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EuroPython Society: 2024 General Assembly Announcement
We’re excited to invite you to this year’s General Assembly meeting! We’ll gather on Sunday, December 1st, 2024, from 20:00 to 21:00 CET. Just like in recent years, we’ll use Zoom, and additional joining instructions will be shared closer to the date.
The General Assembly is the highest decision making body of the society and EPS membership is required to participate. Membership is open to individuals who wish to actively engage in implementing the EPS mission. If you want to become a member of EuroPython Society you can sign-up here: https://www.europython-society.org/application/
You can find more details about the agenda of the meeting, as it is defined in our bylaws here https://www.europython-society.org/bylaws/ (Article 8).
One of the items on the Agenda is electing the new Board.
What does the Board do?The Board consists of a chairperson, a vice chairperson and 2-7 Board members. The duties and responsibilities of the Board are substantial: the board collectively takes up the fiscal and legal responsibility of the Society.
A major topic is the annual EuroPython conference. While we would like to transition to a model with an independent organising team, we are not there yet. Therefore, the Board still needs to be involved in the conference organisation.
Beyond the conference, the Board also manages several critical areas, including:
- Managing EPS membership
- Overseeing finances and budgets
- Running the grant programme
- Maintaining infrastructure and resources
Furthermore, specifically for 2025, and following the recommendation from the previous Board, we would like to focus on four key topics that are important for the Society&aposs future and sustainability:
- Hiring an Event Manager/Coordinator
- Selecting a location for 2026 and possibly 2027
- Strengthen community outreach
- Improving the fiscal and legal framework
The Society is entirely volunteer-driven and serving on the board requires a significant time commitment. Everyone has a different schedule, so most of the work is usually done asynchronously. However, all board members attend the 1.5-hour board call held every two weeks in the evening, CE(S)T timezone. Everyone&aposs time is valuable and please consider that the less time or effort you can dedicate, the more the workload may shift to other Board members.
All things considered you will need a few hours every week.
Who should apply?You want to invest your time and knowledge into building a better structure for the EuroPython Society? Or you want to work on building connections between different Python-based communities? Then this might be for you! Please keep in mind the time commitments mentioned above.
You are not expected to be perfect in any of the skills needed and you will be supported in learning how things work. That being said, having experience in a non-profit organisation, whether within the Python world (such as EPS, PSF, DSF, local Python communities etc.) or any other similar organisation, would be beneficial for onboarding and understanding the organisational structure, culture and dynamics.
In the past having or willing to learn the following skills helped organising the conference:
- Good communication skills
- Organisation skills
- Experience organising events with more than 1000 people
- Working with volunteer-based communities
- Working in big teams
You get the chance to shape and influence the future of EuroPython
You gain skills useful to run non-profits in different European countries - including cross border challenges
You can help grow and empower local communities
You can build relationships and connections with fellow community members
You can build a more diverse and inclusive Python community by serving the mission of EuroPython Society
I am interested, what should I do?If you’re considering running for the Board or nominating another EPS member, we’d love to hear from you! Although the formal deadline is during the General Assembly, we kindly request you send your nomination as early as possible to board@europython.eu. We will publish the initial list of candidates on Tuesday, 26th of November 2024. If you’re not sure if this is a good idea or not – please email anyway and we will help you figure it out! 🙂
If you&aposre on our EPS Organisers&apos Discord, there&aposs a dedicated channel for interested candidates. Please ask in the general channel, and we’ll be happy to add you.
You can find examples of previous nominations here: https://www.europython-society.org/list-of-eps-board-candidates-for-2023-2024/.
Your nomination should highlight why you want to run for the Board. What is your vision for EPS and in which projects you want to be involved. During the General Assembly, you will have the opportunity to introduce yourself and share with our members why you believe they should vote for you. Each candidate will typically be given one minute to present themselves before members cast their votes.
It sounds a lot, I want to help, but I can’t commit to thatThat’s completely understandable! Serving on the Board comes with significant responsibilities, time commitments, and administrative tasks. If that’s not the right fit for you, but you’re still interested in supporting us, we’d love your help! There are many other ways to get involved. We have several teams (see 2024 Teams Description document, as an example) that work on conference preparations during the months leading up to the event, and we also need volunteers to assist onsite during the conference.
