The menu bar customization added all of the following flicker-inducing configuration to .emacs:

(custom-set-faces
  '(default ((t (:inherit nil :stipple nil :inverse-video nil :box nil :strike-through nil 
:overline nil :underline nil :slant normal :weight normal :height 98 :width normal
:foundry "unknown" :family "DejaVu Sans Mono")))))

I was able to replace that with the simpler, flicker-free:

(set-face-attribute 'default nil :height 92)

The other thing I wanted was a larger emacs window by default (yes, I’m that lazy that manually resizing them was driving me nuts):

(if (window-system) (set-frame-height (selected-frame) 66))
(if (window-system) (set-frame-width (selected-frame) 102))

That gives me a workable font and a window size that lets me comfortably fill my screen with two emacs windows working side by side. Now I just need to actually focus and get to work to take advantage of my new found editor goodness.

It took me a bit of digging (in other words, it wasn’t in the tutorial), but there’s a manage command to reset the database for a particular app. Running that and re-syncing my database got me moving again.

python manage.py reset [appname]
python manage.py syncdb

Don’t Fear The Whitespace

I constantly hear people mention the indentation in Python as the first thing when talking about moving to the language. Not only is it not as jarring of an experience as people make it out to be, it’s downright awesome. I’ve always been compulsive about my code format anyway, so the biggest difference is the lack of curly braces.

Collections Are Awesome

It’s much lighter-weight to throw things into a list or map (dictionary in Python) than it is in Java. Get out of the mentality that you have to jump through import hoops and rigid notation to create, access, or return collections. In Python, they even let you do cool things like assign multiple variables as a return from a call:

exceptionType, exceptionValue, exceptionTraceback = sys.exc_info()

Looping Feels Weird At First

I got a little thrown off by this initially. Most loops read really well:

for square in openSquares:

However, when looping through a set of numbers, you need to use the range method:

for i in range(0, 10):

Looking at both of those examples brings me to my next point…

Don’t Forget The Colon

This keeps throwing me off, but after declaring a function*, loop, or if statement, don’t forget to end the line with a colon. I’m happy to be rid of curly braces, but I get over-ambitious and forget the colon too.

Don’t Over-engineer Configuration

Depending on what you’re doing, you can likely just stuff configuration values into a script and import it (not needing to compile really is liberating in this respect). That’ll also give you the use of lists and maps by default. If you’re not reading between the lines I’ll spell it out: no need for XML-based configuration, which is one of the more evil trends in Java.


There are definitely more things I could mention; don’t take this to be the only lessons I’ve learned (any other hints/tips are appreciated). But I do want to avoid a mammoth blog post that causes readers to go into a zombie-like trance, so I’ll stop it here for now. I do want to thank Devan (dgoodwin) and Jesus (zeus) for dealing with the Java-veteran-turned-Python-noob and not finding a way to crash my chat client to avoid more questions.

* I haven’t seen a solid explanation of “Call them ‘functions’ because you’ll sound like a Java guy calling them ‘methods’”, but this feels like something where using the wrong term will make me stand out as a Java developer in a Python world. So I’ve been advised to take a militant approach of “Yes, I’m a Java guy learning Python, deal with the occasional terminology missteps.”

PageControl pc =
  PageControl.getUnlimitedInstance(); // gulp - I assume we can fit all package versions in mem

It’s been a while since I’ve come across code that talks to me. Even longer since I’ve seen code emote to me. The good news is that, so far at least, we haven’t had an issue with package versions in memory.

Right?

There’s only so much time over the course of four years in which students are awake, sober, and mentally alert enough to be taught. It’s impossible for us to cover everything before unleashing you out into the wild. So after a bit of thinking back to my own trial by fire in the real world, I came up with a list of things any self-respecting geek should do before graduation.

SSH (or telnet) into another machine and do something

I’m not trying to scare you, but chances are, you’re going to find yourself working on a machine without the comfort of a GUI available. As the mouse sits there uselessly taunting you, you’ll be left with a blinking cursor and no idea what to do next.

