London Python Dojo: that was interesting…

Thursday night saw the third London Python Dojo, which involved us completing a — very simple — noughts & crosses game, with a random computer player which seemed have a winning streak a lot of the time!

Why interesting? Because, for whatever combination of reasons, there were fewer people there: about 10 of us, compared to something around 25 the last couple of times. One obvious factor was that it was November the 5th, so many people would have been with their families at fireworks displays. It might be that the attraction had palled, but I doubt if that accounts for everyone. However it came about, we had a reduced number.

That meant two things, I think: that everyone had a go at piloting (or at least co-piloting; I don’t thing Peter actually coded at all); and that everyone was engaged to a greater extent, just because there were fewer people. (Possibly also because those who did come were slightly keener…). I had a great time, and the audience participation, which was certainly there as I made a mull of trying to get clever with an itertools.cycle, was more — how shall I put it? — manageable. It also meant that there were fewer people still at the pub, and we had a quiet corner to ourselves, which I find more pleasant than shouting at someone in an awkward corner of a noisy and crowded room. (But then, I’m not really a pub person).

Apart from small bits and pieces, most of the time around the pub table was spent debating a proposal of Jon’s that Security bugs are always logically more important than any other class of bugs, because whatever effect another bug can be caused can just as well be caused by someone breaking into your system, making that happen, and then doing whatever they were going to do anyway (sending your credit card details to the Russian mafia, etc…).

As Nicholas has already posted, we discussed various ideas around the future of this particular meetup. We definitely all agreed that it should *have* a future, and more or less coalesced around the idea of a regular, but varying, lineup which might include Dojos of different types, but would also have more conventional talks / lightning talks etc. The idea also would be to keep it in the first week of the month, thus alternating with the Pyssup which is in the third week, but varying there’s always some day *someone* can never make. (For me, it’s Wednesday). It was also agreed that “official” communications would happen on the Python-UK list as everyone can easily see that; not everyone has Twitter / Wave / the-latest-and-greatest-thing.

Personally, I think Fry-IT are very generous in not only allowing us to use their offices, but also providing beer & pizzas. It makes it much easier to talk to people before, after (and even during). If you’re in or around London in the first week of December, why not turn up? Watch the python-uk mailing list for info.