Years ago (6? 7?) I did some data profiling in Python.

This required reading COBOL files with Python code.

Superficially, this is not really very hard.

1. Python slice syntax will pick fields on of the record. For example: data[12:14].

#. Python codecs will convert from EBCDIC to Unicode without …

About a decade ago, I discovered the concept of Literate Programming. It's seductive. The idea is to write elegant documentation that embeds the actual working code.

For tricky, complex, high-visibility components, a literate programming approach can give people confidence that the software actually works as advertised.

I actually wrote my …

XKCD - http://xkcd.com/710/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collatz_conjecture#Syracuse_function

I remember learning about this as an undergrad at Syracuse University in the 70's and didn't think much of it. It was just "one of those things" that I heard about, and perhaps wrote a homework assignment in …

Enterprise Applications really make people sweat. Look at this selection of StackOverflow questions. There are hundreds. People really get worked into a lather over this.

• What makes an application an “enterprise” or “enterprise-level” application?
• Is the LAMP stack appropriate for Enterprise use?
• What is “Enterprise ready”? Can we test for …

A year and change back, I wrote this on "Exploratory Programming".

It turns out that it was a mistake. While the subclass-expansion technique is a cool way to bang out a program incrementally, in the long run, the subclassing is ill-advised.

The more I look at Python generator functions and …

Interesting comments to Splitting Meta-Hairs.

Terms like Scripting, Interpreted and Dynamic are not "marketing terms". New, Improved, All Natural, Visual, Groovy, Lucid, etc., are marketing terms. I regret giving the impression that one should "not to spend time trying to get definitions that are exacting". One absolutely must get definitions …

Recently, I've been involved in some hair-splitting over the nature of Python.

I've described it as "interpreted", "scripting" and "dynamic", all of which seem to be true, but yet each seems to lead to a standard -- and pointless -- dispute.

From time-to-time I hear a few mentions of MapReduce; up until recently, I avoided looking into it.

This month's CACM, however, is chock-full of MapReduce goodness.

After reading some of the articles, I decided to look a little more closely at that approach to handling large datasets.

Completely revised Building Skills in Object-Oriented Design. Cleaned up many of the exercises to make them simpler and more sensible to the n00b designer.

Also, to make it easier to follow, I made use of the Sphinx "ifconfig" feature to separate the text into two parallel editions: a Python edition …

I made some fundamental changes to the text processing pipeline. I think I've corrected all of the typographical and production problems. (Plus, I fixed some content errors, too.)

I've republished the Building Skills in Python, both HTML and PDF.

Hopefully, this is considerably better and more usable.

Next step -- revising …