Dave Beazley

Summary Dave Beazley has been using and teaching Python since the early days of the language. He has also been instrumental in spreading the gospel of asynchronous programming and the many ways that it can improve the performance of your programs. This week I had the pleasure of speaking with him about his history with the language and some of his favorite presentations and projects. Brief Introduction Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great. I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project We are also sponsored by Sentry this week. Stop hoping your users will report bugs. Sentry’s real-time tracking gives you insight into production deployments and information to reproduce and fix crashes. Check them out at getsentry.com and use the code podcastinit at signup to get a $50 credit! Hired has also returned as a sponsor this week. If you’re looking for a job as a developer or designer then Hired will bring the opportunities to you. Sign up at hired.com/podcastinit to double your signing bonus. Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch. To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas. Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti Today we’re interviewing Dave Beazley about his career with Python Interview with Dave Beazley Introductions How did you get introduced to Python? – Tobias How has Python and its community helped to shape your career? – Tobias What are some of the major themes that you have focused on in your work? – Tobias One of the things that you are known for is doing live-coding presentations, many of which are fairly advanced. What is it about that format that appeals to you? – Tobias What are some of your favorite stories about a presentation that didn’t quite go as planned? – Tobias You have given a large number of talks at various conferences. What are some of your favorites? – Tobias What impact do you think that asynchronous programming will have on the future of the Python language and ecosystem? – Tobias Are there any features that you see in other languages that you would like to have incorporated in Python? – Tobias On the about page for your website you talk about some of the low-level code and hardware knowledge that you picked up by working with computers as a kid. Do you think that people who are getting started with programming now are missing out by not getting exposed to the kinds of hardware and software that was present before computing became mainstream? You have had the opportunity to work on a large variety of projects, both on a hobby and professional level. What are some of your favorites? – Tobias What is it about Python that has managed to hold your interest for so many years? – Tobias Keep In Touch Twitter Picks Tobias Criminal Dave Samuel Beckett Plays Links Python Concurrency From The Ground Up XKCD compiling Clifford Stoll Superboard talk Curio PyOhio async talk The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA