Feeds

We are in the middle of September and that means it’s time for our regular update on what’s going on with the Drupal CMS. Let’s check out what’s new!

Documentation

The Drupal Association is on a mission to bring world-class documentation and maintenance software for Drupal CMS launch and beyond. In order to achieve that, we teamed up with Drupalize.me. Our common goal is to make sure that by the time when Drupal CMS hits the market we have an easy to follow user guide suitable for our target audience. Also we prepared an announcement that will be revealed at DrupalCon Barcelona. Stay tuned for the details!

Contact Form

We are happy to announce that we found a track lead for the Contact form! J. Hogue from Oomph joined the team very recently but has already managed to show progress: he and his team are getting busy with the research and MVP mapping. It’s great to have you with us!

Blog

As per the most recent update from Laurens Van Damme and his team, The MVP version has been set up and now the team is busy with the research on how to align with Drupal CMS standards.

Events

While Martin Anderson-Clutz and his team are considering expanding functionality with the options that will not be applied by default, they are working on a different calendar solution that would have more community support, as well as UX improvement for the date widget. We can’t wait to see the result of their work!

Data Privacy / Compliance

Jürgen Haas tells us that information research and framing the scope of the track has been completed and the team agreed on the documentation. Therefore, the following 3 action items has been set as immediate next priorities:

• continue documentation

• break down existing feature list into deliverables/recipes and prioritise them

• define components for the "Compliance Audit" module as an additional deliverable

Trial experience for Starshot

Some exciting news is coming from Matt Glaman: the trial now displays an interactive installer of Drupal CMS. Meanwhile, the work on styling so the trial would look like the Drupal CMS installer while it is being set up, is full steam on.

Dashboard

The team, lead by Christian López Espínola and Matthew Tift has got the wireframes they can rely on hence now it’s time to get things rolling! They are busy looking deeper into the Gin theme, in particular - config actions for adding blocks to the dashboards from other recipes. There is a decision to be made on whether the right sidebar should consist of shortcuts or individual blocks. At the same time, planning for the upcoming activities is in progress and we are waiting patiently to see more details on what’s ahead.

SEO

Great news from Jim Birch and John Doyle with the SEO track team: Basic and Advanced SEO Recipes have been committed to the repository. Next priority is to continue the iteration process on the recipes, documentation, and guidelines for other tracks.

Content Publishing Workflows

We are most excited to announce that we’ve got one more valuable addition to the team - Mohammed Razem from Vardot is joining the Drupal CMS crew as a track lead of the Content Publishing Workflows track. Welcome on board!

Advanced Search

The 1xINTERNET team has been busy finalising the first version of the concept. The next target for them is to get insights from the survey asking Drupalers what they prefer to use in order to confirm earlier findings from the specification.

Media Management

Tony Barker informs that the Media Track team is researching the features of content management systems identified in the Strategy document as well as working through the information and ideas from the earlier released questionnaire. They keep experimenting with modules and configuration to make necessary choices, with the focus on features that can make it into early recipes over the coming weeks.

Accessibility Tools

From Gareth Alexander we learn the following: as the discovery process and gathering insight on common practices has been finalised, the team has published a survey and is now busy reviewing the results. As review of the current module availability has been completed the list has been simmered down to the ones now being reviewed for feasibility.

This will lead to a proposal for the features and recipes for Accessibility Tools to be considered for inclusion in early versions of Drupal CMS.

Proposal creation is underway and the next steps are being generated.

Analytics

Dharizza Espinach meanwhile shares that the team has finished the market research, and is currently wrapping up the work on a comparison with other tools. The selected tools are to be included in the recipes. Another objective the track team is busy with is preparing the list of recommendations for features that should be included later in the project. The proposal document is underway and iterating over a first version of the basic recipe will be the next step.

AI

Jamie Abrahams is working on something very special that will be released during DrupalCon Barcelona. So I will keep the intrigue and will allow you to discover the details for yourself in just 1 week!

New Track Announcement!

As we make progress with the already defined deliverables, we keep discovering the missing parts of the puzzle. In order to close those gaps, we are excited to announce 2 new tracks we not only set up but managed to get staffed as well:

• NavigationMatthew Oliveira, Pablo López Escobés from Lullabot. >

• Gin admin theme track - Known by many, a long time maintainer of the Gin, Sascha Eggenberger became track lead for this milestone.

Our heartfelt welcome to all of the newly acquired Drupal CMS track leads - we are excited to have you and looking forward to all the expertise you are bringing along!

I truly hope you find the news outlined above as exciting as we do and look forward to sharing even more at DrupalCon Barcelona. So if you somehow didn’t get your ticket yet - better hurry up!

DjangoCon US starts next week in Durham, NC on September 22nd!

If you aren't able to join in person, please consider purchasing an online ticket: https://ti.to/defna/djangocon-us-2024

The conference is full of a variety of talks with excellent keynote speakers! It's shaping up to be an event you'll want to experience live.

If you'd like to learn more about DjangoCon US visit them at their website or reach out to them at hello@djangocon.us.

Qt for MCUs 2.8.1 LTS (Long-Term Support) has been released and is available for download.  This first patch release provides bug fixes and other improvements while maintaining source compatibility with Qt for MCUs 2.8. It does not add any new functionality.

Blocks are basically content containers that are showcased in distinct sections of a website including social sharing buttons, “Who’s online” sections, recently viewed content, and social media feeds. Custom Blocks that are available through GUI operate similarly to node entities. In this guide, you will get a concise overview of their implementations, but primarily focusing on custom blocks developed through the creation of a custom module in Drupal development services.

