We would like to thank TP1 for hosting the sprint at their nice Downtown Montreal offices and also for the pizza. Pierre Paul, our host, wrote a longer post relating the event.

Stay tuned for upcoming announcements on Distutils2 sprints.

Special thanks to the sprinters:

• Julien Courteau
• Jonathan Fernandes
• Patrice Gauthier
• Mathieu Leduc-Hamel
• Pierre Paul Lefebvre
• Alex Parij
• Kim Pettersen

Stay tuned this week for the announcement of the next sprint.

Here’s a glimpse of patches being born:

Divine inspiration:

That afternoon marked the renewal of Montréal-Python’s contributions to this vital project of the Python ecosystem. Indeed, two years ago, sprints were organized here at the very beginning of Distutils2, which aims to replace Distutils with a more powerful tool that implements the new specs (PEPs) that all packaging tools will comply with in the long term.

We’re pleased that a dozen of volunteers were part of this first sprint!

I spent some time with every participant and I think everyone learnt something from the sprint, be it knowledge on packaging, a first experience in free software development or the writing test suites. I’d like to thank everyone who came and opened Pandora’s Box in order to fix bugs for the benefit of the whole community.

The complexity of the code explains the fact that only two patches were done at the end of the sprint, but the other patches started by the other participants could certainly be completed during the next one.

In order to keep the pace, a second sprint will be held Saturday the 12th of May. TP1 will host this sprint and provide us with some pizza. Keep in mind that our deadline is the release of the first beta version on the 24th of June. We have until that point to close bugs and implement some useful features still missing.

Contributing to Distutils2 will help the whole Python community. Be part of it!

Second Distutils2 Sprint:

• Date: Saturday, 12th of May 2012, from 12:00 to 19:00
• Place: TP1, 1410 Stanley street, office 500 (map)
• Registration is optional but recommended
• Setup instructions (can also be done on site)

Distutils2 is looking for love, and you are the group who are going to give it! The Montreal-Python user group is hosting, on the 21st of April, a sprint in Montreal to work on Distutils2 with Éric Araujo, Python core developer and distutils2 maintainer. Bring your laptop and your magic fingers, and we will provide the food and the good times. No previous knowledge of Distutils2 required, just general Python skills.

Distutils2 is the official successor of distutils. It aims to be a better, more flexible and more featureful packaging tool for Python authors, as well as a reusable library for packaging tools developers. Distutils2 is included in the Python 3.3 standard library under the name “packaging”, the module named “distutils2” is the standalone backport for Python versions 2.5 to 2.7, and 3.x. The first beta versions of Python 3.3 and Distutils2 are coming in June, and we are planning a series of sprints to make it ready for the release.

A sprint is simply programmers meeting together face-to-face to work on the same project. Previous sprints held in Montreal have improved Distutils2, why don’t you come along for the next one and put your mark on a Python release?

The good folks at Radialpoint have graciously provided us with space and free pizza. Come join us on Saturday, the 21st of April, from 12pm to 7pm.

The address is:
2050 Bleury Street
Suite 300

Registration here is preferable but not required.

For hacks and glory!

There will be beer -of course- and also coffee, food, beanbags, and even a giant TV with a PS3 if you want to take a small fifa break

We expect to be hacking between 11h AM and 8h PM. The location will be announced shortly but we expect an attendance cap between 12 and 20 hackers so don’t forget to RSVP on the wiki.

Our next sprint will be on Django translation on September 22nd, 2010, starting at 18h30. Come and allow us to offer Django to a broader community of developers.

Only one week after that, we’ll host a sprint on the Python packaging system. Come and frantically hack with us to empower Python with the best packaging system out there.

Both sprints will be a Google, 1253 McGill College ave. suite #250.

Attendance is limited to 20 sprinters so don’t forget to RSVP on the wiki.

This sprint was a turning point in our sprint series because we managed to get enough notoriety to convince two sprinter to join us remotely despite a massive six hours timezone difference. Alexis Métaireau and Éric Araujo, both living in France and both Google summer of code students on the Python packaging system, joined us util the end of the sprint, around 7am in their timezone. Their participation was very helpful since they were able to answer many questions regarding the road-map and what was in the pipe for various sub-systems of the packaging eco-system. Since they both the commit privilege in the canonical repository, it was very motivating for everyone in Montréal to see their contributions being merged on the fly.