Your help does not need to be limited to the conference. Infrastructure and connections need to be maintained all around the year for example. Your time and support would make a big difference! Stay tuned to our social platforms for announcements about these opportunities.
mark.ie: My LocalGov Drupal contributions for week-ending November 22nd, 2024
This week, lots of work on the LocalGov News module.
Web Review, Week 2024-47
Let’s go for my web review for the week 2024-47.
The Big Data Center Water ProblemTags: tech, hardware, ecology, economics, energy, water
We always think about the energy consumption, but large data centers gobble billion liters of water too. This would need to be improved.
https://www.asianometry.com/p/the-big-data-center-water-problem
Tags: tech, vr, hardware, foss
Nice to see open hardware for VR hitting such a price point.
Tags: tech, social-media, fediverse, tools
You’re on the fediverse and you want to reach out bluesky users? This might be the right tool for you (unclear if it’ll scale yet though). At least if and when Bluesky turns bad, people will know where to reach friends next.
Tags: tech, social-media, business, politics
Excellent post showing reasons to be skeptical about Bluesky’s future. Despite all their likely sincere claims I don’t see how they’ll escape enclosure and enshittification when their sketchy VCs will want to see money back.
https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2024/11/15/Not-Bluesky
Tags: tech, social-media, politics, twitter
Sad to see people predominantly jumping from Twitter to other tech moguls walled gardens. This feels more and more like a missed opportunity for the fediverse. That said I’m amazed at how efficient Musk has been at killing the network effect of his platform. This proves it’s actually doable.
Tags: tech, social-media, politics, twitter
This is what we get for refusing to regulate social media and for not auditing their algorithms. Their owners can game and bias the platforms as they see fit for their own gains. They became massive forces of manipulation in the process.
https://eprints.qut.edu.au/253211/
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, vendor-lockin
Good reminder that models shouldn’t be used as a service except maybe for prototyping. This has felt obvious to me since the beginning of this hype cycle… but here we are people are falling in the trap today.
https://adriano.fyi/posts/chatgpt-is-slipping/
Tags: tech, python, performance, pandas, data, data-science
OK, the numbers are indeed impressive. And it’s API is fully compatible apparently, looks like a good replacement if you got Pandas code around.
https://hwisnu.bearblog.dev/fireducks-pandas-but-100x-faster/
Tags: tech, tools, debugging
Looks like a nice tool. Maybe it’ll replace my trusty cgdb in some cases.
https://github.com/epasveer/seer
Tags: tech, c++, security
Will we see more deployments of C++ standard library with bound checking by default? It definitely looks tempting.
https://security.googleblog.com/2024/11/retrofitting-spatial-safety-to-hundreds.html?m=1
Tags: tech, php, security
Seeing the amount of PHP code open on the internet, it’s indeed important to harden the runtime (at long last).
https://dustri.org/b/upcoming-hardening-in-php.html
Tags: tech, graphics, gpu
Really nice in depth post. Everything you ever wanted to know about antialiasing but didn’t dare asking.
https://blog.frost.kiwi/analytical-anti-aliasing/
Tags: tech, framework, career, learning
Good advice, no one should be a “React developer”. Make sure you learn more fundamental skills.
https://www.keithcirkel.co.uk/i-dont-have-time-to-learn-react/
Tags: tech, craftsmanship, learning
If you’re just doing the minimum to deal with a task to “mark it done” you’re probably not doing enough and missing out on learning opportunities.
https://edanparker.hashnode.dev/going-a-little-further
Tags: tech, career, learning, engineering
This can change from organization to organization. This post proposes a career ladder which will work in some contexts. What’s clear is that it’s all about scope and impact.
https://matt.blwt.io/post/what-is-a-senior-engineer-anyway/
Tags: tech, engineering, management, learning
Interesting tips to keep learning on the technical side of the job as you get more managerial responsibilities.
Bye for now!
Real Python: The Real Python Podcast – Episode #229: The Joy of Tinkering & Python Free-Threading Performance
What keeps your spark alive for developing software and learning Python? Do you like to try new frameworks, build toy projects, or collaborate with other developers? Christopher Trudeau is back on the show this week, bringing another batch of PyCoder's Weekly articles and projects.