Step-by-Step Guide To Displaying Custom Forms In Drupal Blocks Step 1: Create a Custom Module 

Create a directory first by using the following command: =>

mkdir modules/custom/mymodule   

Create the Necessary Files

Within the modules/custom/mymodule directory, create the following files:

mymodule.info.yml
src/Plugin/block/CistomBlock.php
src/Form/MyCustomForm.php

Ensure that these files are properly structured to fit the requirements of your module.

1. mymodule.info.yml

This week, I learned there is a Drupalisms Working Group - a group focused on de-jargoning Drupal and making it easier for newcomers to Drupal by removing some of the Drupal-specific language.

From the introductory blog post:

If you’re familiar with Drupal, you will have learned its language. You will be familiar with words like Views, Blocks and Paragraphs, and you will appreciate their respective features and functions. But for those new to Drupal, getting to grips with what words mean can mean a steep learning curve.

Drupalisms is something I've discussed on a few episodes of Beyond Blocks, including the most recent episode and the seonc with Eirik Morland.

I didn't realise there were BoF sessions about this at DrupalCon Lille last year, so I'm hoping there will be more next week in Barcelona.

Anything that helps Drupal easier to use and adopt is a good thing.

The Spyder team hosted a Birds of a Feather session at SciPy 2024, this time on the topic of users' experiences (good and bad) with the UI/UX of scientific interfaces and IDEs, and how their developers can better serve users. Here, we share what we learned from the session, as well as a link to the full detailed community notes.

This year was my first Akademy, and I was thrilled to be able to attend in person. Even better, some veterans said it was the best Akademy so far. It was great to see some people I had met in April and to meet new people. I arrived on Friday, 6th Sept and left the following Friday. I very much enjoyed staying in the lovely town of Würzburg and doing a day tour of Rothenberg. Now that I've caught up on sleep (the jet lag, it is real), it's time to write about it.

As described in the Akademy 2024 report, the focus this year was resetting priorities, refocusing goals and reorganizing projects. Since I had recently become a more active contributor to KDE, I was keen to learn about the direction things will take over the next year. It was also exciting to see the new design direction in Union and Plasma Next!

A Personal Note

Speaking of goals, a personal one I've striven toward in my career is to contribute to something that improves the world, even if indirectly. It's not something I've always been able to do. It feels good to be able to work with a project that is open source, and is working to make the computing world more sustainable.

I'd also like to recognize all the wonderful, welcoming folks that make Akademy such a great conference. I've been to a few other tech conferences and events, with varying atmospheres and attitudes. I can say that people at Akademy are so helpful, and so nice - it made being among a lot of new faces in a foreign country a truly great experience.

The Conference

The keynote had powerful information about the impacts of improper tech disposal and what we can do to improve the situation. This highlighted the importance of the KDE Eco project, which aims to help to reduce e-waste and make our projects more sustainable. Their new Opt Green initiative is going to take concrete steps toward this.

Some of the talks I attended:

• KDE Goals - one talk about the last 2 years of goals and another revealing the new goals.
• "Adapt or Die" - how containerized packaging affects KDE projects.
• Union and styling in KDE's future.
• Banana OS KDE Linux - why it's being developed and some technical planning.
• Getting Them Early: Teaching Pupils About The Environmental Benefits Of FOSS This strategy has been powerful for other projects (like Microsoft Windows, Google Chromebooks, Java), so I'm glad to see it for KDE.
  • Why and how to use KDE frameworks in non-KDE apps
  • KDE Apps Initiative
  • Cutting Gordian's "End-User Focus" vs. "Privacy" Knot - collecting useful user data while respecting privacy and security.
  • Plasma Next - Visual Design Evolution for Plasma
  • The Road to KDE Neon Core

BoF Sessions

Some of the BoF sessions I attended:

• Decentralizing KUserFeedback
• Streamlined Application Development Experience
• Organizing the Plasma team, Plasma goals
• Plasma "Next" initiative
• Union: The future of styling in KDE
• KWallet modern replacement
• Video tutorial for BoF best practice (Kieryn roped me into this one)
• Security Team BoF Notes

Thanks to everyone who made this year's Akademy such a wonderful experience. If anyone out there is thinking of attending next year, and can make it, I really recommend it. I'm hoping to be at Akademy 2025!

Contrary to popular belief, Akademy 2024 was not my first Akademy. KDE seems to keep tagged faces from Akademy group photos around, so I stumbled over some vintage pictures of me in 2006 (Glasgow) and 2007 (Dublin). At the time, I was an utter greenhorn with big dreams, vague plans, and a fair bit of social anxiety.

And then I disappeared for 15 years, but now it's time for a new shot. This time around, I'm a little less green (rather starting to grey a little) and had a surprising amount of stuff to discuss with various KDE collaborators. Boy, is there no end of interesting people and discussion topics to be had at Akademy.

"Oh, you're the PowerDevil guy"

You're not wrong, I've been contributing to that for the past year. As such, one highlight for me was to meet KDE's hardware integration contractor Natalie Clarius in person and sync up on all things power-related.

Natalie presented a short talk and hosted a BoF session ("Birds of a Feather", a.k.a. workshop) about power management topics. We had a good crowd of developers in attendance, clearing up the direction of several outstanding items.

Power management in Plasma desktops is in decent shape overall. One of the bigger remaining topics is (re)storing battery charge limits across reboots, for laptops whose firmware doesn't remember those settings. There is a way forward that involves making use of the cross-desktop UPower service and its new charge limit extensions. This will give us the restoring feature for free, but we have to add some extra functionality to make sure that charge threshold customization remains possible for Plasma users after switching over.

