Alex Clark - Python Web Developer

New Pyramid Site

2013-04-22T12:00:00-04:00

For the first time in 10 years, aclark.net is not powered by Plone. Nothing against Plone: it's still one of the greatest loves of my life (inasmuch as you can love a software and community, as I do).

Why

This was not the result of a revolutionary plan, rather more of an evolution. It happened like this:

As soon as Plone 4.3a1 was released (a year ago?) I deployed a new Plone site to aclark.net with it, featuring a Diazo (new Plone theming engine) theme.
Around the same time I became obsessed with deploying to Heroku, and also gained an interest in Python 3.
A few months ago, I got tired of paying $11/month to host my Plone site so I converted the site to static HTML and moved it to GitHub pages. But the result was flawed because maintenance involved editing duplicate copies of the website content (e.g. both clients.html and clients/foo.html contained the same text describing "foo").

So when it came time to do more than a few casual edits, I knew I had to find a new approach. That's when various elements of the Universe conspired to lead me in a new direction.

How

Pyramid

I spent a lot of time (~ 1 year) developing pythonpackages.com in Pyramid, but the result was a mess (code-wise). I'm in the process of rewriting and open sourcing it, but it's slow going. So what better way to get started than to do a small-ish site in Pyramid for fun?

about.me

I also recently gave in and created an about.me site. I was impressed by their content editing features, and my ability to create a page that looked OK using them.

In my about.me profile, I used a picture of me and a picture of DC I took in early 2012. When it came time to redo aclark.net I felt like I really wanted to capture the simplicity of the about.me site, so I used the same photo in the background.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is old news at this point, but I really enjoy using it and I particularly like that they have added more example templates. So I combined my background photo with one of their example templates and a new site idea was born. As I'm not a particularly talented visual artist, my ability to produce something that looked OK (with code this time) was exciting.

What

Until I added a contact form, the site was entirely unremarkable. There are views and routes and templates, typical fare for a web framework. Here is the entire "main routine":

from pyramid.session import UnencryptedCookieSessionFactoryConfig
from pyramid.config import Configurator
from .redir import blog
from .redir import blog_entry
from .redir import blog_slash
from .views import contact
from .views import default
import deform_bootstrap


def main(global_config, **settings):
    """
    Oppan wsgi style! Configure and return WSGI application.
    """
    my_session_factory = UnencryptedCookieSessionFactoryConfig('itsaseekreet')
    config = Configurator(session_factory=my_session_factory)
    config.add_route('blog', '/blog')
    config.add_route('blog_entry', '/blog/{entry:.*}')
    config.add_route('blog_slash', '/blog/')
    config.add_route('contact', '/contact')
    config.add_route('clients', '/clients')
    config.add_route('projects', '/projects')
    config.add_route('services', '/services')
    config.add_route('team', '/team')
    config.add_route('testimonials', '/testimonials')
    config.add_route('root', '/')
    config.add_static_view(
        'static', 'aclarknet:static', cache_max_age=3600)
    config.add_view(blog, route_name='blog')
    config.add_view(blog_entry, route_name='blog_entry')
    config.add_view(blog_slash, route_name='blog_slash')
    config.add_view(
        default,
        renderer='aclarknet:templates/clients.mak',
        route_name='clients')
    config.add_view(
        contact,
        renderer='aclarknet:templates/contact.mak',
        route_name='contact')
    config.add_view(
        default,
        renderer='aclarknet:templates/projects.mak',
        route_name='projects')
    config.add_view(
        default,
        renderer='aclarknet:templates/root.mak',
        route_name='root')
    config.add_view(
        default,
        renderer='aclarknet:templates/services.mak',
        route_name='services')
    config.add_view(
        default,
        renderer='aclarknet:templates/testimonials.mak',
        route_name='testimonials')
    config.add_view(
        default,
        renderer='aclarknet:templates/team.mak',
        route_name='team')
    config.include(deform_bootstrap)
    return config.make_wsgi_app()

Contact form

But then I wanted a contact form. Which lead me to wanting an elegant way to send mail via Heroku. Which lead me to discover SendGrid. Which lead me create some primitive marketing features I am quite proud of and excited about.