At some point before graduation, develop some command line proficiency. Learn the basic commands for navigating between directories (cd), listing files (dir on Windows, ls on Linux/Unix), and a few other commands to make you reasonably comfortable on the occasions where you need to connect to a remote machine. Everyone from a system admin managing multiple offices to a developer who needs to work on a QA or production box will at some point need to connect to a machine over the network and get something done..

Learn Vi or Emacs

The premise here is simple: learn a real text editor. No, Wordpad doesn’t count. Anyone who suggested Notepad, please sit down and keep reading.

There is a long standing religious feud between vi and emacs, much like Coke v. Pepsi, Yankees v. Mets, and “Tastes Great” v. “Less Filling” (I’m afraid that last one may have just showed my age). Most people fall in love with one and consequently adamantly hate everyone from the other camp. I personally tend towards emacs, but in a pinch I know how to navigate around vi to get the job done.

There are a bunch of reasons this is important. Both editors are powerful, providing users with a number of speed enhancing features. I know developers who use these in place of full blown IDEs. Both offer text-only versions, which will come in handy in the above scenario of working on a remote machine from a command line. Both (or at least vi) will be available on pretty much any Linux/Unix machine you find and can also be installed on Windows. Both also have very active communities, so finding tutorials on the internet should be simple.

Oh, and for the record, vi is pronounced as the two letters that make up it’s name (“vee-eye”). Don’t call it “six” thinking you’re being cute and reading it as a Roman numeral. Best case, you get laughed at. Worst case, someone throws something heavy at you.

Set up a LAMP server

A LAMP server refers to a machine running a suite of the following open source software:

• Linux – Operating system
• Apache – Web server
• MySQL – Database
• PHP – Programming language

The configuration has become so popular that the term “LAMP” has arisen to describe the four aspects (the first letter of each of them if It’s not clear).

Why? It’s a great introduction to a ton of different things you’ll likely need in the real world. If you’re reading this, I don’t need to explain to you why learning the fundamental blocks of building a web server are important. A LAMP server provides all of these pieces. It will also give you experience in dealing with configuring and connecting to databases, which will come in handy on, well, pretty much every project you’ll ever work on.

On top of that, there are some really cool open source apps written in PHP to install and dork around with. Wordpress (blogging software; used for this site), Gallery (photo sharing site), and phpbb (forums) are just a few of the open source applications you can download, install on your LAMP server, and tweak as much as you want. Bonus points if you check out the source code for these applications from their respective repositories.

This also makes for great resume padding, since it shows enthusiasm, curiosity, and technical ability.

Ok, ok, I’ll even bend a little bit. If this seems too daunting, take out the Linux part and do it on Windows. Just know that I’ll be disappointed in you.

Dual boot your system

Ok, I lied about bending. Given the size of hard drives these days, there’s no reason you can’t spare a few gigs to install a second operating system. The Linux installer is extremely friendly towards these types of setups. It will even go so far as to set up a menu when you boot to let you pick which operating system you want to boot into.

Dual booting allows you to hold on to a Windows installation while still giving the option to play around and learn Linux. And using Linux will make you a bad ass.

Install new hardware into a desktop computer

When I was 10, my dad showed me how to install a memory stick into a computer. He then informed me that the 4 seconds it took me to do it would have cost upwards of $30-$50 per stick at any local computer store. That’s not a bad rate for something that takes the same dexterity as putting bread into a toaster.

I’d like to have made this point “build a computer”, but I realize I’m talking to college students who can barely afford Ramen, much less the parts necessary for a desktop. But I do realize that at some point, you’re going to have an upgrade that needs installing. Do it yourself. It’s not as scary as it sounds and you’ll save a ton of money.

And while you’re in there, air dust it. If you’ve never done it I guarantee you’ll find a small furry creature has set up camp in one of your fans.

any joy on reproducing?

I sit in a number of non-Spacewalk/Satellite chat rooms at work. This was just seen in a conversation in one of those rooms discussing… well, to be honest, I don’t actually care what bug they were talking about. Taken out of context is way funnier.

...
// Now we filter out an 
List retval = new LinkedList();
...

Shit. Ok, so it’s not too much code after that to see what the filtering is doing, but the comment still left me hanging.