Work Computer Setup

Current Rig - Dec 2008 (AKA "The Matrix"):

... life begins at 3 monitors

Python - Trying Out NetBeans IDE

I normally don't use an IDE for Python development. The majority of my day is spent inside my SciTE editor.

However, Sun recently released NetBeans IDE 6.5 for Python, and I figured I would give it a try. So far I really like it. The Python support works well. It has syntax highlighting, code complete, debugger, integrated console, etc. Overall, it is a comprehensive and nicely designed IDE.

NetBeans is a full featured development environment and supports:
Ajax | C/C++ | Databases | Debugger | Desktop | Editor | Groovy | GUI Builder | Java EE | JavaFX | Java ME | Java SE | JavaScript | Mobile | PHP | Profiler | Python | Refactor | REST | Rich Client Platform | Ruby | SOA | SOAP | UML | Web | WSDL | XML

The IDE is written in Java so I thought it would be dog slow, but it's pretty snappy to work with.

I've decided I will try it for a week and then decide whether to use it as my main dev environment.

Anyone else using NetBeans for Python development?

Development Setup: Tools I Can't Live Without

At my current gig, these are the essential tools I use for almost all development:

IDE/Editors:

• SciTE
• Visual Studio
• Eclipse

Language Compilers/Interpreters:

• Python
• C#
• Java
• Perl

Utilities/Etc:

• Firefox
• FileZilla
• DropBox
• Cygwin
• WinMerge

"Wolf Fence" Debugging

I heard this term for the first time today, and realized it is a habit I usually follow rather than firing up a debugger and stepping through my code.

Defined by Dennis Lee Bieber here:
http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t356093-how-to-debug-python-code.html

"There's one wolf in Alaska, how do you find it? First build a fence down the middle of the state, wait for the wolf to howl, determine which side of the fence it is on. Repeat process on that side only, until you get to the point where you can see the wolf). In other words; put in a few "print" statements until you find the statement that is failing (then maybe work backwords from the "tracks" to find out where the wolf/bug comes from)."

The original term comes from "The Wolf Fence algorithm for debugging" (Edward J. Gauss, ACM - 1982)

Home Computer Setup

Current Rig (Nov 2008):

Does Pylot Run on Macs? Yup.

I had previously tested Pylot on various machines and OS's, including: Windows XP, Vista, Cygwin, Ubuntu, Eee PC.

Recently I got news that it also runs on Macs, and the GUI looks pretty damn good:

Get CPU Utilization from Remote Windows Machines with WMI

This is a little script that gets the CPU Utilization metric from a remote Windows machine. On multi-way or multi-core machines, it will return an average of all processors/cores.

To run this, you will first need to install the WMI module. Follow the instructions and get the download from here: http://timgolden.me.uk/python/wmi.html

import wmi

def get_cpu(computer, user, password):
    c = wmi.WMI(find_classes=False, computer=computer, user=user, password=password)
    utilizations = [cpu.LoadPercentage for cpu in c.Win32_Processor()]
    utilization = int(sum(utilizations) / len(utilizations))
    return utilization

Pylot - 15 Tools to Help You Develop Faster Web Pages

15 Tools to Help You Develop Faster Web Pages

"Response times, availability, and stability are vital factors to bear in mind when creating and maintaining a web application. If you’re concerned about your web pages’ speed or want to make sure you’re in tip-top shape before starting or launching a project, here’s a few useful, free tools to help you create and sustain high-performance web applications."

Pylot makes the list :)