I still ended up sending mail "the old way" via GMail. But now I send two mails: one to info@aclark.net to alert our staff about the lead (using GMail). And one to the lead acknowledging their submission (using SendGrid). SendGrid keeps a record of all the leads we've contacted, amongst other "fancy marketing features". Here's the relevant view code:

import deform
import smtplib

from email.mime.text import MIMEText

from .config import FORM_ERROR
from .config import FORM_SUCCESS

from .config import MIME_ONE_RECIPIENT
from .config import MIME_ONE_SUBJECT
from .config import MIME_TWO_MESSAGE
from .config import MIME_TWO_SUBJECT

from .config import GMAIL_HOSTNAME
from .config import GMAIL_PASSWORD
from .config import GMAIL_USERNAME

from .config import SENDGRID_HOSTNAME
from .config import SENDGRID_PASSWORD
from .config import SENDGRID_USERNAME

from .forms import ContactFormSchema


def contact(request):
    """
    Create and render deform form containing colander schema. Provide
    sendgrid integration for marketing.
    """
    button = deform.Button('Send', css_class='span9 btn-block btn-large')
    schema = ContactFormSchema().bind(request=request)
    form = deform.Form(schema, buttons=(button, ))
    if 'Send' in request.POST:
        items = request.POST.items()
        try:
            appstruct = form.validate(items)
        except deform.ValidationFailure:
            return {
                'form': form.render(),
                'request': request,
            }
        # This is the form contents
        email = appstruct['email']
        message = appstruct['message']

        # This is the mail to info@aclark.net
        mime_document_one = MIMEText(message)
        mime_document_one['Subject'] = MIME_ONE_SUBJECT
        mime_document_one['To'] = MIME_ONE_RECIPIENT
        mime_document_one['From'] = email
        mime_document_one = mime_document_one.as_string()

        # This is the mail to the new lead
        mime_document_two = MIMEText(MIME_TWO_MESSAGE)
        mime_document_two['Subject'] = MIME_TWO_SUBJECT
        mime_document_two['To'] = email
        mime_document_two['From'] = MIME_ONE_RECIPIENT
        mime_document_two = mime_document_two.as_string()

        try:
            # This is the mail to info@aclark.net
            smtp_server = smtplib.SMTP(GMAIL_HOSTNAME)
            smtp_server.starttls()
            smtp_server.login(GMAIL_USERNAME, GMAIL_PASSWORD)
            smtp_server.sendmail(email, MIME_ONE_RECIPIENT, mime_document_one)
            smtp_server.quit()

            # This is the mail to the new lead
            smtp_server = smtplib.SMTP(SENDGRID_HOSTNAME)
            smtp_server.starttls()
            smtp_server.login(SENDGRID_USERNAME, SENDGRID_PASSWORD)
            smtp_server.sendmail(MIME_ONE_RECIPIENT, email, mime_document_two)
            smtp_server.quit()
            request.session.flash(FORM_SUCCESS)
        except:
            request.session.flash(FORM_ERROR, 'errors')
        return {
            'form': form.render(appstruct={}),
            'request': request,
        }
    return {
        'form': form.render(),
        'request': request,
    }


def default(request):
    """
    This is the default view, to be used with most routes since we do not
    provide any content editing ability yet. Even then, maybe a default view
    would still be helpful.
    """
    return {}

Who cares

The best thing about all of this being able to run the site 100% for free on Heroku. Also:

Python 3 compat!
Free caching via CloudFlare
Free ping service from Pingdom keeps the site from "going to sleep" (HT: natea).
Updating the site fits my workflow. If I'm the content editor, I don't necessarily need or want to use Plone to edit my content. I can save Plone for my clients, and focus on what makes them happy with their CMS system.

I love checkoutmanager and dotfiles

2013-02-08T12:00:00-05:00

An ode to my OS X development workstation setup [1]

I am big on setting up my development environment, and enjoying the environment I work in. And I'm very thankful to the folks who make my life easier, including the authors of:

Python: Python Core Developers
dotfiles: Jon Bernard
checkoutmanager: Reinout Van Rees

I also love repetition. So picture if you will, a new Macbook Air or Pro ready to serve as my development workstation. I like to perform, and study, the steps required to turn a new laptop in to my development workstation. So here we go. In this article, I will walk through the steps required to turn a new machine in to my developer workstation. Do follow along!

Shell

One of the first things I do on a new system is change my shell to Zsh in System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Current User -> Right Click -> Advanced Options.... Don't forget to Click the lock to make changes first.

Zsh

Why Zsh? One of my favorite features is shared history between open sessions. So I can run a command in one window, and then run the same command from another window by fetching it from the history (with CTRL-R).

XCode

After I take possession of my new laptop (running Mountain Lion, the newest OS X at the time of this writing), I head to the App Store to download XCode. [2] Among many other things, XCode gives me the GNU C Compiler and allows me to type "gcc" in my Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.

