Python Training Services
2010 Public Classes
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Python Training Services2010 Public Classes |
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We periodically offer public classes at a conference center. In 2010, all our public classes will be held in Sarasota, Florida. Come spend 3 days mastering Python, and enjoy all that Florida and its Gulf Coast have to offer while you're here.
Our public classes teach both the Python language, and how to use it in common application domains. These classes are 3-day sessions and are open to both individual and group enrollment. They provide the same topic coverage, in-depth instruction, and hands-on lab work as the over 200 private Python classes we have taught at client sites since 1997. Students of public classes arrange their own travel, hotel, meals, and recreation. We'll provide the training you need to jumpstart your Python programming skills.
This page describes our public classes in the following sections:
The following 2010 public class sessions are scheduled and open for enrollment:
Class begins at 9:00AM each day, and runs until 5:00PM, with a 1-hour break for lunch around noon. The training room is open at 8:30 each morning, and has wireless Internet access. There are a variety of restaurants within a short walk or drive of the training site. See the next section for pointers on scheduling flights to the class.
In 2010, all our public classes are held at the Holiday Inn Lakewood Ranch hotel and conference center, in Sarasota, Florida. The hotel's web site, which includes location, driving, lodging, and activities information, is available here:
Sarasota is a medium-sized city located on Florida's Gulf Coast, approximately 60 miles or 1 hour drive south of Tampa. For students attending from out of town, the closest airports are:
Orlando is another airport option, but is further away than Tampa (roughly a 2 hour drive).
The conference center itself is located just off Interstate 75 on Sarasota's northeast side, roughly 15-20 minutes drive from world-class beach areas and in close proximity to recreational opportunities in the area. The conference center's formal address is (click this address to open its location in Google Maps):
The room the class is held in can vary per session. For the exact room location, please see signs posted in the hotel lobby, call the hotel, or inquire at the hotel's front desk.
For students from out of town, the Holiday Inn Lakewood Ranch is also a full service business hotel, and can provide accommodations for your stay. In addition to its own attached restaurant, there are numerous restaurants and shopping centers in the immediate area. Please visit the hotel's website or location link listed above for information.
There are other hotels in the general vicinity of the class site as well. For more hotel options, try a search on any major travel web site using the Holiday Inn's address given above. In addition, vacation condos are generally available for rent in the Sarasota area on a short-term basis, and are often competitive with hotels on price and amenities. Search the web for vacation rental availability.
Please see the conference center hotel's web page or Google Maps link above for driving details and maps. If you're driving from the Tampa airport, I-275 is probably the fastest route; you'll pay one toll to cross a bridge, but will usually save time.
If you will be flying in from out of town and plan to return on the last day of the class, be sure to allow a minimum of 1 hour to drive back to the Tampa airport (or 15 minutes to the Sarasota airport), plus the usual extra time to drop off a rental car if needed.
Some students in the past have asked whether it is okay to leave early on the last class day, in order to catch flights. This is fairly common, and perfectly acceptable. On the last day, we try to prioritize topics according to the interests of those who must leave early.
Also for students coming from out of town, note that Florida is on Eastern Standard Time. Finally, some out of town students choose to allocate time to explore some of what Florida has to offer. If you're looking for pointers on local activities, we're always happy to assist, but we recommend more formal travel resources for your travel planning needs.
The price for our 3-day public classes is $1,000 per student.
This price includes:
Students are expected to arrange and pay for their own travel expenses separately, and bring a laptop computer to class.
To register for a public class, contact us by email (lutz@learning-python.com) or phone (941-704-2179). Payment of the class fee, described in the next section, registers you for the class.
New: You may also register by fetching and printing our student registration form, and returning it by fax or email.
Class fee payment is due at registration, and can be made by check or credit card.
For all forms of payment, we provide a sales receipt by email as soon as your payment is received. When you register, please also include an email address where you wish the receipt to be sent.
Unless the class is full, we are generally able to add students to the class roster until the first day of class. If a class does fill up, we will post an announcement at the top of this page. We do limit class size to allow for sufficient student/instructor interaction, but have rarely had to cutoff enrollments in practice.
We provide a 100% refund of your payment in the unlikely event that we must cancel the class for any reason. If you must cancel your registration, here is our refund policy (days in the following refers to calendar days):
Because we understand that plans can change, we also provide a rescheduling policy: if you choose to attend a future session, we waive the cancellation fees above and apply your payment to the future session.