We also looked at ways to put systems back to sleep that weren't supposed to wake up yet. Unintended wake-ups can happen e.g. when the laptop in your backpack catches a key press from the screen when it's squeezed against the keyboard. Or when one of those (conceptually neat) "Modern Standby" implementations on recent laptops are buggy. This will need a little more investigation, but we've got some ideas.

I talked to Bhushan Shah about power saving optimizations in Plasma Mobile. He is investigating a Linux kernel feature designed for mobile devices that saves power more aggressively, but needs support from KDE's power management infrastructure to make sure the phone will indeed wake up when it's meant to. If this can be integrated with KDE's power management service, we could improve battery runtimes for mobile devices and perhaps even for some laptops.

The friendly people from Slimbook dropped by to show off their range of Linux laptops, and unveiled their new Slimbook VI with KDE neon right there at the conference. Compared to some of their older laptops, build quality is improved leaps and bounds. Natalie and I grilled their BIOS engineer on topics such as power profiles, power consumption, and how to get each of their function keys show the corresponding OSD popup.

"I'm excited that your input goal was chosen"

Every two years, the KDE community picks three "Goals" to rally around until the next vote happens. This time, contributors were asked to form teams of "goal champions" so that the work of educating and rallying people does not fall on the shoulders of a single poor soul per goal.

So now we have eight poor souls who pledge to advance a total of three focus areas over the next two years. Supported by KDE e.V.'s new Goals Coordinator, Farid. There's a common thread around attracting developers, with Nicolas Fella and Nate Graham pushing for a "Streamlined Application Development Experience" and the KDE Promo team with a systematic recruitment initiative titled "KDE Needs You". And then there's this other thing, with a strict end user focus, briefly introduced on stage by guess who?

Turns out a lot of people in KDE are passionate about support for input devices, virtual keyboards and input methods. Gernot Schiller (a.k.a. duha) realized this and assembled a team consisting of himself, Joshua Goins (a.k.a. redstrate) as well as Yours Truly to apply as champions. The goal proposed that "We care about your Input" and the community's response is Yes, Yes We Do.

As soon as the new goals were announced, Akademy 2024 turned into an Input Goal Akademy for me. In addition to presenting the new goal on stage briefly, we also gathered in a BoF session to discuss the current state, future plans and enthusiastic volunteering assignments related to all things input. I also sat down with a number of input experts to learn more about everything. There is still much more I need to learn.

It's a sprawling topic with numerous tasks that we want to get done, ranging from multi-month projects to fixing lots of low-hanging fruit. This calls for a series of dedicated blog posts, so I'll go into more detail later.

Join us at #kde-input:kde.org on Matrix or watch this space (and Planet KDE in general) for further posts on what's going on with input handling in KDE.

Look at the brightness side

KWin hacker extraordinaire Xaver Hugl (a.k.a. zamundaaa) demoed some of his color magic on a standard SDR laptop display. Future KWin can play bright HDR videos in front of regular SDR desktop content. Accurate color transformations for both parts without special HDR hardware, that's pretty impressive. I thought that HDR needs dedicated hardware support, turns out I'm wrong, although better contrast and more brightness can still improve the experience.

I also got to talk to Xaver about touchpad gestures, learned about stalled attempts to support DDC/CI in the Linux kernel directly, and pestered him for a review to improve Plasma's D-Bus API for the new per-monitor brightness features. Also the XDC conference in Montreal, is happening in less than a month, featuring more of Xaver as well as loads of low-level graphics topics. Perhaps even input-related stuff. It's only a train ride from Toronto, maybe I'll drop by. Maybe not. Here's a medieval German town selfie.

Thanks to the entire KWin gang for letting me crash their late-night hacking session and only throwing the last of us out at 2 AM after my D-Bus change got merged. Just in time for the Plasma 6.2 beta. I was dead tired on Thursday, totally worth it though.

Atomic KDE for users & developers

Plasma undoubtedly has some challenges ahead in order to bring all of its power and flexibility to an image-based, atomic OS with sandboxed apps (i.e. Flatpak/Snap). David Edmundson's talk emphasized that traditional plugins are not compatible with this new reality. We'll need to look into other ways of extending apps.

The good news is that lots of work is indeed happening to prepare KDE for this future. Baloo making use of thumbnailer binaries in addition to thumbnailer plugins. KRunner allowing D-Bus plugins in addition to shared libraries. Arjen Hiemstra's work-in-progress Union style being customizable through configuration rather than code. Heck, we even learned about a project called KDE Neon Core trying to make a Snap out of each and every piece of KDE software.

Going forward, it seems that there will be a more distinct line between Plasma as a desktop platform and KDE apps, communicating with each other through standardized extension points.

All of this infrastructure will come in handy if Harald Sitter's experimental atomic OS, KDE Linux (working title), is to become a success. Personally, I've long been hoping for a KDE-based system that I can recommend to my less technical family members. KDE Linux could eventually be that. Yes, Fedora Kinoite is also great.

What took me by surprise about Harald's presentation was that it could be great even as a development platform for contributing to the Plasma desktop itself.

As a desktop developer, I simply can't run my Plasma development build in a container. Many functions interact with actual hardware so it needs to run right on the metal. On my current Arch system, I use a secondary user account with Plasma installed into that user's home directory. That way the system packages aren't getting modified - one does not want to mess with system packages.

But KDE Linux images contain the same system-wide build that I would make for myself. I can build an exact replacement with standard KDE tooling, perhaps a slight bit newer, and temporarily use it as system-wide replacement using systemd-sysext. I can revert whenever. KDE Linux includes all the development header files too, making it possible to build and replace just a single system component without building all the rest of KDE.

Different editions make it suitable for users anywhere between tested/stable (for family members) and bleeding edge (for myself as Plasma developer). Heck, perhaps we'll even be able to switch back and forth between different editions with little effort.