Python

Now I need a Python interpreter [3]. For development I use the Collective Python Buildout but I also enjoy using Homebrew's Python 2.7. I use Homebrew for a variety of other things too (e.g. mobile-shell AKA mosh) so here we go:

$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"

… follow instructions …

$ brew install python

Git

I think OS X (or XCode) includes git, but just in case:

$ brew install git

Which reminds me, don't forget that installing the command line utilities in Mountain Lion's XCode requires an additional step in Preferences -> Downloads -> Command Line Tools -> Install:

Dotfiles

At this point, I can begin to get serious about turning this new machine in to my developer workstation. And that means: installing my private ssh key so I can check out code without typing a password, of course. Normally this would be tedious, but with git and dotfiles it's not so bad. This is what I do from my home directory:

$ git clone https://super_secret_url/dotfiles.git Dotfiles

I use https which requires a password for the first time only. Then I edit Dotfiles/.git/config and change the repository URL to git@super_secret_url/dotfiles.git. So every subsequent pull and push will require no password. And to "install" these dotfiles, I do [6]:

$ pip install dotfiles
$ dotfiles -s --force

Note: the dotfiles command finds my dotfiles in the default directory "Dotfiles" and create symbolic links to them.

Distribute & Pip

Homebrew's Python includes pip, but even if it didn't:

$ curl -O http://python-distribute.org/distribute_setup.py
$ /usr/local/bin/python distribute_setup.py
$ {easy_install, pip install} dotfiles

In other words, you can always install Distribute [4]. After which you can use easy_install or pip to install dotfiles. (You can read up on the differences. TL;DR: neither is "better" or "worse", it's just a question of which tradeoffs you are willing to make. I tend to use pip just because it's newer and I like its requirements.txt feature, but easy_install is still very well supported as part of the Distribute project.)

Checkoutmanager

Now I need some things to develop. Since I work on a bunch of different projects, I need a way to keep track of what should be checked out at any given time. So I do this [5]:

$ pip install checkoutmanager
$ checkoutmanager co

This creates and populates my ~/Developer directory with code. And it "just works" because I keep a .checkoutmanager.cfg in my Dotfiles repository. It currently looks like this:

[aclark]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer/aclark
checkouts =
    git@github.com:aclark4life/aclark4life.github.com.git resume
    git@github.com:aclark4life/desktops.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/hireme.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/projects.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/reinstall.git
    git@github.com:ACLARKNET/tweets.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/usesthis.git
vcs = git

[alt]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer/alt
checkouts =
    git@github.com:alt-aclark-net/alt-aclark-net.github.com.git
    git@github.com:alt-aclark-net/dexter.git
    git@github.com:alt-aclark-net/headstraight.git
vcs = git

[buildout]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer/buildout
checkouts =
    git@github.com:collective/buildout.bootstrap.git
    git@github.com:buildout/buildout.git
    git@github.com:buildout/buildout.github.com.git
vcs = git

[distribute]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer
checkouts = ssh://hg@bitbucket.org/tarek/distribute
vcs = hg

[clients]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer
checkouts =
; Bunch o client repos
vcs = git

[clients-hg]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer
checkouts =
; Bunch o client repos
vcs = hg

[dcpython]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer/dcpython
checkouts =
    git@github.com:DCPython/dcpython.github.com.git
    git@github.com:DCPython/pyramid-tutorials.git
vcs = git

[misc]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer
checkouts =
    git@github.com:ACLARKNET/aclarknet.github.com.git blog
    git@github.com:ACLARKNET/new_style.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/binfiles.git
;    git@github.com:aclark4life/pyramid_python_3.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/vanity.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/zope2-heroku.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/zope2_bootstrap.git
    git@github.com:codekoala/django-axes.git
    git@github.com:collective/buildout.python
vcs = git

[pillow]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer/pillow
checkouts =
    git@github.com:python-imaging/Pillow.git
    git@github.com:python-imaging/python-imaging.github.com.git
vcs = git

[plethorasociety]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer/plethorasociety
checkouts =
    git@github.com:plethorasociety/plethorasociety.github.com.git
vcs = git