[ Improve Your Python With 🐍 Python Tricks 💌 – Get a short & sweet Python Trick delivered to your inbox every couple of days. >> Click here to learn more and see examples ]
Talk Python to Me: #486: CSnakes: Embed Python code in .NET
Matt Layman: Huey Background Worker - Building SaaS #207
Brian Perry: Two Modules to Help Tame Large Drupal Menus
Stop me if you've heard this one before. At some point in the life of your Drupal site, you have a menu that has gotten out of control. Dragging and dropping is basically a lost cause, your hand hurts from scrolling, and a sense of dread approaches every time you find yourself in the menu administration screen. If it isn't possible to re-structure the menu to address the root cause, you'll need to turn to other solutions to make menu administration more manageable.
I recently used two modules to address this issue for a client. They may not be a huge surprise to those who have run into this problem repeatedly, but it seemed worth documenting for both future me and also our search engine and LLM overlords.
Big MenuThe first module is Big Menu. The project page on this one seems to be describing the Drupal 7 implementation of the module, which is quite a bit different. The 'modern Drupal' version of the module essentially re-works the menu administration page to focus on a single level of the menu tree at a time. Any menu item that has children will have an 'Edit child items' link that you can drill into. This results in more clicks to get to the item you want to edit, but it makes the menu administration page much more manageable and reduces cognitive load quite a bit.
You can also configure the module to use a different depth for the menu tree, which can be useful if wanted to see more of the menu in a single view. Personally I prefer to go all the way with this one and stick with the single level view that is used by default.
Menu SelectThe Menu Select module addresses the experience of selecting a parent menu item in the menu settings for a node or menu item. By default, this is a select list containing the entire menu, which can get very long. Menu Select replaces this with an autocomplete search and a hierarchal collapsible unordered list.
Bonus: Menu FirstchildMenu Firstchild is a little less about the admin experience, but can be useful in cases where a large menu needs some additional grouping but you don't want to turn to a full mega menu style approach. The module provides an option to have a menu item that doesn't have it's own path, but instead links to its first direct child.
Used together, these modules made a substantial difference in addressing the client's menu administration related feedback.
This was also a reminder of the impact that the ongoing work on Drupal CMS will hopefully have. I'm looking forward to a Drupal CMS future that can theoretically pre-package user experience improvements like these. Or in cases where it might not be the right choice for Drupal CMS, opinionated community developed recipes can be created to address common use cases like this one.
Seth Michael Larson: Visualizing the Python package SBOM data flow
Published 2024-11-22 by Seth Larson
Reading time: minutes
TLDR: Skip intro, take me to the visualization!
I'm working on improving measurability of Python packages by allowing Software Bill-of-Materials documents (SBOM) to be included in Python packages so that projects and build tools can record information about a package for downstream use.
This is a cross-functional project where I need input from Python projects, Python packaging tools (build backends+tools and installers), but also from folks completely outside the Python community like SBOM tooling maintainers. With projects like this, it can be difficult to "see the forest through the trees". When you're reviewing the packaging PEP, it can be difficult to imagine how or who is using the new standard. This article is to help visualize the end-to-end data flow.
How SBOM data will be included in Python packagesIn short, the proposal is:
- Allow Python projects to manually specify SBOM documents in pyproject.toml with [project].sbom-files = ["..."]
- Allow Python package archives to include self-describing SBOM documents and reference them in metadata via Sbom-File field.
- Zero-or-more SBOM documents per Python package archive. Each tool adding SBOM data creates a new SBOM inside the archive to avoid conflicts. End-user SBOM tools need to handle multiple SBOMs to "stitch" them together.
There are two Python packages being shown, Package A on the left and Package B on the right. Package A depends on Package B. Package A is a pure-Python package with no bundled dependencies. Package B uses binary extensions and uses auditwheel to bundle shared libraries.