Needless to say, I'm really excited about the potential of KDE Linux. Even without considering how much work it can save for distro maintainers that won't have to combine outdated Ubuntu LTS packages with the latest KDE desktop.

Conclusion

There's so much else I've barely even touched on, like NLnet funding opportunities, quizzing Neal Gompa about KDE for Enterprise, Rust and Python binding efforts, Nicolas Fella being literally everywhere, Qt Contributor Summit, finding myself in a hostel room together with fellow KDE devs Carl & Kåre. But this blog post is already long enough. Read some of the other KDE blogs for more Akademy reports.

Getting home took all day and jet lag isn't fun, but I've reasonably recovered to give another shot at bringing KDE software to the masses. You can too! Get involved, donate to KDE, or simply enjoy the ride and discuss this post on KDE Discuss.

Or don't. It's all good :)

I realize that because I have several chairs, the phrase “my chair” is ambiguous. To reduce confusion, I will refer to the head of my academic department as “my office chair” going forward.

Yes, that title borders on click-bait, but fundamentally it is true. While it is possible to use the Drupal upgrade tools to migrate a site off of Drupal 7, there are reasons why almost 9 years after the release of Drupal 8 there are still thousands of sites on Drupal 7. If it was easy to upgrade your way to a newer platform, you would have done it by now.

#647 – SEPTEMBER 17, 2024
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How to Use Conditional Expressions With NumPy where()

This tutorial teaches you how to use the where() function to select elements from your NumPy arrays based on a condition. You’ll learn how to perform various operations on those elements and even replace them with elements from a separate array or arrays.
REAL PYTHON

PythonistR: A Match Made in Data Heaven

In data science you’ll sometimes hear a debate between R and Python. Cosima says ‘why not choose both?’ She outlines a data pipeline that uses the best tool for each job.
COSIMA MEYER

Transcribe Audio in 5 Lines of Code

Build AI apps that understand speech with insanely accurate speech-to-text models. Sign up for a free account and get $50 in credits to try AssemblyAI’s speech recognition models →
ASSEMBLY AI sponsor

Python HTTP Clients: Requests vs. HTTPX vs. AIOHTTP

Learn about the differences between Requests, HTTPX, and AIOHTTP, and when to use each library for your Python projects.
GEORGES HAIDAR

Quiz: Generate Images With DALL·E and the OpenAI API

In this quiz, you’ll test your understanding of generating images with DALL·E by OpenAI using Python. You’ll revisit concepts such as using the OpenAI Python library, making API calls for image generation, creating images from text prompts, and converting Base64 strings to PNG image files.
REAL PYTHON

Quiz: The Walrus Operator: Python’s Assignment Expressions

In this quiz, you’ll test your understanding of the Python Walrus Operator. This operator was introduced in Python 3.8, and understanding it can help you write more concise and efficient code.
REAL PYTHON

Python Releases 3.12.6, 3.11.10, 3.10.15, 3.9.20, and 3.8.20

PYTHON.ORG

Python Release Python 3.13.0rc2

PYTHON.ORG

Articles & Tutorials Python Community Divided Over CoC Enforcement

Over the last few months there has been a lot of back and forth in the Python community, especially on the forums, around changes to bylaws and how the Code of Conduct is enforced. This article covers the history and context of the events.
JAKE EDGE

Django: Rotate Your Secret Key, Fast or Slow

Django’s SECRET_KEY setting is used for cryptographic signing in various places, such as for session storage and password reset tokens. If you need to rotate it you can allow read-only use of the old key to smooth the transition.
ADAM JOHNSON

Posit Connect - Help Your Analytics Team Share and Collaborate

Tired of tediously send files and trying to use general-purpose collaboration tools? Posit Connect makes it easy to share, collaborate, and get feedback on your data science work including Jupyter notebooks, Plotly dashboards, Streamlit, Quarto, Shiny or other interactive analytics applications →
POSIT sponsor

Multiversion Python Thoughts

Armin has played around with enabling multiple versions of a library to be installed for the same instance of Python in the past, and recent feature additions to uv are making it come closer to fruition.
ARMIN RONACHER

How We Made Notebooks Load 10 Times Faster

“When we received feedback our Notebooks UI was taking too long too load, our engineers dove into ways to improve the developer experience — bringing some load times from 30 seconds down to less than one.”
LUIS NEVES

When to Use .__repr__() vs .__str__() in Python

In this video course, you’ll learn the difference between the string representations returned by .__repr__() vs .__str__() and understand how to use them effectively in classes that you define.
REAL PYTHON course

Python Bytes Episode #400

The Python Bytes podcast just delivered show #400. This is a huge accomplishment. This episode celebrates the achievement, and also covers: Python 3.13RC, Docker with uv, the humanize project, and more.
PYTHON BYTES podcast

Improved print Readability With pprint

The pretty print module (pprint) provides more readable output for complex data structures and this post shows you how to use the library and what you can get out of it.
JUHA-MATTI SANTALA

“Next Level Python” Humble Bundle for Charity

Make mastering Python your mission: This mix of online courses, books, exercises, and productivity tools is here to help you succeed—whether you’re a beginner or a skilled Python pro. Support Girls Who Code and get Python books, software, and video courses collectively valued at $1,882 for a pay-what-you-want price →
HUMBLEBUNDLE.COM sponsor

Switching From pyenv to uv

Will has recently switched from using a variety of packaging tools to just using uv. This post is a summary of what needed to change when going from pyenv to uv.
WILL KAHN-GREENE

uv Under Discussion on Mastodon

There is a deep conversation going on about the longevity of uv on Mastodon and for those not on the platform, Simon has summarized it.
SIMON WILLISON

