2:45 PM Sunday   Room: 8338

  Google's mission is to organize the world's information & make it universally accessible & useful. Education is in our DNA, so we gladly provide resources for users. However, when it comes to learning a new API, being told to "RTFM" can be challenging. That is why at Google I/O this summer, we launched 2 new initiatives to help users get up-to-speed in a user-friendly self-paced online learning environment: googledevelopers.blogspot.com/2012/06/google-launches-new-developer-education.html Google Developers Academy (developers.google.com/academy) provides online classes to help you learn one aspect of using a Google API. We've launched with material covering a variety of services including Google App Engine, Google Drive, YouTube, and our many advertising APIs. This is just the start, as we'll add new lessons regularly. Google Developers University Consortium (developers.google.com/university) is a community for those in academia using Google APIs for instruction or research. Teachers & researchers can share their open materials & exchange ideas with other faculty worldwide. Users can make announcements about their work, highlight successes, publish research, etc. Google also has a diverse set of teams addressing various needs in the technology & education space. Programs available from these teams include: K-20 education pedagogy, encouraging careers in the science & engineering disciplines, research, (awards & programs for university faculty & grad students), student internships, etc. This talk serves as an overview of many of our developer & education programs. Some knowledge of Google products, tools, and/or services may be helpful but not required.