[plone]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer/plone
checkouts =
    git@github.com:aclark4life/Plone-Debug-Assistant.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/collective.recipe.bluebream.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/event_days_indexer.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/hello_plone.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/mr_migrator_demo.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/parse2plone.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/plone_1_fun.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/plone_addon_upgrade.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/plone_guide.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/plone_workflow_events.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/schemaextender-facetednav-demo.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/silly_content_import.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/transmogrify.extract.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/transmogrify.regexp.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/viewlets_dont_suck.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/wordpress2plone.git
    git@github.com:collective/Products.AttachmentField.git
    git@github.com:collective/Products.CalendarX.git
    git@github.com:collective/Products.EventRegistration.git
    git@github.com:collective/Products.PloneSoftwareCenter.git
    git@github.com:collective/Products.ifQuotes.git
    git@github.com:collective/Products.naked_plone.git
    git@github.com:collective/buildout.plonetest.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.contacts.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.controlpanel.edit_css.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.developermanual.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.formtoy.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.github.com.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.googleanalytics.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.package.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.project.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.recaptcha.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.recipe.grp.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.recipe.rsync.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.rip.git
    git@github.com:collective/collective.stats.git
    git@github.com:collective/funnelweb.git
    git@github.com:collective/github-collective.git
    git@github.com:collective/mr.migrator.git
    git@github.com:collective/plonecom-buildout.git
    git@github.com:collective/plonecom.theme.git
    git@github.com:collective/plonetheme.coolblue.git
    git@github.com:collective/plonetheme.freshpick.git
    git@github.com:collective/plonetheme.grungeera.git
    git@github.com:collective/plonetheme.keepitsimple.git
    git@github.com:collective/plonetheme.unilluminated.git
    git@github.com:collective/transmogrify.filesystem.git
    git@github.com:plone/Installers-OS-X.git
    git@github.com:plone/Products.PloneOrg.git
    git@github.com:plone/admin-docs.git
    git@github.com:plone/buildout.coredev.git
    git@github.com:plone/planet.plone.org.git
    git@github.com:plone/plone.api.git
    git@github.com:plone/plone.github.com.git
    git@github.com:plone/ploneorg.admin.git
    git@github.com:plone/plonetheme.ploneorg.git
vcs = git

[pythonpackages]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer/pythonpackages
checkouts =
    git@github.com:aclark4life/buildout-apache-mysql.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/buildout-munin.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/buildout-mysql.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/buildout-nginx.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/buildout-plone-haproxy.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/buildout-plone-varnish.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/buildout-zenoss.git
    git@bitbucket.org:pythonpackages/pythonpackages.com.git vanity_app
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/buildout-apache-modwsgi.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/buildout-bluebream.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/buildout-django.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/buildout-jenkins.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/buildout-plone-getpaid.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/buildout-plone.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/buildout-wordpress.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/buildout-zope2.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/experimental.pythonpackages.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/github-services.git pythonpackages-github-services
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/pyramidpypi.git pythonpackages-index
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/pythonpackages-blog.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/pythonpackages-docs.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/pythonpackages-graphs.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/pythonpackages-paste.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/pythonpackages-scaffolds.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/pythonpackages.sendpickedversions.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/pythonpackages-whiskers.git
    git@github.com:pythonpackages/pythonpackages.git
vcs = git

[toys]
basedir = /Users/aclark/Developer/toys
checkouts =
    git@github.com:aclark4life/basic_pyramid_zodb.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/github_repos_cloner.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/other.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/python_study.git
    git@github.com:aclark4life/django-hello.git
vcs = git

Now it's time to bootstrap the Collective Python Buildout, which gives me all versions of Python, ever [7]. And off we go:

$ cd Developer/buildout.python
$ python bootstrap.py

Finally, there is some PATH configuration required to make all of this seemless. The Collective Python Buildout gets installed in /opt while brew's stuff is in /usr/local. My PATH config currently looks like this:

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin:/Users/aclark/Developer/buildout.python/python-2.7/bin:$PATH
export PATH=~/Developer/binfiles:/usr/local/share/npm/bin:$PATH

With the above configuration, I default to the Python 2.7 in the Collective Python Buildout. That means that is the "python" or "virtualenv" I get when I type those commands. I use the full path or expanded binary name when I need them e.g. /usr/local/bin/python or python3.3.

That's it! I hope you will check out dotfiles and checkoutmanager for all your development needs.

[1]	Not really an ode: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode

[2]	I know about Kenneth Reitz's XCode Command line Tools only, but if I recall correctly there is some "gotcha" that has bitten me more than once if I use that instead of the full XCode. I wish I could remember what it was now, but it's not coming to me. If it works for you though, great!

[3]

I know about the system Python, and for small things like checkoutmanager and dotfiles I don't mind using it. But there is merit in avoiding it because Apple treats it like "their" Python and makes decisions for you that you may prefer to make yourself. E.g. I believe they use a crippled version of the readline library.

[4]	Distribute is a more actively maintained fork of the venerable setuptools library (which itself is built on top of the Python standard library's distutils). Are we having fun yet?

[5]	I also alias checkoutmanager to cm :-)

[6]	I force because I want to replace the newly created .ssh dir with the one I keep in my Dotfiles repository.

[7]	Well, 2.4 through 3.3 at last count.

Please Help Me Do Open Source Work

2013-01-31T13:00:00-05:00

From my 'mid-life-crisis' series of blog entries :-)

Open Source Work

Open Source Work has paid my bills for a long time. Starting with Plone in the early 2000s, to Django in the early 2010s, to now. And for this, I am very grateful. To be clear: it's not exactly the Open Source Work that has paid my bills, it's the consulting work I've been able to secure as a result of my dedication and devotion to open source software and communities. Which is great! (Even more clear: my dedication and devotion to open source software and communities has made learning new skills fun. And those skills have paid my bills for the past 8 years.)