Why Not Comments

This post talks about why you might want to include information in your code comments about why you didn’t take a particular approach.
HILLEL WAYNE

How to Build a Perfect Docker Image for a Poetry Project

This article describes how to build a secure, fast to build, and lightweight Docker image for your Poetry-based project
CODEMAGEDDON • Shared by Sergey

Python macOS Framework Builds

Glyph explains just what a Framework is on macOS and why CPython on macOS should be built that way.
GLYPH LEFKOWITZ

Projects & Code PSP (Python Scaffolding Projects)

GITHUB.COM/MATTEOGUADRINI • Shared by Matteo Guadrini

pocketpy: Portable Python 3.x Interpreter in Modern C

GITHUB.COM/POCKETPY

graphiti: Build Dynamic, Temporally-Aware Knowledge Graphs

GITHUB.COM/GETZEP

picows: Ultra-Fast Websocket Client and Server for Asyncio

GITHUB.COM/TARASKO

django-cotton: Component Based Design to Django Templates

GITHUB.COM/WRABIT

Events PyData Amsterdam 2024

September 18 to September 21, 2024
PYDATA.ORG

Weekly Real Python Office Hours Q&A (Virtual)

September 18, 2024
REALPYTHON.COM

PyCon India 2024

September 20 to September 24, 2024
PYCON.ORG

PyCon TW 2024

September 21 to September 23, 2024
PYCON.ORG

DjangoCon US 2024

September 22 to September 27, 2024
DJANGOCON.US

PyBay 2024

September 23 to September 24, 2024
PYBAY.ORG

PyCon Africa 2024

September 24 to September 29, 2024
PYCON.ORG

PyData Paris 2024

September 25 to September 27, 2024
PYDATA.ORG

PyCon JP 2024

September 27 to September 30, 2024
PYCON.JP

Python Norte 2024

September 27 to September 29, 2024
PYTHONNORTE.ORG

PyCon Niger 2024

September 28 to September 30, 2024
PYCON.ORG

Happy Pythoning!
This was PyCoder’s Weekly Issue #647.
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The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is running a blog series to introduce some of the people who have been actively involved in the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID) co-design process. The co-design methodology allows for the integration of diverging perspectives into one just, cohesive and feasible standard. Support and contribution from a significant and broad group of stakeholders is imperative to the Open Source process and is proven to bring diverse issues to light, deliver swift outputs and garner community buy-in.

This series features the voices of the volunteers who have helped shape and are shaping the Definition.

Meet David Manset

What’s your background related to Open Source and AI?

My background in Open Source and AI is shaped by my ongoing experience as the senior coordinator of the Open Source Ecosystem Enabler (OSEE) project at the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a project developed in collaboration with the UN Development Program and under the funding of the EU’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships, to support countries developing digital public goods and services using Open Source. In this capacity, a significant part of my work involves driving initiatives related to Open Source for various types of use cases in the public sector.

Witnessing the birth of an Open Source AI definition during the DPGA Annual Members meeting in 2023, I have since then been contributing to the Open Source AI agenda, and more recently to various Open Source AI initiatives within the ITU Open Source Program Office (OSPO). Additionally, I co-lead the Open Source AI for Digital Public Goods (OSAI4DPG) track at AI for Good, focusing on creating AI-driven public goods that are both accessible and affordable.

One of my recent achievements includes co-organizing the AIntuition hackathon aimed at developing cost-effective Open Source AI solutions. This event focused on utilizing Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and Large Language Models (LLMs) to create a basic yet understandable and adaptable prototype implementation for public administration. My efforts in this area highlight my commitment to practical and usable AI tools that meet public sector needs.

Prior to my role at ITU, I worked in the private sector, where I developed AI services that enhanced healthcare services and protected patients/citizens. This experience gives me a well-rounded perspective on implementing and scaling Open Source AI technologies for public benefit.

What motivated you to join this co-design process to define Open Source AI?

My motivation to participate in this co-design process for defining Open Source AI is deeply rooted in my former experiences in software development and as the coordinator of the OSEE project, where my focus lies in enhancing digital public services and developing digital public goods. Open Source AI indeed presents a unique opportunity, especially for the public sector, to adopt cost-effective and scalable solutions that can significantly improve public services. However, to harness these benefits, it is imperative to establish a clear, standardized and consensual definition of Open Source AI. This definition will serve as a foundational guideline, ensuring transparency and understanding of the specific types of AI technologies being developed and implemented.

Moreover, my involvement is driven by the critical work of the ITU OSPO, particularly in developing Open Source AI solutions tailored for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). These regions often face challenges such as scarce resources and limited representation in global AI training processes. By contributing to the development of Open Source AI, I aim to support these countries in accessing affordable and effective AI technologies, thereby promoting greater equity in AI development and utilization. This effort is not just about technology but also about fostering global inclusivity and ensuring that the benefits of AI are accessible to all.

Why do you think AI should be Open Source?

AI should be Open Source for several compelling reasons, especially when considering its potential impact on global development and governance. First, transparency, traceability and explainability are crucial, particularly in digital public services. Open Source AI allows public scrutiny of the algorithms and models used, ensuring that decision-making processes are transparent and accountable. This is vital for building trust in AI systems, especially in sectors like healthcare, education and public administration, where decisions can significantly impact individuals and communities.

Second, accessibility and affordability are key benefits for LMICs. Open Source AI lowers the barriers to entry, enabling these countries to access cutting-edge technologies without the prohibitive costs associated with proprietary systems. This democratization of AI technology ensures that even resource-constrained nations can harness AI’s transformative potential. Moreover, Open Source AI fosters greater representation and competition for LMICs in the global AI landscape. By contributing to and benefiting from Open Source projects, these countries can influence AI development and ensure that their specific needs and contexts are considered.

