PYCON 2003: 1st annual Python developers’ conference

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Python Software Foundation writes, No, it’s not a snake or the name of a British comedy group. Python is one of the most useful, compelling and
intelligently designed programming platforms to have emerged into the computer
industry mainstream in recent years. It is rapidly gaining wide acceptance and
being deployed in major IT shops around the world.

Software developers now have an opportunity to learn more about this exciting
platform from the people who created it in the first place. The Python
Software Foundation’s first annual Python conference for developers, PyCon 2003, is a community-oriented event
that targets programmers working with the language — and on the language
itself. It provides opportunities to learn about significant advances in
Python development, to participate in a programming sprint with some of the
leading minds in the Python community, and to meet fellow developers from
around the world.

Python was originally created in the early ’90s by Guido van Rossum as a
language that could be used to teach the most advanced concepts of programming
to non-programmers. Over the past decade, Python has grown world-wide into a
programming language that is used in mission-critical applications by major
players such as Google, Philips, Nasa, AstraZeneca, Industrial Light and
Magic, and Rackspace. Python is also used extensively in universities and by
many research groups.

Python stresses readability, simplicity and elegance. Says van Rossum: “As an
object-oriented language, Python aims to encourage the creation of reusable
code. Even if we all wrote perfect documentation all of the time, code can
hardly be considered reusable if it’s not readable.” Python is also extremely
portable. There are currently identical versions available for nearly every
computing platform, major and obscure, from PDAs to mainframes. Python is also
an open-source platform, which encourages sharing of ideas and code. These
characteristics make Python an excellent choice for enterprise application
integration, large-scale web development, Web services, XML processing,
application scripting, and even GUI development.

“We’re constantly amazed at the depth and breadth of our customer base,” says
Stephan Deibel, co-Founder of Archaeopteryx
Software
, a leading vendor of Python development tools. “Python is being
used in just about every imaginable domain, quite literally from soup
factories to shipyards. Python is a solution that every programmer should at
least be aware of.”

The first PyCon will be held 26-28 March, 2003, at George Washington
University’s Cafritz Conference Center in Washington DC. For those who want to
get a hands-on opportunity to work on the language itself with the core Python
development group, there is also a coding sprint before the conference, on
Monday and Tuesday, March 24-25.

Early-bird registration for the conference (until February 28, 2003) has been
set at US $150. Subsequent pre-conference registration will cost US $200; and
the fee to register at the conference itself will be US $250.

For more information or to register, please visit the PyCon 2003 website:
http://python.org/pycon.

Interested would-be contributors can still contact the conference organizers
at to suggest a presentation or other activities of interest to Python users
and developers: pycondc-2003@python.org.

In addition to the Python Software Foundation, other sponsors of the event are
software companies involved in the Python community, including Active State, Zeomega, Archaeopteryx Software, and Zoteca.

About Python

Python is a powerful object oriented programming language that is developed
and maintained by a global community of Open Source contributors, under the
oversight of the Python Software Foundation (PSF). Python’s unique blend of
simplicity and power excels in a wide range of business and research
development tasks, including the construction of web applications, complex
business solutions, and large desktop applications.

Python significantly increases programmer productivity over languages such as
C, C++, Java, and Visual Basic. The language’s global user base is estimated
in the hundreds of thousands and is growing rapidly. Python runs on Microsoft
Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Unix, OS/2, WinCE, and many other operating
systems. Full source code is available for the language and associated
standard libraries.

Key features of Python include:

  • Object orientation, modular name spaces, exceptions, and multi-threading
  • High-level dynamic data typing and very late binding
  • Tight integration with C, C++, and Java modules
  • May be compiled to Java byte code for use in any JVM
  • String and regular expression processing
  • Extensive XML and web services support
  • HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP, IMAP, NNTP, telnet, and other IP protocols
  • HTML, MIME, base64, binhex, uuencode, and other internet data handling
  • GUI development and multimedia services
  • Unit testing, profiling, and documentation generation
  • Restricted execution security option
  • Available third party modules for database access, math, 3D modeling,
    image processing, LDAP, WebDAV, jabber, MIDI, and much more

More information and downloads are available at http://python.org.

About the PSF

The Python Software Foundation (PSF) is a non-profit organization devoted to
advancing Open Source technology related to the Python programming language.
The PSF holds the intellectual property rights to Python. Additional
information is available at http://python.org/psf.

Press Contact

Aron Trauring, Zoteca
2472 Broadway, Suite 195
New York, NY 10025
1 866 968-3221
aronst@zoteca.com
http://www.zoteca.com/

Link: http://python.org/