[Twisted-Python] What happens in Montréal… PyCon 2014 Sprint Report

[Ashwini Oruganti]

On Mon, Apr 21, 2014 at 3:08 AM, Kevin Turner <keturn at keturn.net> wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> I didn't attend PyCon or the accompanying sprints this year, but judging
> from the commit traffic, many of you did. And I want to know what you
> worked on! Partly so I can live vicariously through your experiences,
> but I know a lot of other people are curious too. Events like this are a
> great way to show our followers and sponsors what happens when a bunch
> of people have a chance to get together and focus on the project.
>
> I've started a sprint report page on the wiki:
> https://twistedmatrix.com/trac/wiki/PyconSprint2014
>
> Feel free to contribute directly to that page, or reply to this email
> (either on or off-list) and I'll see if I can summarize the responses.
>
> For those of you who were at the sprints this year:
>
> * Was this your first time at a development sprint?
>

Yes and no. - Yes, because this was the first time I did any "development"
at a sprint. No, because I just hung out at PyCon sprints last year for a
little while - without actually "sprinting".


>
> * Was it your first time contributing to Twisted?
>

Nope.


>
> * What did you work on?
>
>
I sort of paired with itamar and glyph on the things they were working on.
By "sort of", I mean I just sat there following what they were doing and
asked questions, and as glyph put it - "made sure they don't get
distracted".

I made exarkun release Machinist - and by that I mean I kept poking at him
until he finished the setup.py and frowned and screamed at anyone who
wanted him to work on anything else.

Now the "real" contribution I made -  worked on <
https://twistedmatrix.com/trac/ticket/6698>: designed a state machine for
HostnameEndpoint using Machinist with exarkun. It's nowhere close to being
ready yet, but it's a start.


> * Did you work on something outside Twisted core? I especially want to
> hear about these! For Twisted I can look at the commit logs, but if
> there was activity on related projects, I might not know where to look
> unless you tell me about it.
>

Well, I requested a release of Machinist <
https://github.com/hybridcluster/machinist>. And to release Machinist, we
needed Eliot <https://github.com/hybridcluster/eliot>, and upon my asking,
itamar released it on the first day of the sprints. (It might look like I
am taking all the credits for these, but please note that all I did was
*ask* for the releases, and that too for purely selfish reasons - so I
could work on tm.tl/#6698)


>
> * Any other lasting impressions? Is there something you'll do
> differently now as a result of some conversation or experience you had
> at PyCon?
>

During the sprints, there were numerous discussions about a new TLS API in
Cryptography <
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/cryptography-dev/2014-April/000227.html>.
Although I spent more time frowning at those discussions because they
demanded that time of the people that I wanted to use for designing my FSM,
I now find it interesting. As a result of people screaming TLS all the
time, I might look into working on this in my free time.


>
> I know now that you're starting to get caught up on sleep and the
> poutine is leaving your system, you may have reservations about sharing
> certain things you worked on. Maybe you feel like it's not "ready" yet,
> or it feels out-of-place next to that ticket Glyph worked on where there
> were eight or nine thousand words in the ticket comments alone. Maybe
> some things that happen in Montréal really should stay in Montréal.
>
> But if you had a good experience at the sprints, and it's something
> you'd encourage others to join next time they have the opportunity,
> please share!
>
>
Right so, I was wary of sprinting initially, since it involves trying to
write useful code in a room full of people, with lots of noise and
distractions. I could only attend this one because people insisted I do. It
started with a logical discussion in an attempt to highlight the benefits
of sprints and why people liked sprinting (I should perhaps document it
sometime - maybe a blog post soon), but when I was still scared, people
resorted to: "Just come and sit with us", "there is lots of room,
internets, and powers!", and "you should [just] come over" (and even a
"just try and avoid it. I dare you" :).

And I went over. And it was fun! People threw forks at others for writing
bad code, people signed keys, people talked about writing software, people
talked about snow (okay, that was mostly just me), people talked about
food, about climbing mountains, and people talked about meeting more people.

So yes, if you have the opportunity, you should attend the sprints - if not
to write software, maybe just to hang out with friends, it can be a lot of
fun!


> If you didn't have the experience you were hoping for, but you learned
> something that will make it better for next time, share that too.
> Whether it's something for the sprint organizers or something you wish
> you could tell your earlier self, help us make next time better.
>

Uhm yes, there's this one thing. During the sprints, I worked with exarkun
on designing a Finite State Machine, and once we were done with an initial
design, we checked it into a branch for me to continue working on it later.
When I did look at it later, working on it alone seemed dull and boring as
compared to pairing with people. And well, I think I'm going to have to
take a break from the branch until I forget how much fun the sprints were,
so that I can continue happily working on it alone.

It's not something that can (or should, for that matter) be fixed. It's
just a side-effect of a successful sprint you can't avoid. :)

-Ashwini
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