Congratulations to all the sprinter who resisted the call of the terraces to work on the Python packaging system:

• Éric Araujo (remote from France)
• Nicolas Cadou
• Alex Gal
• Yannick Gingras
• Alexis Métaireau (remote from France)
• George Peristerakis
• Luis Rojas

We will have more sprint in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for the announcements.

The sprint will be at Brasseurs Numériques, 1124 Marie-Anne, suite 11, starting at 6h30 pm and going as long as there are hackers standing.

Bring your own laptop or make an arrangement for pairing on the mailing list beforehand. Attendance is limited to 12 persons so please RSVP on the wiki.

The turn out was a bit low compared with previous sprints but this is easily explained by the many regulars who are traveling abroad during the summer. We were also happy to welcome a few new comers.

We took a moment at the white-board to review what was the state of the Python packaging and to define the aspects on which everyone could be contributing.

Alex and Nicolas worked on improving the test coverage in distutils2, a very good way of getting familiar with the code while diving in right away; I, Yannick, gave them a hand by adding test coverage reports as a command line option to the test runner; George and Pior worked on 2to3 migration fixers and on the related test suite; and Davin improved the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Packaging while Michel helped him by packaging a package of his own while following the guide, making sure that the documentation was clear and obvious.

Thanks to the sprinters:

• Davin Baragiotta
• Pior Bastida
• Nicolas Cadou
• Alex Gal
• Michel Gallant
• Yannick Gingras
• George Peristerakis

I also want to personally thank everyone for taking the time to clean their glasses and plates as they were leaving. It was refreshing not to have to do most of the cleanup myself at 1am.

We’re becoming productive during our sprints. One thing that we overlooked when we started sprinting at Montréal-Python is how important it is to have a coach, that is, someone who knows the project reasonably well and who will answer questions from other sprinters. Theoretically, a bunch of hackers could work together, dive in, pry open, and figured out a project as they go. In practice, that does not work very well for a sprint since you get a bunch of people who are not used to work together and the kind of close communication that you need for pair investigation does not have time to kick in during the relatively short sprint. As people are waiting for the investigators to come up with answers to their questions, their excitement dissipates and they get kicked out of the zone.

Another thing that really helps is to have possible tasks with a wide range of difficulty to allow anyone to get busy. An example of great introductory task, as mentioned earlier, is writing unit-test. This requires that setting up a working test environment and producing a coverage report is straight forward and this is what a someone should keep in mind before launching a sprint on a given project.

As it takes some time to setup and to get focussed, one way to improve productivity is to have longer sprint. Hacking during the week-end, especially during nice summer days, is not very popular but dedicated hackers will show up. A good balance between week-days and weekend sprints is key here. Another way to improve is to nail down as many “boiler plate” tasks as possible before the sprint: creating all the Bitbucket accounts and distributing the necessary privileges, assigning tasks, or even setting up a working tests environment.

We have to thank the Python Software Foundation for supporting the sprint by covering the cost of food and drinks. Fuel (food and drinks), is not a requirement for a sprint since dedicated hackers will show up whether they have to bring their own booze or not, but it’s nice to be able to reward sprinters with a savory meal. They deserve it. The sprint sponsorship program is a great thing, not because there is a financial bottleneck to organizing sprint, but because having a common coordinator for Python sprint will help to share the excitement and the knowledge of what works for sprints and what doesn’t. Hopefully, other user groups will join us and make sprints a core element of their schedule.

The sprint will be at Brasseurs Numériques, 1124 Marie-Anne, suite 11,
starting at 6h30 pm and going as long as there are hackers standing.

Bring your own laptop or make an arrangement for pairing on the mailing list beforehand. Attendance is limited to 12 persons so please RSVP on the wiki.

update: We thank the Python Software Foundation for supporting our sprinting effort by supplying food and drinks. You probably recall that not long ago, the PSF announced that it would start a sprint sponsorship program. Montréal-Python is honored to be the first recipient of the program.