TL;DR: Open Source Work is awesome. I'll likely spend my entire life doing it (in some capacity or another). And while Open Source Work does not pay, the experience is invaluable.

SaaS Offering

Along the way, I caught the "startup bug" and have been interested in building a SaaS offering that would at least pay my bills, if not make me fantastically wealthy. Enter 2012's: pythonpackages.com. The year I spent doing pythonpackages.com work was awesome. I learned a lot. Traveled. Met a lot of cool folks who seemed genuinely interested in my idea(s). But unfortunately, I never made a dime doing it. The lesson, among others, is that SaaS offerings are hard. I am now semi-focused on a "reboot" of the pythonpackages.com idea(s), but that's going to take a while to get going.

TL;DR: Consulting *was* the dream. Now building a SaaS offering *is* the dream (among others). So where does Open Source Work fit in?

Play as Work

I've been "working for a living" since age 14. Back then, I was a busboy and dishwasher in my family's Italian restaurant, where I first learned to work hard and have fun doing it. Since then, I've always worked hard, had fun, and taken few vacations (except for 1994-1998 when I was a full time CS student). I suspect I will always "work for a living" though as I get older, the line between work and play becomes even blurrier. Everyone wants to love or at least like their work. But very few are able to turn their play in to paid work. That's what I want to do. And I am very fortunate, I think, to know what I want to do in life. I know middle aged folk that still don't know the answer to that question.

TL;DR: liking my work *was* the dream. Now turning the things I like to do into paid work *is* the dream. In 2013, I would like to spend more time doing Open Source Work, working on projects like Buildout, DC Python, Pillow, Plone, django-axes, et al. If you have benefited from my work on any of these projects, directly or indirectly, please consider making a gittip donation to help me do more Open Source Work in 2013.

Python 3 Porting

2013-01-10T19:15:00-05:00

The 3 in 2013 is for Python 3

I tend to like projects that everyone else hates, e.g.:

Removing persistent Python objects associated with missing classes in ZODB.
Making new releases for old software that is still useful but unmaintained.
Running flake8 on 10s or 100s of source files and hand-fixing the results.

Part of this has to do with repetition. I know how to do these things, and I like doing them. Over and over. If someone says, "my Data.fs file is broken" I get excited. Anyway, I hope you get the idea.

I am your man

Which brings me to the subject of this post: Python 3 Porting. I've been helping out porting the Python Imaging Library to Python 3 (via the Pillow fork, where I am the release manager). And it strikes me as the type of thing I'd be very interested in doing professionally. So, if you or your company are in need of a "workhorse" to plow through old code and update it, I am your man. Please do get in touch.

What's in it for you

Now I know what you are thinking: porting Python 2 software to Python 3 is a lot of work for little gain. Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise, however I will tell you this:

For me, 2013 is "the year of Python 3". I've now promised to deliver and maintain a Python 3 compatible PIL by PyCon 2013. I now care about Python 3 (this was not true before).
The Python 3 Wall of Shame is now the Python 3 Wall of Superpowers. We are over the hump.
Many popular Python web frameworks support or are about to support Python 3 e.g. CherryPy, Django, Pyramid.

So, there is no time like the present to take a serious look at Python 3.

New Year's Python Meme 2012

2012-12-29T15:30:00-05:00

This is my entry for Tarek Ziadé's New Year's Python Meme, a tradition I have come to enjoy. Both to reflect on the current year and look back on previous years. So here it is.

I did this in 2009 & 2011. Let's try it again.

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

That would be Kenneth Reitz's Requests. Like many others, I've been bitten by the elegance and simplicity bug that is inherent and ingrained in the Requests library. Primarily, I used it to build pythonpackages.com. In particular, I used it to communicate with the almost-equally-elegant (IMHO) GitHub API. This is why I like requests (among other reasons): I don't need to use a "third party" library to communicate with the GitHub API. Such libraries (I think) attempt to make my job easier by hiding complexity and presenting simpler APIs to use. This is sometimes necessary, but no substitute for really and actually simple APIs and good documentation (both of which GitHub and Kenneth provide, with their respective APIs.)

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

JavaScript: check. Unit testing: check. These are techniques I have learned enough of to be effective in my "day job" (I'm self-employed). But I learned (finally) that I am primarily: a Python Web Developer. And it feels good to say that. I use Python, and related web technologies to build web applications for my clients. I typically only care to learn enough of a technology to get my job done, then I lose interest (for the most part). That's because I'm also a Hacker. I identify significantly with this monicker because it fits who I am and how I conduct myself professionally. I care about getting the job done above all else. And if there is a job to be done, my intellectual curiosity knows no bounds. If the job is done, I'm going to play guitar. So whatever the technique, I'll learn it if it's something I care about for whatever reason.