In general, the only thing you need to bring to class is a laptop computer. We'll provide all the required software and course materials at the start of the class.
Students are expected to bring their own laptop computers to the class, for doing lab work, and viewing projected course materials and examples. We do not provide lab machines for students.
For student computers, almost any operating system is fine (Windows, Linux, and Macs are common), but please make sure you have a CD drive if you wish to view the electronic version of the class material on the class CD you will be given. (The workbook is also available for copying on USB memory stick, if you forget to pack your CD drive.) We provide high-speed wireless Internet access in the classroom; you'll need a WiFi enabled computer or card if you wish to make use of this. It is generally not practical to plug in wired connections.
Because you will be provided with a book, and a class CD that includes the class workbook in HTML format, you don't need to bring any other materials with you to the class. Also, the class CD includes Python self-installers, so no software must be installed prior to the class; if you don't already have Python on your computer, you will install it from the CD during the first lab session.
If you do wish to preinstall, though, you can find the latest Python at www.python.org. Mac OS X and Linux machines probably already have a Python suitable for the class. If you are a UNIX developer bringing a Windows computer, you might also be interested in preinstalling Cygwin and its version of Python (see www.cygwin.com); this is a GPL-licensed library that provides full UNIX functionality on Windows machines.
In conclusion, this section describes what you can expect from our class. We have been teaching Python since 1997, and have provided public sessions of our classes since 2001. Students of our classes come from a wide variety of backgrounds and applications. From new programmer to experienced veteran, and from quality assurance to scientific programming, students have found that our classes meet their Python training goals.
The following sections go into more detail about the class, and outline our approach to teaching. For additional information on specific class topics and prerequisites not covered here, please see our Course Topics and Overview pages.
Our classes are designed to jumpstart your Python learning experience. They provide in-depth, hands-on introductions to both the Python language itself, as well as ways to apply it to common programming tasks. We focus on fundamentals and core concepts which span application domains and reflect real-world Python programming.
Although a 3-day class alone is not generally enough to transform a novice into a Python "master of the universe," our classes provide the solid foundation needed to begin the process well. By attending our classes, students get a crucial head start with Python, and gain a strategic advantage over less structured approaches.
All our classes are taught by Python author and trainer, Mark Lutz. Mark has been using Python since 1992, is the author of 3 best-selling Python books, and is the most widely-experienced Python trainer in the world, having taught some 250 classes since 1997. For more information about the class instructor, please see our Instructor Background page.
Our classes cover the Python language, and introduce some of its most common application domains. They have proven to be suitable for both newcomers to the language, as well as programmers with some prior exposure. Roughly, the first two-thirds of the class covers the core language, and the final third explores ways to apply it to common programming tasks. Both portions provide in-depth, up-to-date, and best practice information that can be difficult to obtain from other resources. Whether your goal is to learn Python itself to apply it successfully in your work, or to sample ways to use Python in domains such as GUIs, databases, and the Web, you'll find something of value in our classes.
The two portions of our class mirror the instructor's popular books: the core language coverage of Learning Python, and the application topics of Programming Python. Like these books, this class provides a deep understanding of Python which you will find useful in your day-to-day work. It provides idioms, cautions, and hints which are designed to teach you not only how to use Python, but how to use it well. Unlike the books, our class provides live interaction and immediate feedback that are impossible to capture in a text. In the class, for example, roughly half of our time is devoted to hands-on lab sessions, which allow you to practice real Python programming skills.
Finally, we firmly believe that what you will learn depends as much on you, as it does on the instructor. Our classes are highly interactive, and driven by student interests and skill level. Although there is a core set of topics covered in all classes, we are always open to feedback and requests of our students. That is, we provide an informal and flexible class format. Because the true value of live classes involves much more than watching a presentation, we encourage active participation throughout the class, and provide an instructor who strives to coach, not lecture.
Update: In 2010, we will be teaching both Python 2.X and 3.X. Because most students use software based on the 2.X line, our focus is generally on Python 2.6 (which is applicable to all 2.X users), but we also introduce the changes present in Python 3.X along the way to a degree that depends upon student requirements. Whether you use 2.X, 3.X, or both, you'll find that this class addresses your needs. Also for 2010, our class now includes coverage of new advanced topics, including Unicode, decorators, metaclasses, descriptors, and new multiprocessing topics, subject to student needs and interests.
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lutz@learning-python.com
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