Ephes Blog

Architecture is a property of a system, not a description of its intended design --Stefan Tilkov

Had a week off, yay! Spent most of the time visiting museums, swimming pools and playgrounds. For open source, I'm still working on a performance-oriented refactoring of django-cast. This is much harder than expected. It's basically about being able to generate the html for all the performance critical pages like blog index, feed and post detail from a cachable data representation (serializable Python dict for example).

Articles

• Web
  • Complexity bad: An interview with HTMX creator Carson Gross | Lots of helpful links here
  • My Accessibility Review Checklist | Very nice!
• Python
  • Syntax Error #11: Debugging Python | Nice debugging tool overview
  • Python Project-Local Virtualenv Management Redux | I'm still on virtualfish, but this looks also nice - have to try it, I guess 🧪
  • How I Provision My MacBook with Ansible | I only use ansible for servers, but this sounds nice, too
  • ASGI deployment options for Django
  • Syncing Django Waffle feature flags
• CSS
  • CSS variables | Didn't know about them - cool
  • How we’re approaching theming with modern CSS | CSS variables applied
  • How to Kill the Cascade | Cool, didn't know it was possible
  • Hide or Disable
• Long
  • Contrasting Aesthetics
  • Unexplanations: relational algebra is math
• Your AI Product Needs Evals | That's what most companies doing ML get wrong, right. I'd like to add a few paragraphs, though..

Mastodon

• AI Mathematical Olympiad - Progress Prize 1 | Really interesting competition
• Kennt ihr gute deutschsprachige Channels für 9+ Jährige Kinder? | Thread

Weeknotes

• Weeklog for Week 13: March 25 to March 31 | Johannes

Software

• Form Designer - a simple form designer for Django
• CodePen Home Flight slider - HTML+CSS | Hrhr
• mise-en-place - The front-end to your dev env | replaces pyenv for Python and installs also Node and go etc..

Podcasts

• Vanilla Web: Niedrige Kopplung & hohe Kohäsion mit Golo Roden von the native web | I think it's telling when "let's do everything in JavaScript" guys like Golo get defensive when talking about htmx. Could it be that the next step is already winning? I just got used to being ignored and expected to be laughed at first. But okay, whatever.
• Django ORM - Simon Charette (Django Chat) | Good episode

Out of Context Images

As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications. — Dave Parnas

Last week working on SSO using django-saml2-auth. Didn't get much done besides work because the kids were sick and we were traveling a lot. Fixed a small bug in the post preview for django-cast. After I heard the latest core.py episode where Łukasz Langa asked if maybe someone could try to update python.org to a newer version of Django, I thought, ok, maybe I'll give it a try. But Jacob already submitted a PR 🚀, so I did a review instead. I also spent some time outside, the cherry trees over here are in bloom 🌸.

Articles

• My binary vector search is better than your FP32 vectors | This is a bit like using a conventional inverted index..
• Fixing a Bug in PyPy's Incremental GC | Cool article 😎
• Talker’s block | Now you know what I'm doing here 😇
• TDD: You're Probably Doing It Just Fine | Yep, no reason to get dogmatic about this
• Every dunder method in Python | nice
• The Django admin is a CMS | Yes and no
• What You Need to Know about Modern CSS (Spring 2024 Edition) | Nice overview!
• xz | Oh dear
  • Technologist vs spy: the xz backdoor debate
  • Everything I Know About the Xz Backdoor

Videos

• Speaking with the Creator of Pandas on the Future of Open Source (Wes McKinney) - KNN Ep. 184 | good interview

Mastodon

• Simon Riggs, Gründer von 2nd Quadrant und PostgreSQL maintainer, starb in einem Flugzeugunglück
• So satisfying... | we tend to assume everything is linear and normally distributed - and sometimes, it is!
• what's your favourite way to simplify your life with git? mostly interested in slightly unusual tricks to reduce the number of git features you're using, like:

Weeknotes

• Weeklog for Week 12: March 18 to March 24 | Johannes

Software

django-singlefile - This is a small library that makes it easier to write single-file Django applications

Out of Context Images

Becoming an adult feels like slowly being pushed into a managerial position you didn't really want. --MostlyHarmless

