Are you interested in deploying your Python project everywhere? This week on the show, Russell Keith-Magee, founder and maintainer of the BeeWare project, returns. Russell shares recent updates to Briefcase, a tool that converts a Python application into native installers on macOS, Windows, Linux, and mobile devices. We cover how Anaconda hired him last year to work full-time on the BeeWare project. He shares how this has helped him focus his efforts and move the project forward. We also discuss...
Mar 10, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 148
Have you decided how you’re going to deploy your Django project? Should you use a VPS or a PaaS? Christopher Trudeau is back this week, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We also have organizers from PyCascades to share details about this year’s hybrid in-person and virtual conference. Christopher shares an article about selecting an appropriate Django project deployment strategy. The guide compares VPS (virtual private server) and PaaS (platform as a service) syst...
Mar 03, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 147
Are you still using loops and lists to process your data in Python? Have you heard of a Python library with optimized data structures and built-in operations that can speed up your data science code? This week on the show, Jodie Burchell, developer advocate for data science at JetBrains, returns to share secrets for harnessing linear algebra and NumPy for your projects. Jodie details how most people begin their data science journey using loops to iterate over values and apply operations sequenti...
Feb 24, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 146
Would you like to practice your Python skills while building a challenging word game? Have you been wanting to learn more about creating command-line interfaces and making them colorful and interactive? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We share a recent Real Python step-by-step project about creating a clone of Wordle. In the project, you’ll practice building a terminal application, validating user input, and re...
Feb 17, 2023•59 min•Ep. 145
Can you describe your business processes with flowcharts? What if you could define the steps in a standard notation and implement the workflows in pure Python? This week on the show, Dan Funk from Sartography is here to discuss SpiffWorkflow. SpiffWorkflow is a Python tool for translating Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) diagrams into a workflow engine. You can manipulate this visual chain of events to suit your team’s business requirements. Individual events in the workflow can contai...
Feb 10, 2023•52 min•Ep. 144
Would you like to quickly add data to a map with Python? Have you wanted to create beautiful interactive maps and export them as a stand-alone static web page? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We share a recent Real Python tutorial about using Python Folium to create geospatial data visualizations. Folium harnesses the power of the JavaScript library Leaflet. The project shares how to combine this graphical powe...
Feb 03, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 143
Have you worked on a project that needed an orchestration tool? How do you define the workflow of an entire data pipeline or a messaging system with Python? This week on the show, Calvin Hendryx-Parker is back to talk about using Apache Airflow and orchestrating Python projects. Calvin is the co-founder and CTO of Six Feet Up and a Python Web Conference co-organizer. He’s recently been working on a massive project that requires thousands of jobs involving transferring and transforming data. Thro...
Jan 27, 2023•54 min•Ep. 142
Have you used the Python Read-Eval-Print Loop (REPL) to explore the language and learn about how it operates? Would it help if it provided syntax highlighting, definitions, and code completion and behaved more like an IDE? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We discuss the drop-in REPL replacement bpython. bpython enhances the interactivity of a Python REPL session. It’s also a powerful teaching tool for instructor...
Jan 20, 2023•56 min•Ep. 141
How can you get more performance from your existing data science infrastructure? What if a DataFrame library could take advantage of your machine’s available cores and provide built-in methods for handling larger-than-RAM datasets? This week on the show, Liam Brannigan is here to discuss Polars. Liam is an experienced data scientist working in finance, technology, and environmental analysis. He’s recently started contributing to the documentation for Polars and developing a training course for t...
Jan 13, 2023•58 min•Ep. 140
Have you embraced the use of comprehensions in your Python journey? Are you familiar with all the varieties of comprehension constructs? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We discuss a recent article that surveys Python’s comprehensions and generators. This overview includes code snippets and the fundamentals of creating list, set, and dictionary comprehensions. We weigh the advantages of using a comprehension ver...
