ShowMeDo Blog

Video-comments are our latest feature - you can leave feedback for an author (perhaps just to say thanks) or share your knowledge with other visitors. Jerol leads the way with great comments for both of Fabio’s PyDev ShowMeDos.

Would you show your appreciation to our authors and drop them a note of thanks? You will find the comment form at the bottom of each video page - it works just like commenting on a blog and is super-easy.

Update - André Roberge has added a comment to the first SPE video.

Francois has created a ShowMeDo demonstrating the PataPata project, which builds upon the ideas of Squeak and Self in a Python learning environment.

I have posted a forum entry asking What would you include in a Python tutorial for newbies?. Kyran and I would like to encourage our visitors to help us make a Python Tutorial Series, one that any newbie to Python can be directed at.

Of course - before we help to make this series we need to know what should be in it! Anyone learning Python right now and anyone having gone through the process can help us here.

So - what topics should be included in the ShowMeDo videos? We would need introductions to built-in types, input/output, functions and files at a bare minimum. We should probably also show the ‘Batteries Included’ nature of Python. Would you pop into the forum and help us define this series?

Once it is defined we will help to make the series and we’ll host it for free access to all.

We have just added two great new features - user-comments for each video and better navigation.

With video comments (which look just like blog comments) you can leave your own thoughts about each video, just as you can comment on blog entries. We’d love to see you giving feedback to the video authors for their hard-work and pointing out useful resources for other users.

Kyran has also improved the site navigation features on each video page. Previously we had one thumbnail for each video - now we also have hyperlinked ‘previous’ and ‘next’ thumbnails to the other videos in the series. See an example here with Part 2 of Jerol’s Introduction to Python Objects.

Kyran and I are very happy to see that we’ve passed the mile-stone of 25,000 video downloads - thank you for coming by! We shall be eating large slices of chocolate cake to celebrate. On with the next 25,000!

So, which topics do our visitors find most interesting? I have analysed our logs and compiled some stats, ranked roughly by most-recent-first.

For the latest ShowMeDos the total number of downloads are:

• RUR-PLE - 181
• PyDev (2 videos) - 1591
• nosey Python testing - 230
• pyWinAuto - 559
• Java/Eclipse (4 videos) - 159
• Intro to Python Objects (3 videos) - 1436

The Java/Eclipse videos aren’t receiving much attention as I don’t know where to publicise them! Can you help?

For our older ShowMeDos:

• IPython (4 videos) - 8782
• SPE (2 videos) - 3692
• wxPython (5 videos) - 5171
• Starting with Python (3 videos) - 1453
• CamStudio (2 videos) - 650

As a general trend, videos covering ‘how to get started’ with a tool are particularly popular - watching a ShowMeDo beats reading a manual when you are impatient to get started!

Jerol’s Introduction to Python Objects also shows that people are interested in learning about harder topics - again watching a video is easier than reading a book, and learning directly from somebody else’s hard-won experience is a great way to learn.

What would we like to see more of? Simple - ShowMeDos that show us how to quickly get started using a tool (IDEs like PyDev, APIs like pyWinAuto with Win32) and ShowMeDos distilled from an experienced person’s knowledge (like Jerol’s Introduction to Objects).

If you are interested in sharing a quick-start guide to a tool or helping those who could benefit from your hard-won experience then please get in contact and we’ll tell you just how easy it is!

Use RUR-PLE to learn Python programming. André Roberge’s system teaches Python programming using an animated robot and an interactive Python session. Ideal for newcomers to the language, young and old.

Watch André Roberge gently introduce RUR-PLE in this 6 minute ShowMeDo.