3. Which open source project did you contribute to the most in 2012 ? What did you do?

This is the first year that Plone did not consume my every moment. I also spent significant time working on Buildout (INI-config-driven system to install Python packages and other software, & perform other related and miscellaneous tasks) and Pillow (PIL fork). With the help of many others, I hope to get a Python 3.3 compatible release of Pillow out by PyCon 2013. And I'll support Buildout < 2.x until such time as Buildout 2.x goes mainstream.

4. Which Python blog or website did you read the most in 2012?

Planets: Django, Mozilla, Plone, Python. Reddits: Python. Other feeds: Hacker News & Tech Crunch. I added Tech Crunch this year to satisfy my "startup itch", as was recommended to me by Jonathon Perrelli of Fortify.vc in DC.

5. What are the three top things you want to learn in 2013?

How to hustle. Hustling, and more hustling. I've gained a lot (enough?) technical skill over the years. Now I want to put that skill to good use in business. I've managed to remain self-employed for a number of years, now I'd like to employ others full time, build successful businesses and otherwise "expand my empire".

6. What is the top software, application or library you wish someone would write in 2013?

I hope that I get more significant time to put into my "baby": pythonpackages.com. In particular, I'm considering adding a Travis-like service which would spawn Windows VMs to run tests and produce executables for Python packages (to address a particular pain point I've discovered along the way: people want to support Windows, but often don't have the ability to do so easily.)

Happy (Python) New Year!

Want to do your own list? Here's how:

Copy-paste the questions and answer to them in your blog
Tweet it with the #2012pythonmeme hashtag

Gittip, Misunderstood

2012-10-19T03:00:00-04:00

People do not understand gittip. Or, they do not understand how I use it. Worse, they think they understand it [1]. So much so, some choose to comment about it publicly.

Remember gittip is the future? Someone commented:

"Nobody likes a beggar."

— fuckoff@dfgd.com

Really? Well, I have to agree. I don't like seeing panhandlers on the street. But I'd never yell "Nobody likes a beggar!" at them. Why? Because: I don't care what they do. Does their presence sometimes annoy me? Sure, because I have to read the sign. And then I have to nod, like "What's up" and "Nah, sorry" at the same time (an acquired skill).

But that is not what bothers me the most about my friend @dfgd.com's comment. What bothers me the most is: I don't claim to know or understand why people do what they do. And short of a loitering law being broken somewhere, I think they have every right to do it (as long as they are not harming me or others). I'd even like to see a pandhandler use Square to accept payments. It sounds ridiculous, but I'd actually pay a panhandler that was accepting credit cards (I have no idea why this amuses me, but it does; of course, you may think twice about what is happening when they swipe but could a panhandler really figure out how to… I digress, back to the story.)

Anyway, pro tip: the people who use gittip are not begging. Some (most?) never ask for a dime. I choose to promote my gittip link and I am now going to tell you why, so if anyone ever asks? Or condescends? Here it is:

I like the project

I like what Chad Whitacre is doing. I think it's a cool idea. I want to do everything I can to help him promote his service. I also like that people I know and like are being gittip'ed. It gives me a warm fuzzy inside. Hell, the entire "top 10" gives me a warm fuzzy.

I like money

I have a funny story I like tell to… well, to you, now: I've done AdSense in the past. For YEARS. One time one of my blog entries got about 40+ upvotes on Hacker News and my revenue went up as quickly as it ever had. This, after years of adsensing, tipped the scales to… YUP, you guessed it! $100. I got my check, and a copy of it is sitting nearby ready for framing. Was that the hardest $100 I ever made? Probably. But it felt damn good to make it. Similarly, with $2 per week in support, I stand to make another $100 much quicker than I ever did with AdSense. This, my friends, is progress. It may not seem like much to random people on the internet. In fact, it may even be laughable, disgusting, or any number of things to other people. But guess what: it's none of their business.

Money is not my boss

Some people go APE SHIT and get REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE in certain situations involving money. I am not one of them. Are you concerned that I'm not volunteering enough and getting paid too much? Don't be. I assure you, I can figure it out. If you have any questions, just ask me: aclark@aclark.net. Are you concerned that because I get paid, someone else may get the wrong impression about volunteering and why do some people get paid and some don't and don't you worry this may give the wrong…? No. I trust that if someone wants to volunteer, that's exactly what they are going to do.