Jan 06, 2023•45 min•Ep. 139
It’s been another year of changes at Real Python! The Real Python team has written, edited, curated, illustrated, and produced a mountain of Python material this year. We added some new members to the team, updated the site’s features, and created new styles of tutorials and video courses. Three members of the Real Python team join us this week, Kate Finegan, Geir Arne Hjelle, and Leodanis Pozo Ramos. We wanted to share a year-end wrap-up with tutorials, step-by-step projects, and video courses ...
Dec 23, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 138
What advantages can a build system provide for a Python developer? What new skills are required when working with a team of developers? This week on the show, Benjy Weinberger from Toolchain is here to discuss the Pants build system and getting started with continuous integration (CI). Benjy is one of the core developers of the Pants build system. He talks about the software tools and processes that a build system simplifies. We discuss how an individual developer can take advantage of continuou...
Dec 16, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 137
How do you start packaging your code with pyproject.toml? Would you like to join a conversation that gently walks you through setting up your Python projects to share? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We discuss a recent code conversation featuring Real Python team members Ian Currie and Geir Arne Hjelle. The video dives into the officially sanctioned way to configure your project using a pyproject.toml file. We...
Dec 09, 2022•54 min•Ep. 136
How do you prepare a dataset for machine learning (ML)? How do you go beyond cleaning the data and move toward measuring how the model performs? This week on the show, Jodie Burchell, developer advocate for data science at JetBrains, returns to talk about strategies for better ML model performance. Jodie starts by defining some terms for the conversation. We talk about targets, features, and supervised learning. We discuss three common ways that data can alter model performance and which Python ...
Dec 02, 2022•58 min•Ep. 135
How do you build a REST API using the Flask web framework? How can you quickly add endpoints while automatically generating documentation? This week on the show, Real Python author Philipp Acsany is here to discuss his tutorial series “Python REST APIs With Flask, Connexion, and SQLAlchemy.” Christopher Trudeau is also here with another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. Philipp talks about updating a set of tutorials to use current libraries and best practices. The series takes yo...
Nov 25, 2022•58 min•Ep. 134
What if you didn’t have to worry about managing user passwords as a Python developer? That’s where the WebAuthn protocol and new hardware standards are heading. This week on the show, Dan Moore from FusionAuth returns to discuss a password-less future. WebAuthn is a way to authenticate users using biometric, secure authentication methods. Dan dives into passkeys, ceremonies, authenticators, and hardware standards. We also cover several projects and libraries that can help you get started with We...
Nov 18, 2022•45 min•Ep. 133
How do you create a computer opponent for a simple game within Python? Would you also like to learn how to adapt the game to run in a web browser or graphical user interface (GUI)? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. Christopher shares a recent Real Python step-by-step project for creating a tic-tac-toe game engine. He talks about how to build the game engine and adapt it for different front ends. The tutorial also...
Nov 11, 2022•54 min•Ep. 132
Python 3.11 is here! Our regular guests, Geir Arne Hjelle and Christopher Trudeau, return to talk about the new version. Geir Arne wrote a series of preview tutorials earlier this year, and his annual piece, titled “Python 3.11: Cool New Features for You to Try,” was published on October 24. Christopher’s video course came out the next day, covering the topics from the tutorial with visual examples of Python 3.11 in action. Geir Arne and Christopher collaborated to create code examples for the n...
Nov 04, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 131
Does your company have a plan for growing an internal Python community? What are the attributes to look for when bringing someone into your department? This week on the show, Pablo Galindo Salgado returns to talk about building community through the Python Guild at Bloomberg and managing the release of Python 3.11. Pablo describes how the Python Guild started and currently operates inside Bloomberg. We talk about how it fosters community and acts as a way to promote internally developed tools ac...
Oct 21, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 130
Where should you use an ellipsis in Python? How does it behave as a placeholder in a script, project, or stub file? What are the next goals for the Faster CPython project? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We talk about a Real Python article that covers when you should use an ellipsis in Python. We discuss the similarities with the pass keyword and how it’s used for type hints within stub files. Christopher share...