Finally, as AI increasingly becomes a foundational technology, Open Source serves as a universal resource that can be adapted and improved by anyone, promoting innovation and inclusivity across the globe.

What new perspectives or ideas did you encounter while participating in the co-design process?

Participating in the co-design process introduced me to several new perspectives and ideas that have deepened my understanding of the role of Open Source AI, particularly in supporting global development. One key insight is the realization that LMICs would significantly benefit from having access to an Open Source AI reference implementation. This concept, which we are actively working on, would provide these countries with a practical, ready-to-use model for AI development, helping them overcome resource constraints and accelerate their AI initiatives.

Another important perspective is that Open Source AI requires solid foundational elements—an Open Source mindset, adherence to best practices, and generalized policies must be embedded across all organizations involved. This is not just about technology; it’s about fostering a culture and infrastructure that supports Open Source principles at every level. Notably, ITU is now coordinating the definition of a common policy framework for United Nations Open Source initiatives, which will be crucial in guiding future Open Source AI developments. This framework will ensure that Open Source AI projects are supported by robust Open Source policies, promoting sustainable and equitable technological advancement worldwide.

What do you think the primary benefit will be once there is a clear definition of Open Source AI?

The primary benefit of a clear definition of Open Source AI will be the establishment of a unified framework that ensures transparency, accessibility, and ethical standards in AI development. This clarity will enable broader adoption across various sectors, particularly in LMICs, by providing a reliable foundation for building and implementing AI technologies. It will also foster global collaboration, ensuring that AI advancements are inclusive and equitable, while promoting innovation through open contributions, ultimately leading to more trustworthy and widely beneficial AI solutions.

What do you think are the next steps for the community involved in Open Source AI?

Once a global standard definition of Open Source AI is established, the Open Source AI community should focus on several key steps to ensure its widespread adoption and effective implementation. These include developing comprehensive guidelines and best practices, creating reference implementations to help organizations, particularly in LMICs, adopt the standard, and enhancing global collaboration through international networks and partnerships. Additionally, launching education and awareness campaigns will be crucial for informing stakeholders about the benefits and practices of Open Source AI. Establishing a governance and compliance framework will help maintain the integrity of AI projects, while supporting policy development and advocacy will ensure alignment with national and international regulations. Finally, fostering innovation and research through funding, hackathons, and collaborative platforms will drive ongoing advancements in Open Source AI. These steps will help build a robust, inclusive, and impactful Open Source AI ecosystem that benefits societies globally.

How to get involved

The OSAID co-design process is open to everyone interested in collaborating. There are many ways to get involved:

• Join the forum: share your comment on the drafts.
• Leave comment on the latest draft: provide precise feedback on the text of the latest draft.
• Follow the weekly recaps: subscribe to our monthly newsletter and blog to be kept up-to-date.
• Join the town hall meetings: we’re increasing the frequency to weekly meetings where you can learn more, ask questions and share your thoughts.
• Join the workshops and scheduled conferences: meet the OSI and other participants at in-person events around the world.

As businesses strive to succeed online, the need for an effective content management system (CMS) becomes paramount. Drupal 11, the latest version of this powerful CMS, is packed with new features and improvements designed to enhance your marketing strategy.

We’re excited to share how these advancements can elevate your marketing efforts and help create exceptional digital experiences for your audience.

Dear Readers,

"Imagine a world where creating or cloning any application becomes as simple as issuing a command: "Build me that."

The capabilities of AI are evolving at a fast pace, and the developments that have been brought forth are unprecedented. The recent demonstration of the O1 model by Reuven Cohen is a striking testament to this progress. Imagine taking a complex content management system like Drupal, traditionally built on PHP, and seamlessly transforming it into a JavaScript-based platform—all within an hour. This is precisely what the O1 model has achieved. Reuven tested this revolutionary AI by converting the entire Drupal CMS into Node.js, and the results were nothing short of astounding. The model didn't just convert code; it reimagined and replicated the whole system in a new language, paving the way for revolutionary changes in software development. 

By providing the O1 model with a detailed prompt, including Drupal's structure, API, and taxonomy, it generated a complete implementation plan in mere seconds. 

"It seamlessly transformed the codebase from PHP to JavaScript," 

Reuven noted, emphasizing how the model made cross-language conversion appear effortless. Once the backend was replicated into what can be called 'Drupal.js,' the process moved on to the front end. Utilizing GPT-Engineer, a UI was designed, wrapping up the entire transformation process in just about an hour.

What makes the O1 model truly exceptional is not just its ability to replicate; it goes beyond to fully clone and transform. The AI didn’t stop at code conversion—it provided a clear specification, built the necessary folder and file structure, and even automated the setup process with a bash script. This is more than a mere glimpse into the future; it is a tangible demonstration of how software development could evolve. 

As we stand on the brink of this new era, it's clear that these advancements will redefine our approach to software development and open-source projects like Drupal. With tools like the O1 model, the boundaries of what's possible are expanding, making this an exhilarating time for developers and tech enthusiasts alike.

With that, let's move on to the stories from last week.

In an interview with Kazima Abbas, a Sub-Editor of The DropTimes (TDT), Julian Chabrillon, a seasoned full-stack developer at ES IMAGINACION, shares his inspiration behind Noah's Page Builder and how he developed the tool. With the help of his wife and work partner, Sofía García de Blas, he shaped its visual identity, creating a cohesive and user-friendly experience.