Had some fun with unicode .̵̨̞̹̞̳̼̱͉̻̱̤̯̳͈̹̔̓̔̋̄͐̽̽̓́̐̈̈́͘.̸̹̮͇̞͆̽͒̋̎̆͌̋͝.̷̤̘̇͂̓̾͒̀͒̌̓̚͝͝.̶̰͉̔͒͗͘͝͠.̶̩͈̼͉̱͎̤̱̝̏̀̎.̴̡̢̛̯̳̘͖̄̃̃͝ͅ.̷̧̫̬͖̯̣͈̟̑̎̔̐̈́̆͆͋̓͑̂͘͝.̷͈̤̭͉̞͇̲̥̏̌̀̂́͛.̵͈̗͔̠̼̮̟͉̖̖̣̘͋͑̽͛̑̑͛͗͝.̴͕̦̙̀̒̈͆͊͂̓̌͌̕͜.̶̡̨̳̝͓͚̲͇͖̥͓̄͂͆̀̏̑̒̃̄̽̿̍͘͝.̷̢̪͂͑̈̀̾̅̀̐̀̈́͛͂̍̕͝͠.̵̧̭̩̠͇̱̙͔̤̱̻̖̙͈̟̬͊̽̓̆̚.̵̦͎͚͍̍̈͂͑͂̓̌͘.̸̛̣̲͎͒̂̏͋͂͆͗̆̀̀̂͛.̶̢̡̗̥̳̪̖̯̪̥̯̤͇̜̻̟͊̔̀.̷̧̡̱͉̙̜̜̰̱͇͑͛͘͜.̸͙̰̮̦͇̬̞͓̰̗͋͑̀̎̍̍͆̌.̶̗͈̩̼͒.̴̨̦͙̝̜̻̹͙͙̻̓̈̽̉͑̆͆̚͘ͅ.̴̢̥̰̪̪̖͕̺̪̜͐̈́̋̐̒.̴̛̦̺̤͖͙̳̗̣̠̥̪̊̾͒̒̚.̵̢̯̞͔̗̗͖̞͎̉͊̾͆́̈́̾̌͝.̵̻͕̗͔͍̜͈͎͓͋̾́̍͑̀̈͠.̸̡͆̓̄͑̉̋.̷̛̫͙́͆̈́͗̈́̃̾͐͗͂̀̚͝.̷̪͖͚̹͈̝̦̫͇͇̞̈͆̄̃̏̈́̍̌͜͠ for work last week. For open source, I

created a new django-cast release mainly fixing some bugs:

• Fixed a bug that caused the detail page link to be rendered twice on an episode detail page
• Fixed a caching bug in the feed generation that caused the wrong feed to be served
• Fixed broken galleries missing an id
• Fixed rendering of relative episode detail links for podcast feeds that were not clickable in podcast clients

Spent some time outside - this week had the first really warm days this year 🌤️.

Articles

• Low maintenance software | Ack
• TIL: pip-tools Supports pyproject.toml | Oh, didn't know about this!
• Styled | webcomic
• Minecraft in der Familie mit jüngeren Kindern spielen - Wege zum Ziel | Habe keine Zeit zu Spielen!
• Are LLMs useful?
  • Claude and ChatGPT for ad-hoc sidequests
  • Building and testing C extensions for SQLite with ChatGPT Code Interpreter
• Make your terminal nice | Yep, starship is really nice
• Welcome our new Fellow - Sarah Boyce | Congrats Sara! 🥳
• Django: Write-up on optimizing the system check framework | Just used it last week 😁

Videos

• Accessibility testing training | Djangonaut Space 2024, session 1 | Edge, really? Really good video!
• A closer look at the blocks field | I'm interested in how this might be different compared to Wagtail..
• General Ben Hodges (Ret.): The West Needs Strategic Clarity | Jake Broe Podcast (E023)

Software

• Robox is a simple library with a clean interface for exploring/scraping the web or testing a website you’re developing | Really nice API
• Kid Pix | Drawing app for kids from 1989 for Macintosh reimplemented in Javascript
• PyKidos - Python playground in Javascript
• django-simple-deploy - Initial Django deployments made easy | Need to have a closer look at this
• DiskCache: Disk Backed Cache | Might come in handy if redis has to be avoided
• Watchman - A file watching service | Got a new release after 6 years, yay!
• Mastodon
• We sent out the “Intent to Ship” for `view-transition-class`!

Weeknotes

• Weeklog for Week 11: March 11 to March 17 | Johannes

Podcasts

• uv - The Next Evolution in Python Packages? (Talk Python To Me) | Ok, I think I should at least try it
• 21st Century Databases with Gwen Shapira (Happy Path Programming) | Kafka gets a new database based on postgres? Ok, I think I'll try to stay out of kafkas blast radius for a bit longer 😄
• Django’s Evolution - Jacob Kaplan-Moss (Django Chat) | Good episode. I agree on this whole "Django didn't have a frontend story for a long time. But with htmx it now has." point. That's why I'm now interested in CSS and web design. It's now possible to build complete products using just Python / Django. Additional shownotes.

