The Objects
Upcoming Course Dates:
- June 9, 2025 (live taught online).
Course Hours:
- 9:30am-5:00pm US Central Time/Chicago
Cost:
- $250
Registration:
Instructor: David Beazley
This is a one-day course based on material that I also teach in the Advanced Programming with Python course.
Overview
How does one go about better using classes and objects to solve problems? In the course, we'll attempt to answer that question by working on a pair of small projects involving objects and relationships between objects. Core topics will include:
- Defining new objects with the class statement.
- Some core tenets of object-oriented programming
- Composition
- Interfaces
- Planning for customization
- Resource management and the object life-cycle
- Making code testable.
Many courses on objects tend to focus on programming language features. For example, trying to cover every possible thing that might appear inside a class definition. This course is different--our primary focus is on core concepts and how thinking in terms of objects can solve practical problems related to problem solving and code organization. As we will see, organized thought often has very little to do with coding "features."
Target Audience
This course is for intermediate programmers who would like to improve their skills with knowing how and when to use objects. You should already know the basics of Python built-in datatypes (lists, dicts, sets) and functions. Prior exposure to classes is recommended, but we'll start from the beginning and cover most of the essentials.
Instruction Format
The course alternates between live group discussion and individual coding exercises. There are no powerpoint slides. You should expect to spend about 50% of the time coding and thinking.
A Word About Cost
Attending a full day of tutorials at PyCon 2025 costs $300. This course is cheaper than that. I may be able to offer discounts for parity pricing, students, and job seekers--ask me when you hear back after registering.
About the Instructor
This course is taught by David Beazley. David is known in the Python world as the author of the Python Distilled (Addison Wesley) and Python Cookbook, 3rd Edition (O'Reilly Media). He has also given various conference talks including a few infamous bits of live coding.