Among other notable stories, The DropTimes conducted a video interview with Piyuesh Kumar, the Director of Technology at QED42. Starting as an intern and with almost 14 years with QED42, he watched Drupal evolve from a basic content management framework into a powerful digital experience platform. Piyuesh also shares excitement about his upcoming sessions at DrupalCon Barcelona, where he’ll explore topics like AI’s role in supporting Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) and the importance of designing with privacy in mind, particularly in the context of GDPR.

Last week, Drupal.org refreshed its website with new fonts, transitioning from the previous fonts, Ubuntu and Ubuntu Sans, to ZT Gatha and Noto Sans. This update improves the platform's visual appeal and usability, reflecting the ongoing effort to modernize its design and user experience.

DrupalCon Barcelona is just a week away, and The DropTimes has published several articles and lists to guide attendees through the event. DrupalCon Barcelona 2024, happening from September 24-27, will feature several sessions focused on the Drupal Starshot Initiative, a project aimed at simplifying Drupal while incorporating advanced technologies like AI, no-code tools, and browser-based development. Take a look at 10 key sessions that will provide valuable insights into Drupal’s next steps.

This year’s event also promises to be an exciting convergence of ideas and innovations, with AI taking center stage in a range of sessions. As AI technologies continue to transform the way we build and interact with digital experiences, DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 will feature 13 AI-focused sessions, offering attendees the chance to dive into the latest advancements and explore how AI can revolutionize the future of web development.

Building on the success of DrupalCon Lille 2023 and continuing the partnership with TerraVerde Sustainability, the DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 organizers remain committed to advancing sustainability initiatives and creating lasting positive change. As DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 embraces a greener future, five key sustainability initiatives highlight the event’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact.

While you are there, the Drupal Association invites attendees of DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 to visit its booth to engage with the team, learn more about their ongoing initiatives, and explore ways to contribute to the community. 

Meanwhile, we have published a list of Drupal events happening this week for Drupal enthusiasts to attend. Find the content here.

The FOSSEPS and OSOR projects are conducting a survey to assess interest in forming a European Open Source User Group for public administrations. The initiative seeks input from IT professionals within EU public bodies on the current use and challenges of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).

Darren Oh has introduced the business model behind Drupal Forge, focusing on sustaining Drupal’s software and infrastructure through vendor contributions. Under this model, vendors can partner with product owners, such as the Drupal Association, by offering product trials via launch buttons integrated into their hosting platforms. 

Kevin Quillen has taken up maintainership of the Netlify module for Drupal, a key integration that ensures seamless syncing between Drupal and Netlify. This module enables automatic triggering of builds in Netlify whenever changes are made to Drupal’s content or configuration, allowing headless websites, particularly those built on frameworks like Next.js, to stay current without caching issues.

As a final update, Monarq has developed a new system called Sections & Components to simplify content management in Drupal, enhancing user experience by making the platform more intuitive and flexible. This system enables site administrators to build customized, responsive pages by combining predefined sections and components such as text blocks, images, carousels, and call-to-action buttons.

We acknowledge that there are more stories to share. However, due to selection constraints, we must pause further exploration for now.

To get timely updates, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. You can also, join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.

Thank you, 
Sincerely 
Alka Elizabeth 
Sub-editor, The DropTimes.

When using Python's help function, have you ever wondered what the various symbols (/, *, [, and ]) mean? Understanding those symbols will help you better understand how to use the functions and classes you're working with.

Table of contents

1. What do all the symbols mean in help output?
2. Multiple function signatures
3. Pay attention to the nouns
4. The symbols of help
5. Default values: the = symbol
6. Unlimited arguments: the * symbol before an argument name
7. Keyword-only arguments: a lone * symbol
8. Positional-only arguments: a lone / symbol
9. Arbitrary keyword arguments: the ** symbol
10. Square brackets: optional arguments
11. Ellipsis (...) and other weird things
12. The conventions of Python's help function

What do all the symbols mean in help output?

We'll cover what the * and / symbols below mean:

>>> help(sorted) Help on built-in function sorted in module builtins: sorted(iterable, /, *, key=None, reverse=False) Return a new list containing all items from the iterable in ascending order. A custom key function can be supplied to customize the sort order, and the reverse flag can be set to request the result in descending order.

We'll also talk about the different formats that help output comes in. For example, note the square brackets in [x] below and note that there are two different styles noted for calling int:

>>> help(int) Help on class int in module builtins: class int(object) | int([x]) -> integer | int(x, base=10) -> integer

We'll start by giving a name to that line which indicates how a function, method, or class is called.

Multiple function signatures

A function signature notes the …

Read the full article: https://www.pythonmorsels.com/understanding-help/

A well-designed coding environment not only enhances your focus and productivity but also makes coding sessions more enjoyable. In this Code Conversation, your instructor Philipp Ascany will guide you step-by-step through the process of finding, installing, and adjusting color themes in VS Code. You’ll explore the various options available in VS Code and learn how to make fine adjustments to create a setup that suits your personal preferences.

In this video course, you’ll:

• Learn about Themes in VS Code
• Find a VS Code Color Theme
• Select a Theme
• Install Your Theme
• Make Additional Adjustments

By the end of the course, you’ll have a coding environment that not only looks great but also enhances your overall coding experience.

[ 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 ]

The debridement operation was a success: nothing bad grew afterwards. I was discharged after a couple of nights with crutches, instructions not to weight-bear, a remarkable, portable negative-pressure "Vac" pump that lived by my side, and some strong painkillers.

About two weeks later, I had a skin graft. The surgeon took some skin from my thigh and stitched it over the debridement wound. I was discharged same-day, again with the Vac pump, and again with instructions not to weight-bear, at least for a few days.