I have vision

I picture any number of scenarios with gittip. Here are some:

Do you like that I've spent years pouring my heart and soul into the Plone software and community, and perhaps, made your life better in some small way? Gittip me.
Did you notice I forked the Python Imaging Library so that thousands of people could have a working PIL release? Gittip me.
Did you also notice the new zc.buildout release that's much faster than the old release? Gittip me. (And a few others too, most especially: iElectric and zenwryly… you could also gittip Jim Fulton too, I guess :-)).
Do you want me to handle your Python package releases on a regular basis for you, but you don't want to sign a contract with my consulting business or use pythonpackages.com? Gittip me.
Do you want me to handle some other task on a regular basis, but you don't want to sign a contract with my consulting business? Gittip me.

Are you aware of all those things and don't want to gittip me? That's fine too. I'm not entirely sure I'm making myself clear, but I will leave you with this: I will always donate my time freely to good causes, especially those near and dear to my heart. My non-profit organization DC Python has been working with the PyLadies to teach "Introduction to Python Classes" in DC. And I'm so grateful, because I want to grow the organization (as big as Mozilla?) and I need all the help I can get. But, I need to make a living too. And this is precisely where, as the old saying goes: "the rubber meets the road".

I (like so many others before me and along with me in the Plone, Python, and Mozilla communities) have become an entrepreneur. In addition to thinking about "what consulting projects am I going to work to pay my bills", I like thinking about "what services can I build to pay my bills". And I'm so lucky I get the chance to do it.

You know what to do or not to do because you have just read this article: http://gittip.com/aclark4life

You may also want to follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/aclark4life

[1]	http://blogs.hbr.org/ashkenas/2011/02/your-communications-may-not-be.html

Why I Criticize The Plone Foundation Board

2012-10-17T20:00:00-04:00

TL;DR: Because I care.

As some of you can probably relate to, I've had my fair share of disagreements with the Plone Foundation Board over the years. The good news is, for the most part, it (just like the community) is staffed with very reasonable people who if you push them on an issue, will acknowledge that there are always competing viewpoints to any issue you can think of.

The Fallacy Of False Cause

I don't like what you have to say, therefore you must be quiet. Not necessarily. You may choose not to listen.

As long as you are polite, respectful, and on topic: you can have a civil discussion with almost any human individual or group in today's world. The challenge is in sticking to those criteria. Conversations often become heated and stray outside of respectful lines, because we are human.

Issues

From the famous (?) pricing scrap of 2010 (i wanted a more expensive server with VM capability, they didn't) to various financially sensitive issues: i.e. I occasionally want to be financially compensated as a "volunteer". And while the Board does compensate volunteers in many ways, they frequently don't agree with the ways I've suggested. And who could forget Plone Conference 2008? This was the first year that the Foundation received a percentage of the ticket sales. Now if I recall correctly there were certainly some heated debates, but none were too taxing or unreasonable (unless you count the ones we collectively had with The Ronald Reagan Building ;-)).

Success

Plone's success [1] is my success and vice versa. I do a lot of different things in life, so I'm not going to say that Plone must succeed for me to succeed. But I must succeed, and if I can help Plone succeed too, I'm going to do everything within my power to make it happen. Let me be clear: Plone does not need me to be successful. But if you've seen the "Plone: I wish I could quit you." T-Shirt by Tarek Ziadé (shown above), you may know why I keep struggling to make Plone as good as it can be, albeit by my excessively high and overly strict (but not unrealistic) standards; which some, I am sure, do not like.

Conclusion

I hope, after reading this, you may have some better idea of who I am and why I do what I do. I've made a commitment in my life to open source software, helping people, and being the best human I can be. I hope you will join me in my quest. If not, at the very least I hope you will respect my right to undertake it. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me to express them. Either in the comments below, or here: aclark@aclark.net.

Here's to you, Plone. And to the next 10 years of success.

[1]	Success means different things to different people.

Top 3 "favorite" logical fallacies

2012-10-17T02:00:00-04:00

I love to debate issues. The more complex, the better. I have no formal training in debate, but I wish I did. It may have better prepared me to face different personality types with varying degree of communication skill. You don't have to watch the 2012 U.S. Presidential Debates to know that people will say things that are BATSHIT CRAZY to make their point. I've done it myself. That's why we need rules to formalize our discussions, because it's hard to stay on point.

Fallacy

In the course of debate, you may encounter a fallacy or "faulty reasoning". Discussion of fallacy is my favorite part of debate. So without further ado, my top 3 "favorite" [1] logical fallacies; of all those I've encountered since I begun to debate in electronic form in the mid-1990s. Disclaimer: I have been on both sides of all three, I'm human. My goal in writing this blog entry is to facilitate better conversations within the communities I care about: Mozilla, Python, and Plone.

