Tag: pre-read

Preread: “Django 1.1 Testing and Debugging”, by Karen M. Tracey

Another Packt Publishing title is on the way for review, `Django 1.1 Testing and Debugging <http://www.packtpub.com/django-1-1-testing-and-debugging/book?utm_source=yergler.net&utm_medium=bookrev&utm_content=blog&utm_campaign=mdb_003267>`_, by Karen M. Tracey. Django 1.2 ships tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to the book: testing is one of the things that helps software evolve, but it’s also one of the things that’s easiest to ignore on a project. I say this to myself as much as anyone: even though I know tests will make my life better in the long run, when I start hacking, sometimes they’re the furthest thing from my mind. Books about how to test, and how to do it effectively, are definitely a good thing for me.

The PDF preview of chapter 3 (basic unit testing) looks good, and the table of contents looks like a good overview of basic tools and techniques. I’m particularly looking forward to reading about integrating Django with other testing tools (chapter 5), and using Django with pdb (chapter 9). I’m looking forward to learning more about testing my Django applications — and hopefully how I can form better habits around testing.

date:2010-05-16 21:39:04
wordpress_id:1696
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slug:preread-django-1-1-testing-and-debugging-by-karen-m-tracey
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category:reading
tags:django, pre-read, python

Pre-read: Grok 1.0 Web Development

|image0|Late last month I received an email from Packt Publishing (en.wp), asking if I’d be interested in reviewing one of their new titles, `Grok 1.0 Web Development <http://www.packtpub.com/grok-1-0-web-development/book?utm_source=yergler.net&utm_medium=bookrev&utm_content=blog&utm_campaign=mdb_002632>`_, by Carlos de la Guardia. I immediately said yes, with the caveat that I’m traveling a lot over the next 30 days, so the review will be a little delayed (hence this pre-review). I said “yes” because Grok is one of the Python web frameworks that’s most interesting to me these days. It’s interesting because one of its underlying goals is to take concepts from [STRIKEOUT:Zope 3]Zope Toolkit, and make them more accessible and less daunting. These concepts — the component model, pluggable utilities, and graph-based traversal — are some of the most powerful tools I’ve worked with during my career. And of course, they can also be daunting, even to people with lots of experience; making them more accessible is a good thing.

I’ve read the first four chapters of Grok 1.0 Web Development, and so far there’s a lot to like. It’s the sort of documentation I wish I’d had when I ported the Creative Commons license chooser to Grok1. I’m looking forward to reading the rest, and will post a proper review when I return from Nairobi. In the mean time, check out Grok, Zope 3 for cavemen.

You can download a preview from Grok 1.0 Web Development, `Chapter 5: Forms </media/2010/03/7481-grok-1-0-Web-development-sample-chapter-5-forms.pdf>`_.

1 The CC license chooser has evolved a lot over the years; shortly after Grok was launched we adopted many of its features as a way to streamline the code. Grok’s simplified support for custom traversal, in particular, was worth the effort.

date:2010-03-16 09:14:50
wordpress_id:1567
layout:post
slug:pre-read-grok-1-0-web-development
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category:reading
tags:cc, grok, pre-read, python, reading, zope