This time I only kept the Vac pump for a week, and after a dressing change (the first time I saw the graft), I was allowed to walk again. Doing so is strangely awkward, and sometimes a little painful. I have physio exercises to help me regain strength and understanding about what I can do.

The donor site remained bandaged for another week before I saw it. I was expecting a stitched cut, but the surgeons have removed the top few layers only, leaving what looks more like a graze or sun-burn. There are four smaller, tentative-looking marks adjacent, suggesting they got it right on the fifth attempt. I'm not sure but I think these will all fade away to near-invisibility with time, and they don't hurt at all.

I've now been off work for roughly 12 weeks, but I think I am returning very soon. I am looking forward to returning to some sense of normality. It's been an interesting experience. I thought about writing more about what I've gone through, in particular my experiences in Hospital, dealing with the bureaucracy and things falling "between the gaps". Hanif Kureishi has done a better job than I could. It's clear that the NHS is staffed by incredibly passionate people, but there are a lot of structural problems that interfere with care.

From Fri, Sep 6th to Tue, Sep 10th I attended the 2024 edition of KDE Akademy in Würzburg, Germany. I booked a room in a hotel downtown the same place CoLa, a fellow KDE developer, stayed. Since parking is rather expensive in downtown areas, I left the car in front of the university building where the event was about to start on Saturday morning and took the bus into the city to the hotel. We all used the bus in coming days and one would always meet some KDE folks easy to spot wearing their lanyards.

On Friday night the KDE crowd gathered at a pub in the city and it was great to see old friends and also meet new people. At some point, I was talking to Carlos. It turned out that he already made some contributions to KMyMoney. The git log says it was in 2022. While more and more fellow KDE developers joined the place it became louder and louder and conversations were not easy anymore. Too bad that some of us got stranded at different places on their way out to Würzburg and did not make it until Saturday.

Conference

On Saturday, the conference program started with a keynote by Joanna Murzyn who took us on a journey from crucial mineral mining hubs to electronic waste dumpsters, uncovering the intricate connections between code, hardware, open source principles as well as social and environmental justice. We discovered how the KDE community’s work is shaping a more resilient, regenerative future, and explore ways to extend those principles to create positive impact beyond tech world.

On the first day, I took the opportunity to see the following talks

• Current Developments in KDE Hardware Integration
• KDE to Make Wines — Using KDE Software on Enterprise Desktops a Return on Experience
• KWin Effects: The Next Generation
• Adapt or Die: How new Linux packaging approaches affect wider KDE
• An Operating System of Our Own
• What’s a Maintainer anyway?

The last one for the day complemented the keynote in a nice way. In KDE newcomer Nicole Teale’s talk entitled “Getting Them Early: Teaching Pupils About The Environmental Benefits Of FOSS” she presented the work she is doing introducing KDE/FOSS to pupils, with a focus on its environmental benefits. She shared ideas on how to get schools involved in teaching pupils about reusing old hardware with FOSS. and presented some of the projects that have already been implemented in schools in Germany. This project is funded by the Umweltbundesamt (UBA) called “Sustainable Software For Sustainable Hardware”. The goal of this project is to reduce e-waste by promoting the adoption of KDE / Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) and raising awareness about the critical role software plays in the long-term, efficient use of hardware.

This becomes important in 2025 when Windows 10 runs out of support and Windows 11 requires new hardware, even though the existing one is still perfectly suited for the requirements of the majority of people. Linux and KDE to the rescue.

Saturday ended with Pizza and beer at the university as the booked beer garden canceled the reservation due to approaching thunderstorms.

On Sunday, I saw the following talks

• Openwashing – How do we handle (and enforce?) OSS policies in products?
• Opt In? Opt Out? Opt Green! KDE Eco’s New Sustainability Initiative
• KDE’s CI and CD infrastructure
• The Road to KDE Neon Core — Gosh! We’re surrounded by Snaps everywhere!

and of course the KDE Akademy award ceremony. In between those talks I had a chance to meet Julius Künzel and take a look at the problems we have in the KMyMoney project with the MacOS CD builds. He spotted a few things but I did not have the time to take care of them yet.

As a tradition, on Sunday is also the gathering to take the group picture. Here’s this years edition:

CC-BY-SA 4.0 by Andy Betts Birds of a feather sessions

On Monday and Tuesday I went to various BoF’s and took the opportunity to join the git/Gitlab presentation by Natalie Clarius. I learned a few subtleties of Gitlab that I didn’t know before, so it was worth it. In the meantime I talked with a lot of people and did a small bit of hacking (one bug fixed). The BoFs I joined:

• Opt Green / KDE Eco
• Tutorial: Using lager with Qt/QML
• KDE Goals – Streamlined Application Development Experience
• KDE Linux
• CI / CD

Good-bye Akademy 2024 / Thank you volunteers

Tuesday afternoon was the time to wave good-bye to the fellow KDE people and drive back home which I reached without delay (no traffic on the road) after an hour and a half. Hopefully, I will be able to join next time. Next stop will be the auditing of KDE accounting coming up in Berlin in a few weeks.

A big thank you goes out to the numerous volunteers who made this event happen. The team around seaLne just did a marvelous job.

Increasing work productivity and effectiveness is key in many professions, including Drupal developers. One of the tools that allows you to achieve this is the Drupal Admin Toolbar module. Thanks to it, you can easily access key administrative functions and navigate through admin panels. In this article, you will learn more about the Drupal Admin Toolbar features, benefits, and configuration methods. You will discover the possibilities that this tool has to offer and how it can streamline your Drupal-based website management.

In this quiz, you’ll test your understanding of Python’s standard package manager, pip. You’ll revisit the concepts behind pip, important commands, and how to install packages.

[ 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 ]