Library of Video Lectures
A collection of video lectures suitable for projection at fledgling usergroup meetings to supply initial presentation material.
The video should be of high quality - readable on a large screen with audible sound, and given by a speaker who knows his stuff and presents well. Flash-based video, as found on youtube.com, is often of low resolution. Use the downloadable video formats for presentation.
You can find a list of audio-only presentations on the PythonAudioMaterial page.
Advanced Python or Understanding Python by Thomas Wouters, February 2007 (1 hr 15 min 43 sec)
The Python language, while object-oriented, is fundamentally different from both C++ and Java. The dynamic and introspective nature of Python allow for language mechanics unlike that of static languages. This talk aims to enlighten programmers new to Python about these fundamentals, the language mechanics that flow from them and how to effectively put those to use. Among the topics covered are duck-typing, interfaces, descriptors, decorators, metaclasses, reference-counting and the cyclic-garbage collector, the divide between C/C++ data and Python objects and the CPython implementation in general.
Python Design Patterns, Part 1 by Alex Martelli, March 2007 (58 min 47 sec)
Design Patterns must be studied in the context on the language in which they'll get implemented (the Gang of Four made that point very strongly in their book, though almost everybody else seems not to have noticed :-). This talk explores several categories of classic "elementary" DPs in a Python context -- Creational, Masquerading, Adaptation, and Template.
Python Design Patterns, Part 2 by Alex Martelli, April 2007 (44 min 28 sec)
Python 3000 by Guido van Rossum, July 2006 (1 hr 6 min 41 sec)
The next major version of Python, nicknamed Python 3000 (or more prosaically Python 3.0), has been anticipated for a long time. For years I have been collecting and exploring ideas that were too radical for Python 2.x, and it's time to stop dreaming and start coding. In this talk I will present the community process that will be used to complete the specification for Python 3000, as well as some of the major changes to the language and the remaining challenges.
Iterators, Generators, and Descriptors by Guido van Rossum, October 2003.
This is a "What's New in Python 2.3" talk delivered to the EE380 course at Stanford that contains a lengthy discussion of iterators and generators, followed by a somewhat shorter discussion of descriptors.
Introducing Python by Arlington Career Center Multimedia and Yorktown High School, November 2006 (23 min 50 sec)
A light-hearted introductory activity for a computer science course, this video contains interviews with luminaries from the Python community interspersed with A Python Love Story.
A joint, interdisciplinary project between Arlington Career Center Multimedia and Yorktown High School Drama and Computing, the Python Project builds on the successful use of Python as a teaching tool in Yorktown's Computer Science Program. It was shown at the 9th and 10th International Python Conferences.