Resolver One and Ironclad both featured in two podcasts over the last week. These were in interviews on IronPython with Michael Foord, a Resolver One developer. If you haven’t heard of it before, Ironclad is our open source project that allows you to use Python C extensions from IronPython. It is how we have integrated the Numpy numerical processing libraries with Resolver One.

The first podcast is with FLOSS weekly presented by Leo Laporte and Randal Schwartz.

• FLOSS Weekly: Episode 82
• Direct link to the mp3 download

The second podcast was recorded a few weeks ago at the EuroPython 2009 conference, which Resolver Systems was pleased to be able to sponsor. The Linux Outlaws recorded a series of interviews at EuroPython, including one with Michael Foord. The interview with Michael starts fifty five minutes into the podcast. In this interview we put out a call for developers to help us port Ironclad to run on Linux with Mono:

• Linux Outlaws 106: EuroPython Special
• Direct link to the mp3 download

We had a great time at the PyCon UK conference this year – many thanks to the organisers!  Slides for most of the talks by the Resolver Systems team are now online:

• Giles Thomas’ slides on Resolver One: Python Inside and Outside the Spreadsheet Grid, are available here.  The example spreadsheets can also be downloaded:
  • A spreadsheet showing several non-primitive types in the grid, including a generator.
  • A support rota generator, showing how you might use lists in the grid.
  • A price list, using objects in the grid – and the Python code it depends on, which defines the class for the objects.
  • The example that brings it all together, showing (amongst other things) cells in one worksheet containing lists of rows in other worksheets.
• Menno Smits has put his talk on Python on the Openmoko Neo Freerunner up on his blog.
• Jonathan Hartley has done likewise with his slides on Stretching pyglet’s Wings.
• Michael Foord has reworked his talk about Functionally Testing GUI Applictions into a fully-fledged article.
• Orestis Markou has uploaded his slides for his talk on his static code analyser, PySmell.  This talk won the award for the best lightning talk (5 minutes or less) for the conference – congratulations, Orestis!
• We also have the slides for William Reade’s lightning talk on our Ironclad project, in which he demonstrated Numpy running in Resolver One, proving that C extensions can now – at least in part – work in IronPython.

If you want to browse the slides uploaded by non-Resolver people, the PyCon UK team have a wiki page that is being used to aggregate them.

We are sponsoring this year’s PyCon UK – the drinks at the conference dinner are on us – and the whole Resolver Systems team will be there.  Giles Thomas will be giving the official talk about the company and Resolver One, but in addition:

• Michael Foord, Menno Smits, and Christian Muirhead will be giving a tutorial on IronPython on Friday 12 September.
• Separately, Michael will be talking about functionally testing GUI applications, a subject close to our hearts here at Resolver Systems – every change we make to our software is run through a battery of over 5,500 automated tests, which gives us the confidence we need to be able to develop software quickly.
• Menno will also be giving a talk on Python on the Openmoko Freerunner, an open-source mobile phone.
• Jonathan Hartley will be talking about his experiences in Python games programming, in a talk entitled Stretching Pyglet’s Wings.

We hope to see you there!

We are proud to be a sponsor of the next PyCon France on the 17th and 18th of May in Paris. Jean Viry-Babel, who happens to be French, will be there to discuss and demonstrate the Resolver One Family of products.

We sponsored this year’s PyCon in Chicago, and it has been a great success. We had a great time there, and met a lot of interesting people!

A last-minute illness unfortunately prevented our MD, Giles Thomas, from attending – but Michael Foord and Jonathan Hartley ably filled in and presented his talk, End-user computing without tears using Resolver One, an IronPython spreadsheet. If you would like to see the slides, complete with detailed notes, you can download them in OpenOffice format.

Jonathan’s own talk on Test-Driven Development went down well; we follow a strict TDD process here at Resolver Systems, and it was good to hear that his description had persuaded people to bite the bullet and give it a go. He’s posted his slides on his blog.

Michael gave a popular talk on Silverlight, which he has now written up as a series of articles on his personal website.

A big “thank you!” to everyone who came to our talks and stopped by at the stand; see you at next year’s PyCon :-)