@import url(https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Inter:wght@400;500);
AuditwheelAuditwheelPython EnvironmentPython EnvironmentBuild BackendBuild BackendPythonPackage
Python...Python
Package B
Python...Source ForgeSource ForgeSource Code BSource Code BSBOM GeneratorSBOM GeneratorSrc
SBOMSrc...Src
SBOMSrc...Build
SBOMBuild...3rd P
Deps3rd P...SO /
DLLsSO /...Build
SBOMBuild...Src
SBOMSrc...Build
SBOMBuild...3rd P
Deps3rd P...Py
Pkg BPy...Build
SBOMBuild...Src
SBOMSrc...Build
SBOMBuild...METADATAMETADATAPython
Package B
Python...METADATAMETADATAOperational SBOM (OBOM)Operational SBOM (OBOM)1122335566Package BPackage BDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataBuild BackendBuild BackendPython
Package A
Python...Source ForgeSource ForgeSource Code ASource Code AMETADATAMETADATAPackage APackage ADataDataPython
Package A
Python...METADATAMETADATAPython Package IndexPython Package Indexinstall_requiresinstall_re...44DEPENDS_ONDEPENDS_ONrefrefrefrefrefrefText is not SVG - cannot display
How SBOM data flows from Python package source code, build, to an SBOM generation tool
Stage 1: If the Python project bundles third-party software in their own source code then the project may specify one or more SBOM documents through project.sbom-files in pyproject.toml. Build backends copy these documents into source distributions and wheels.
Stage 2: If the Python build-backend pulls dependencies (like Maturin and Cargo) while building a wheel those dependencies can be recorded in another SBOM document in the wheel.
Stage 3: If a tool that modifies wheels by adding dependencies is used (like auditwheel) then that tool can record modifications in an SBOM document. At this point there are three separate SBOM documents included in the Package B archive.
Stage 4: Archives are uploaded to an index like PyPI. The index can do some validation of included SBOM documents, if any.
Stage 5: Installers download and install the Python package archives. The SBOM files are placed into the .dist-info/sboms/ directory in the Python environment and referenced in package metadata.
Stage 6: SBOM generation tools scan the Python environment and using existing Python package metadata and new SBOM documents with per-package data stitch together an Operational SBOM (OBOM) detailing the Python environment.
Who does what?The plan is to allow each "actor" in the system adding SBOM data to a Python package to create their own SBOM document inside the Python package.
This means they can choose any SBOM standard (although we'll recommend sticking to a well-known one like CycloneDX and SPDX) and that intermediate tools won't need to "merge" SBOM data together. Avoiding this merging is extremely important, because cross-standard SBOM data merges are a very hard problem. This problem is deferred to SBOM generation tools which already need to support multiple SBOM standards.
- Pure-Python projects that don't vendor software are easy, there's nothing to do here.
- Python projects that vendor software can annotate that software using an SBOM and specify the SBOM in pyproject.toml. Keeping this up-to-date is a non-zero amount of work, but I am hoping that by providing this PEP it will enable these types of contributions. I'm also hoping to provide a lightweight pre-commit hook to help keeping these SBOM documents up-to-date, similar to what CPython already uses.
- Python project which use a build backend that pull dependencies should be able to annotate what those dependencies are at build time. There will be exceptions, looking into tools like Meson and multibuild to see what can be done.
- Python bundling tools like auditwheel, delocate, etc can annotate shared libraries and DLLs that are pulled into wheels.
My hope is that the most difficult part of this work (manually annotating a package if automatic tools can't) will enable a new type of contribution from users of Python packages to provide SBOM data. Previously there was no standardized method to have SBOM data propagate through Python packages, thus discouraged this type of contribution.
If you're interested in having your use-case covered or you have concerns about the approach, please open a GitHub issue on the project tracker.
That's all for this post! 👋 If you're interested in more you can read the last report.
Have thoughts or questions? Let's chat over email or social:
sethmichaellarson@gmail.com
@sethmlarson@fosstodon.org
Want more articles like this one? Get notified of new posts by subscribing to the RSS feed or the email newsletter. I won't share your email or send spam, only whatever this is!
Want more content now? This blog's archive has ready-to-read articles. I also curate a list of cool URLs I find on the internet.
Find a typo? This blog is open source, pull requests are appreciated.
Thanks for reading! ♡ This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
︎ImageX: Instantly Enhance Your Website with Drupal Recipes for Exciting Features
Authored by Nadiia Nykolaichuk.
