reflections

Coding is political

MP 121: It always has been, and it sure is now. I was going to write about how much I like third-party ecosystems such as PyPI this week, and what you should know about them. But writing generically about software development at this moment feels like burying my head deep

real-world projects

Birthdays and lotteries

MP 120: I rarely play the lottery, but when I do I like to model it afterwards. I've written recently about surviving a pretty serious medical event and then making it through a hurricane with some life interruptions, but no significant harm. When I was in the hospital,

Django

Django from first principles, part 20

MP 119: How do you keep learning about Django? Note: This is the 20th (and final) post in a series about building a full Django project, starting with a single file. This series is free to everyone, as soon as each post comes out. This was a much longer series

Django

Django from first principles, part 19

MP 118: Deploying a simple Django project. Note: This is the 19th post in a series about building a full Django project, starting with a single file. This series is free to everyone, as soon as each post comes out. In the last post, we did some final reorganization of

django-simple-deploy

Thinking about architecture

MP 117: How often do you write a new, moderately complex library from scratch? Note: Our power was just restored yesterday afternoon, so we ended up going 12 days without power or running water. Internet service is still a week or two away. I've been able to get

reflections

Out of the frying pan...

MP 116: ...and into the fire, as the saying goes. Note: I think this post was published yesterday, but not sent as an email to anyone. If you received this twice as an email, I apologize. Mostly Python just passed 5,000 subscribers, which required an update to my Ghost

reflections

Programming, interrupted

MP 115: A surprise trip to the ICU instead of a planned trip to DjangoCon. Content notice: Discussion of a serious medical event; the discussion is not overly graphic. This week has gone a lot different than planned. I was supposed to be at DjangoCon this week, but instead I

Git

Amend your git commits

MP 114: Now is the best time to fix an unclear or misleading commit message. Note: I will wrap up the Django from first principles series in the next few weeks. The next step is deployment, and that's a complicated enough topic that it will take a little

Django

Django from first principles, part 18

MP 113: Restructuring the project. Note: This is the 18th post in a series about building a full Django project, starting with a single file. This series will be free to everyone, as soon as each post comes out. In the last post, we gave users the ability to write

Django

Django from first principles, part 17

MP 112: Letting users write new posts. Note: This is the 17th post in a series about building a full Django project, starting with a single file. This series is free to everyone, as soon as each post comes out. In the last post we gave users the ability to

AI

It's your job to keep AI at arm's length

MP 111: Don't throw away hard-earned trust in a rush to embrace AI. The AI hype cycle is continuing to run its course, and will likely do so for some time to come. Hype around things like NFTs tend to peak and then fade away quickly, because there&

Django

Django from first principles, part 16

MP 110: Allowing users to create their own blogs. Note: This is the 16th post in a series about building a full Django project, starting with a single file. This series will be free to everyone, as soon as each post comes out. In the last post we connected each

Django

Django from first principles, part 15

MP 109: Connecting users with blogs. Note: This is the 15th post in a series about building a full Django project, starting with a single file. This series will be free to everyone, as soon as each post comes out. In the last post we finished setting up user accounts.

reflections

My mechanical keyboard journey

MP 108: A long and winding road to a small set of favorite keyboards. We're nearing the final stages of preparing for a cross-country move, which means getting rid of anything we don't absolutely need in a new home several thousand miles from here. One of

Django

Django from first principles, part 14

MP 107: Building a registration page for new users. Note: This is the 14th post in a series about building a full Django project, starting with a single file. This series will be free to everyone, as soon as each post comes out. In the last post we built a

Django

Django from first principles, part 13

MP 106: Letting users log in, and log out. Note: This is the 13th post in a series about building a full Django project, starting with a single file. This series is free to everyone, as soon as each post comes out. In the last post we restructured the project