1. "You will regret your comments!"

This may be true, but it's probably not the point. And it's probably better to stay on topic then it is to stray into personal attacks, or what you may feel is "helping" [2] the other person.

2. "You are out of line!"

This may be true too, but it may take both sides to acknowledge the lines. When discussing a point, even though it's tempting to cry foul, it's probably better to stay on point. Sometimes you need a break, in which case it's OK to say "let's take a break and pick this up again later" [3]

3. "You are wrong!"

Perhaps. But it is likely that you may never agree with your debate counterparts. It's much better to focus on the core issues, and how you can compromise, then it is to focus attention on what is "right" and "wrong" (and who is right and wrong) [4].

Final Thoughts

It feels great to get those out. If anyone reading this has formal training in debate, I would love to hear your comments. Either below, or: aclark@aclark.net.

Like this blog entry? Consider supporting me on gittip.

[1]	I say "favorite" because these fallacies have crystallized in my brain over the years to the point where I feel I can categorize and discuss them.

[2]	I say "helping" because it's probably hurting the intended recipient (whether it's true or not). Sorry, it's not up to you to decide whether or not someone else will regret their comments.

[3]	I am married. And there is no better place in the world, than within the institution of marriage, to learn how to debate. :-)

[4]	There may be no tangible right or wrong, just preference. Discuss your preferences, then what you need from the other side to be happy. Then ask the other side to do the same.

Looking for projects

2012-10-04T10:30:00-04:00

With pythonpackages.com winding down, I am now actively seeking projects for Q4 2012 and beyond. I am good at:

Deploying Plone sites: http://blog.aclark.net/2012/10/03/plone-4-3-alpha-1-in-production/
Maintaining and releasing Python packages: http://pypi.python.org/pypi?%3Aaction=search&term=aclark&submit=search
Cat herding volunteers: http://lists.plone.org/pipermail/plone-com/Week-of-Mon-20120903/000039.html
Writing documentation: http://docs.pythonpackages.com/en/latest/index.html
Writing narrative text: http://www.packtpub.com/plone-33-site-administration/book
Writing Python code: https://github.com/aclark4life

Also, I've put together a list of projects I am involved in (or have been involved in): http://resume.aclark.net/projects/, and please feel free to check out my résumé: http://resume.aclark.net/. If you'd like to discuss how I can help you or your team, please get in touch: aclark@aclark.net.

Sorry for the blog spam

2012-09-22T21:45:00-04:00

As I'm just learning Pelican, Dirkjan Ochtman pointed out that I can have "fancy" URLs via the ARTICLE_PERMALINK_STRUCTURE setting. So the blog spam you are seeing is a result of my publishing the same two articles with two different URLs (fancy and non-fancy). My apologies for the noise.

publishconf.py

And actually, I found ARTICLE_URL and ARTICLE_SAVE_AS to be the settings I wanted to use instead [1]. My publishconf.py now looks like this [2]:

ARTICLE_SAVE_AS = '/{date:%Y}/{date:%m}/{date:%d}/{slug}/index.html'
ARTICLE_URL = '/{date:%Y}/{date:%m}/{date:%d}/{slug}/'
AUTHOR = u'Alex Clark'
CATEGORY_FEED_ATOM = None
CATEGORY_FEED_RSS = None
DEFAULT_CATEGORY = 'Blog'
DEFAULT_LANG = 'en'
DEFAULT_PAGINATION = 10
DELETE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY = True
DISQUS_SITENAME = 'aclark-blog'
GITHUB_URL = 'https://github.com/ACLARKNET/aclarknet.github.com'
GOOGLE_ANALYTICS = 'UA-34988446-1'
SITENAME = u'Alex Clark'
SITEURL = 'http://blog.aclark.net'
SOCIAL = (
    ('GitHub', 'http://github.com/aclark4life'),
    ('Gittip', 'https://www.gittip.com/aclark4life'),
    ('PythonPackages', 'https://pythonpackages.com/user/aclark4life'),
    ('Twitter', 'http://twitter.com/aclark4life'),
    ('atom feed (Mozilla)', 'http://blog.aclark.net/Mozilla.atom.xml'),
    ('atom feed (Plone)', 'http://blog.aclark.net/Plone.atom.xml'),
    ('atom feed (Python)', 'http://blog.aclark.net/Python.atom.xml'),
)
TAG_FEED_ATOM = 'feeds/%s.atom.xml'
TAG_FEED_RSS = None
TWITTER_USERNAME = 'aclark4life'

[1]	http://pelican.notmyidea.org/en/3.0/settings.html#url-settings

[2]	I removed the extraneous pelicanconf.py and put everything in one file