An exciting recipe is brewing in the Drupal kitchen. Picture a cookbook filled with delightful dishes, each requiring just one simple step. Similarly, Drupal users will soon enjoy the ability to add valuable functionalities to their websites with a single click, thanks to Recipes.
FSF Events: Free Software Directory meeting on IRC: Friday, November 22, starting at 12:00 EST (17:00 UTC)
Metadrop: Artisan Drupal SDC theme: What you need to know
Artisan is a Drupal base theme built on Bootstrap 5 and Sass. It offers easy theme configurations, theme presets (or variants), and extensive use of CSS variables.
Why Artisan?The inspiration for Artisan comes from Radix, a well-known theme we used for a long time. However, once you master something that is not directly tailored to your needs, you may start to wish for changes—small ones at first, but larger ones over time. For example, we found ourselves overwriting too many base templates for our Drupal projects. We wanted the templates provided by the base theme to be extensible enough to avoid being discarded based on the needs of specific projects. In the end, we decided to create our own theme.
The main goal of the Artisan base theme is to provide a foundation that allows most of its components to be reused without requiring complete overwrites in the custom theme of a specific project. To achieve this, Artisan offers a functional design base that is easily extensible, as explained below.
Artisan also makes extensive use of CSS custom properties (commonly known as CSS variables) to fully leverage their benefits. By using these variables, you can easily reuse styles across your project, ensuring greater design consistency. Additionally, they simplify…
Django Weblog: 2024 Django Developers Survey
The DSF is once again partnering with JetBrains to run the 2024 Django Developers Survey 🌈
Please take a moment to fill it out! It should only take about 10 minutes to complete. It’s an important metric of Django usage, and is immensely helpful to guide future technical and community decisions.
The survey will be open until December 21st, 2024. After the survey is over, we will publish the aggregated results. JetBrains will also randomly choose 10 winners (from those who complete the survey in its entirety with meaningful answers), who will each receive a $100 Amazon Gift Card or a local equivalent.
How you can helpTake a moment to re-share the survey on socials, and with your respective communities? The more diverse the answers, the better the results for all of us.
Thank you for taking the time to contribute to this community effort, and thank you to JetBrains for their consistent support over the years!
LN Webworks: Drupal Theming: A Comprehensive Guide For Developers
Drupal theming system is one of the most flexible and powerful tools for web developers, especially when it comes to creating visually appealing and highly functional websites. As a Content management system (CMS), drupal provides the best customization capabilities, making it a top choice for developers worldwide.
Today we are going to delve deeper into Drupal's Theming system, and its core component.
In this blog, we'll dive into Drupal’s theming system, its core components, and how LN Webworks, with its expert team, leverages Drupal development services to ensure that every Drupal-based website is not just functional but also visually engaging.
LN Webworks: How To Integrate Pipedrive With Webform: Step By Step Guide
Integrating Pipedrive, a powerful CRM tool, with a Drupal Webform can automate lead capturing, tracking, and data management. By using Webform, we can create a custom form and submit form data directly to Pipedrive, enabling a seamless flow of information from your website to your CRM
In this post, we’ll walk through the process of creating a Drupal Webform and then show how to configure a submit handler to send form data to Pipedrive.
Prerequisites
Before we begin, ensure that you have the following:
- A Pipedrive account and API access (API key).
- A Drupal installation with the Webform module installed and enabled.
The Webform module allows you to create forms and manage submissions in Drupal. To install the Webform module, follow these steps:
BRAINSUM: AI Chatbot demo with Drupal and RAG
At DrupalCon Barcelona, we were amazed to see all the powerful and functional Drupal AI integrations in action. I have been following the development closely, and after the recent release announcement of the AI (Artificial Intelligence) module, we decided to recreate one of its use cases: a RAG chatbot enabling semantic search.
1xINTERNET blog: The Event Platform module - and how it can help you organise your next tech talk or event
Learn how the Event Platform module simplified building the DrupalCamp Berlin 2024 website, its key features, benefits, and potential for improvements.
Real Python: Quiz: Expression vs Statement in Python: What's the Difference?
In this quiz, you’ll test your understanding of Expression vs Statement in Python: What’s the Difference?