Look, it's not our fault you people are made out of telemetry we can monetize --lcamtuf

Normal work week. Still catching up on my open source stuff:

• Finally released django-cast 0.2.28 which adds a way to provide all the data needed to render lists of posts without hitting the database. At the moment this is only used by the feed view, but more views will follow soon. And Wagtail 6 is now supported, while support for Wagtail 4 and Django < 4.2 is dropped.
• New kptncook release fixing a bug in the json export, thanks to @ton-An
• And a django-filepond release fixing some minor issues

Two weeks ago, I thought I had got my home network problems under control. But I was wrong - after my futile router and switch replacements, my wife's masterful Ethernet crimping skills finally fixed our home network problems.

Articles

• (How to Write a (Lisp) Interpreter (in Python)) | Classic
• Python stretches lead in language popularity index
• Breaking Down Tasks | I'm not sure about the value this adds, but knowing about this doesn't hurt, right?
• django-allauth - Grand Plans for 2024 | It's about to implement passkeys, cool!
• Structlog with Django is Awesome! | It is
• Still trying to learn CSS
  • A (more) Modern CSS Reset
  • A CSS project boilerplate
• How fast can we process a CSV file | Nice writeup
• Mental Health in Open Source

Mastodon

• poll: did you know that in a git merge conflict, the order of the code is different when you do a merge/rebase? | Honestly didn't know this, but it explains a lot 😮

Weeknotes

• Weeklog for Week 10: March 04 to March 10 | Johannes
• Weeknotes: the aftermath of NICAR | Simon Willison

Software

• django-prose-editor - Prose editor for the Django admin based on ProseMirror | Very cool!
• pywebview is a lightweight cross-platform wrapper around a webview component that allows to display HTML content in its own native GUI window

Podcasts

• The Future of Python - Deb Nicholson (Django Chat)
• Episode 9: Py Day with Emily Morehouse-Valcarcel (core.py) | Good one!

Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game that lets you live out such fantasies as:

- Having money

- Making close friends as an adult

- Travelling the world without crippling debt

- Being able to change the world

- Getting better at something with practice

- Getting 8 hours of sleep each night --Dgar

Normal work week. Attended the PyDDF Python Spring Sprint which was great. I had to stop working on django-cast in January and used the Sprint to finally catch up. It's now possible to fetch all the data needed to render a list of pages (example: the feed) in one go and then pass that data to Wagtail, which then renders the pages without hitting the database. This opens up a lot of possibilities for performance improvements. The original plan was to work on a transcript feature, but this is fine too 😅. Adding transcripts is the next big feature on the list.

Mid-week I stumbled across this Mastodon post that forced me to indulge in some Vietnam travel nostalgia. I Went to an opera performance which was also great. And we released a new podcast episode about freelancing. Oh, and I managed to patch my favorite terminal font MonoLisa with some nerd font symbols because I finally started using Neovim again via LazyVim. Hmm, quite a busy week.

Articles

• STF invests in reimplementing GNU coreutils in Rust | This is surprisingly useful spent tax money, congrats!
• On pip isolation
• From Beeps to Toots: Reviving Pagers with Python and Mastodon
• Making wagtail.org more accessible | Results of an a11y audit
• How to spend less time writing Django tests | Using kolo to generate integration tests. Hmm, I for one actually enjoy writing tests 🤔
• The GPT-4 barrier has finally been broken

Videos

• Is UV the FUTURE of Python PACKAGING? 🐍📦 | It depends 😄 - good video!

Software

• wger - Self hosted FLOSS fitness/workout, nutrition and weight tracker written with Django
• djangosaml2 - A Django application that builds a Fully Compliant SAML2 Service Provider on top of PySAML2 library | Got some updates lately
• LazyVim is a Neovim setup powered by 💤 lazy.nvim to make it easy to customize and extend your config | Nice excuse to start playing around with neovim again
• Warp is the terminal reimagined | Shiny new terminal 🖥️
• tox-uv is a tox plugin which replaces virtualenv and pip with uv in your tox environments

Papers

• Mamba: Linear-lime Sequence Modeling with Selective State Spaces | Alternative architecture

Podcasts

• Cameron Jones & Sean Trott: Understanding, Grounding, and Reference in LLMs (The Gradient Podcast) | Interesting bits on how to test LLMs for theory of mind etc
• Episode 193: Wes McKinney on Improving the Data Stack & Composable Systems (The Real Python Podcast) | Cool episode!