Oct 14, 2022•57 min•Ep. 129
Have you used a memory profiler to gauge the performance of your Python application? Maybe you’re using it to troubleshoot memory issues when loading a large data science project. What could running a profiler show you about a codebase you’re learning? This week on the show, Pablo Galindo Salgado returns to talk about Memray, a powerful tracing memory profiler. Pablo developed Memray while working at Bloomberg to track memory allocations beyond Python code into native extensions and the interpre...
Oct 07, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 128
Have you ever used code to help explain a topic? How can Python scripts be used to understand the intricacies of access control? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. Christopher talks about an article that explores the evolution of access control by reimplementing the concepts with Python scripts. The experiment moves across the various access forms, starting with control lists, roles, and attributes, then ending wi...
Sep 30, 2022•59 min•Ep. 127
Are you interested in using Python in an industry outside of software development? Would adding a few custom software tools increase efficiency and make your coworkers’ jobs easier? This week on the show, Josh Burnett talks about using Python as a mechanical engineer. I met Josh at PyCon US 2022 in Salt Lake City, which he attended for the first time with several coworkers. He suggested we do an episode to shed some light on ways that Python is being used professionally by people who aren’t prim...
Sep 23, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 126
Have you thought the standard output from Matplotlib is a bit generic looking? Would you like a quick way to add style and consistency to your data visualizations? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We cover an article about the magic of creating style sheets for Matplotlib. You can quickly customize plots and graphs with a single line of code. We share additional resources for you to try out new styles and learn ...
Sep 16, 2022•53 min•Ep. 125
Have you wanted to understand recursion and how to use it in Python? Are you familiar with the call stack and how it relates to tracebacks? This week on the show, Al Sweigart talks about his new book, “The Recursive Book of Recursion.” Recursion is one of those concepts held as a tenet of high-level computer science priesthood. Al explains the fundamentals of writing recursive functions and a critical missing piece in understanding how they operate, the call stack. After completing his research,...
Sep 09, 2022•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 124
How does a code completion tool work? What is an Abstract Syntax Tree, and how is it created in Python? How does an AST help you write programs and projects that inspect and modify your Python code? This week on the show, Meredydd Luff, co-founder of Anvil, shares his PyCon talk, “Building a Python Code Completer.” Meredydd talks about his experience building a code completion engine for the Anvil platform. The conversation leads us to discuss how Python parses the code that you type. We examine...
Sep 02, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 123
Have you attempted to set up a Python development environment on Windows before? Would it be helpful to have an easy-to-follow guide to get you started? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We talk about a Real Python tutorial that covers configuring a Windows coding environment. The guide contains valuable suggestions, best practices, and powerful coding tools. It also covers how to use a package manager, the new W...
Aug 19, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 122
What’s the big breakthrough for Natural Language Processing (NLP) that has dramatically advanced machine learning into deep learning? What makes these transformer models unique, and what defines “attention?” This week on the show, Jodie Burchell, developer advocate for data science at JetBrains, continues our talk about how machine learning (ML) models understand and generate text. This episode is a continuation of the conversation in episode #119. Jodie builds on the concepts of bag-of-words, w...
Aug 12, 2022•51 min•Ep. 121
Is there someone in your life you’d like to inspire to learn Python? Mission Encodeable is a website designed to teach people to code, built by two high-school students. This week on the show, Anna and Harry Wake talk about creating their site and motivating people to start coding. We discuss why they decided to build the site. Anna and Harry initially felt that the site would be for other students but soon realized it could be helpful for anyone interested in starting to code in Python. We cove...
Aug 05, 2022•43 min•Ep. 120
How do you process and classify text documents in Python? What are the fundamental techniques and building blocks for Natural Language Processing (NLP)? This week on the show, Jodie Burchell, developer advocate for data science at JetBrains, talks about how machine learning (ML) models understand text. Jodie explains how ML models require data in a structured format, which involves transforming text documents into columns and rows. She covers the most straightforward approach, called binary vect...
Jul 29, 2022•59 min•Ep. 119