By working through this quiz, you’ll revisit the key differences between expressions and statements in Python, and how to use them effectively in your code.
[ Improve Your Python With 🐍 Python Tricks 💌 – Get a short & sweet Python Trick delivered to your inbox every couple of days. >> Click here to learn more and see examples ]
Real Python: Quiz: Interacting With Python
In this quiz, you’ll test your understanding of the different ways you can interact with Python.
By working through this quiz, you’ll revisit key concepts related to Python interaction in interactive mode using the Read-Eval-Print Loop (REPL), through Python script files, and within Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and code editors.
You’ll also test your knowledge of some other options that may be useful, such as Jupyter Notebooks.
[ Improve Your Python With 🐍 Python Tricks 💌 – Get a short & sweet Python Trick delivered to your inbox every couple of days. >> Click here to learn more and see examples ]
Django Weblog: Announcing the 6.x Steering Council elections 🚀
Today, we’re announcing early elections for the Django Software Foundation Steering Council over the 6.x Django release cycle. Elected members will be on the Steering Council for two years, from the end of those elections in December, until April 2027 with the scheduled start of the Django 7.x release cycle.
Why we have early electionsThe DSF Board of Directors previously shared Django’s technical governance challenges, and opportunities. Now that the Board elections are completed, we’re ready to proceed with this other, separate election, following existing processes. We will want a Steering Council who strives to meet the group’s intended goals:
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To safeguard big decisions that affect Django projects at a fundamental level.
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To help shepherd the project’s future direction.
We expect the new Steering Council will take on those known challenges, resolve those questions of technical leadership, and update Django’s technical governance. They will have the full support of the Board of Directors to address this threat to Django’s future. And the Board will also be more decisive in intervening, should similar issues keep arising.
Elections timelineHere are the important dates of the Steering Council elections, subject to change:
- 2024-11-21: announcement & opening of voter registration
- 2024-11-26 23:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth): voter registration closes
- 2024-11-27: opening of Steering Council candidates registration
- 2024-12-04 23:59 AoE: candidates registration closes
- (one week gap per defined processes)
- 2024-12-10: voting starts
- 2024–12-17 23:59 AoE: voting ends
- 2024-12-18: results ratification by DSF Board of Directors
- 2024-12-19: results announcement
If you’re an Individual Member of the Django Software Foundation, you’re already registered to vote. There’s nothing further for you to do. If you aren’t, consider nominating yourself for individual membership. Once approved, you will be registered to vote for this election.
Alternatively, for members of our community who want to vote in this election but don’t want to become Individual Members, you can register to vote from now until 2024-11-26 23:59 Anywhere on Earth, use our form: Django 6.x Steering Council Voter Registration.
Candidate registrationIf you’re interested, don’t wait until formal candidate registration. You can already fill in our 6.x Steering Council expression of interest form. At the end of the form, select “I would like what my submissions to this form to be used as part of my candidate registration for the elections”.
Django 6.x Steering Council elections - Expression of interest
VotingOnce voting opens, those eligible to vote in this election will receive information on how to vote via email. Please check for an email with the subject line “6.x Steering Council elections voting”. Voting will be open until 23:59 on December 17, 2024 Anywhere on Earth.
—
Any questions? Ask on our dedicated forum discussion thread, or reach out via email to foundation\@djangoproject.com.
PyPodcats: Trailer: Episode 7 With Anna Makarudze
Sneak Peek of our chat with Anna Makarudze, hosted by Mariatta Wijaya and Cheuk Ting Ho.
Since discovering Python and Django in 2015, Anna has been actively involved in the Django community. She helped organize PyCon Zimbabwe, and she has coached at Django Girls in Harare and Windhoek.
She served on the Board of Directors at Django Software Foundation for five years, and she is currently a Django Girls Foundation Trustee & Fundraising Coordinator.
Anna became aware of the lack of representation of women in tech industry, something that became more evident as she attended Django Under the Hood in 2016 where most of the attendees were white men, and only a few are women. That’s when she realized the importance of communities like Django Girls in supporting more women in the Django Community.
In this chat, Anna shared ways on how you can contribute and help support Django Girls+ Foundation.
Full episode is coming on November 27, 2024! Subscribe to our podcast now!