Highlights from EPC 2006

1. Highlights from EPC 2006 Vincenzo Innocente On behalf of the Local Organizing Committee

2. EuroPython at CERN • EuroPython conference organized by SFT this year! • Three days • Parallel sessions in Bld 40 • Keynotes and “Lightning” in main auditorium • Dinner in the Globe • 280 participants • 100 presentations (w/o lightning) • 5 by “CERN” VI @ EPC06

3. Schedule 4 parallel sessions (in bld 40) • All synchronized • 5 minutes pause between talks • Easy for people to move from one session to another Plenary Lightning & key notes (in Main Amphi) VI @ EPC06

4. Scientific Program • 7 tracks • Python in Science • Python Language & Libraries • Agile Development • Web Frameworks • Business and Applications • Teaching • Games and Entertainment VI @ EPC06

5. Statisticsby Sebastian Lopienski • ~ 100 abstracts • words: ~13.6k • unique words: ~2.7k • some chosen words • plugin* 18 • secur* 2 • embedd* 4 • performance 13 • improve* 11 • interoperability 3 • distribut* 22 VI @ EPC06

6. Community • Who • Wide age spectrum • Many in post-doc age-range • All 5 continents • Very few women (1-2%, all managers?) • Where • Company developing Software Solutions • Revenue from Selling custom products or services • Find business advantages • In using open source software (contribute to its development) • Develop components reusable beyond a specific project • Research Labs • Domain specific applications • Reuse in the community (adapting to pre-existing “habits”) VI @ EPC06

7. Community • What: • Core language development • Web framework, web applications • Software development tools (web based) • Scientific data processing, visualization • No sys-admin, net-admin, embedded-software, office automation • Why: • Hear news about Language, Libraries, key products (Zope,…) • Discuss, propose, complain • Present their products • In many cases just a spin-off component • Work (in Sprint sessions) VI @ EPC06

8. Messages • Python as • THE integration framework • THE Business Domain Language • THE embedded scripting language • Language for rapid-prototyping, extreme-programming, just-in-time deployment Python is faster than Assembler VI @ EPC06

9. Keynotes • Alan Kay • Xerox PARC, etc • Children First! • Guido van Rossum • Python BDFL (Benevolent Dictator For Life) • Python 3000 VI @ EPC06

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20. The Indico Technology • Main programming language: Python • Runs on Apache using the Python module mod_python • Persistence based in ZODB (Zope Object Database) • Transparency: no need for explicit read/writes of the objects • Fits very well with Indico complex object model • Proven performance and scalability • Timetable generation: libXML, libXSLt + python bindings • Portable technologies: runs on Windows, linux • Export gateways: • iCalendar ; XML ; PDF outputs • OAI (Open Archive Initiatives) for ensuring integration with other services • Standard protocol for information exchange between digital libraries • Allows to expose conference data • Allows other systems to fetch conference data and build services over it • Simple mechanism  XML over HTTP VI @ EPC06

21. The Invenio Technology • Main programming language: Python • Runs on Apache using the Python module mod_python • Uses MySQL RDBMS • Take advantage of fully featured query language • Invenio home made Indexes • Internal representation with XML-MARC • Export gateways: • Multiple output formats: HTML, XML, MARC, OAI, DC, etc. • Some modules: • Still in PHP (slowly moved to Python) • Some in Common Lisp (BibCheck) VI @ EPC06

22. Index Space Design (II) • Two important speed factors to consider: • speed of set intersections (Web App Server) • speed of set marshalling (Web App <-> DB Server) • Data structures tested: • sorted (lists, Patricia trees) • unsorted (hashed sets, binary vectors) • fast prototyping: (Python) • throw-away coding, organic-growth software • development model • typical search time gain: 4.0 sec  0.2 sec • typical indexing time loss: 7 hours  4 days • binary vectors found the best compromise (for all types of sets) VI @ EPC06

23. Performance Benchmarks (2002) • Testing marshalling/intersection/union/unmarshalling • Bytecode interpreted language study: (Python, Java) • Python faster than Java (mainly due to marshalling) • Machine code compiled language study: (ML, Lisp) • OCaml, CMU CL: 3+ times faster than Python C libs • CMU CL best scalable: intersecting 6M records in 0.01 sec, 30M records in 0.04 sec • Data structure study: • OCaml, 3,000,000 records: bit vectors 0.43 sec, hashed sets 1.71 sec, lists 3.76 sec, Patricia trees do not scale well for dense sets • Python fast enough for production (1M records) • fast C modules: Numeric (byte/bit), Marshal, Psyco VI @ EPC06

24. The + of Python • Clean aesthetical language • Easy to learn, important for many internship students and temporary members working on the project • Very good for rapid prototyping & organic-growth development • Plenty of ready-to-be-used modules • Bytecode-compiled only, speed okay for our needs VI @ EPC06

25. Lightning • 5 minute talks about “anything” • Strict timing, no one took longer • Advertising/promoting • Demos • Follow-up/Summary of parallel talks • Wild Ideas • In most cases the message passes • People Google for keywords in the talk… VI @ EPC06

26. What I learned • Easy to organize a conference if Nathalie is the boss • It is possible to have meetings • With a friendly, cooperative, tolerant atmosphere • Where speakers keep their timing… • … and the audience is not asleep • There are Communities which value • Sharing information • Building reusable software components • Cooperating in developing the basic building blocks • Become a community around such a common ground VI @ EPC06

27. More? • Wait for the talk at AA meeting • Visit • http://vanrees.org/weblog/topics/europython • http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=44 • http://www.europython.org/ • http://www.google.com/search?q=europython VI @ EPC06