Why us?
All of our training is:
- Interactive
Our courses are not the typical dry lectures that you had in college or in any professional continuing education or vocation school setting -- your instructor has seen too much of that in his lifetime. Rather, the session focuses on you and your needs. Questions are always encouraged and often lead to discussions of interest to everyone. Your instructor is engaging, charismatic, and enthusiastic about the materials, and it will show at classtime and during labs.
- Hands-On
Each day of training is peppered with lab exercises to bring it all home. No course in programming can possibly be effective without having you code in the language and topic that you're learning. There are also an abundance of recommended problems from the textbook to try after-hours as well!
- Comprehensive
We discuss more than just syntax and "how to do it" in Python. We cover topics and objects in an in-depth way so as to tranfer knowledge of how the Python virtual machine works under the covers. We do not get a chance to address all of the extra topics which other instructors may offer in their intro courses because we feel that a solid foundation to Python development is more important than covering as many topics of interest in a short 3-days.
We believe in creating the most effective Python programmers from the
start -- we cover objects, syntax, style, data types, flow constructs,
and memory management in-depth, so attendees know the ins and outs of
how to write optimal Python code and with fewer mistakes. We believe
that if users can program knowing how Python works under the covers,
they will write more "correct" programs from the start. Poor coding
is language independent, and it can still happen with a great language
like Python, so why go through this at all? Syntax alone isn't good
enough training in our opinion.
Do not underestimate our Python "intro" -- this is not a
beginner's course to "get your feet with with Python and its syntax."
It is a hard-core introduction to getting to know Python's objects
and memory model to stop potential bugs before you even code them.
Unlike seminar-based training, there are also intensive lab exercises
(both review and coding) to hammer home the concepts, covered via
multiple lab sessions per day of training.
Being able to write more effective programs from the get-go cuts down
on the total time required for debugging and refactoring, and this
has significant and measurable organization costs overall, going well
above and beyond the insignificant costs of technical training: your
ROI with us is the "best bang for your buck."
Likewise, our advanced course is geared towards those who already
know Python well enough to apply their knowledge to specific application
areas such as those described above. Each advanced topic is augmented
with lab exercises where even if you don't need this code for your work
yet, the work you put into each coding exercise will become valuable
when you do need it -- you could review your code as a way of
"getting back into" the relevant topic of interest. In fact, we are
the only Python training organization that even offers advanced Python
training!
Another reason to choose us is that our courses are based upon the
well-received book, Core Python
Programming, part of Prentice Hall's highly-regarded Core
series. It is a great book for both learning and teaching Python, and
we take advantage of these features. Not coincidentally, the course
is delivered by the author himself, who is not just a "technical trainer"
but rather, a senior software architect by profession who just happens
to have significant teaching experience. Overall, he has over 25 years
of programming, writing, and teaching experience, and is the perfect
trainer, mentor, and consultant for your complex software development
projects. We have been in business for over 10 years and have taught
other professional courses such as C Programming, and Introduction to
Unix, in addition to our Python curricula.
What other Python services do we offer?
Non-interactive Training
For example, we have a Python training video that mirrors the "Introduction to
Python" (Python Programming I) course that we offer. You may license this by
itself, or you can also license it with all the course notes and lab exercises!
A multimedia slide presentation is also available -- these are the course notes
done originally in PowerPoint but with audio of our instructors added to it. All
are available at reasonable fees costing much less than having a live instructor.
While not as effective as live instructor-based training, these represent your
next best alternatives due to scheduling or budgetary conflicts.
For those with an even more restrictive budget, we have another alternative:
we can license a multimedia-enhanced PowerPoint presentation complete with audio
of our lectures embedded within the file. Follow along the slides along with
our instruction. As with the video materials, you may also license the multimedia
PowerPoint file with all of the course notes and exercises to help enhance this
style of instructional delivery.
Contact us for more information on either of these
non-interactive training options.
Contract Technical Instruction
We can serve your needs if our instructors have the background for
your courses, and you would like us to use your course-developed
materials and only require on-site technical instruction or corporate training.
We can teach a variety of courses, which include but are not limited to:
Python, C, Unix / Linux / FreeBSD / Solaris, Unix shell programming, and
web / CGI / HTML / CSS / Javascript development.
Private Tutoring
For more one-on-one private instruction, our instructors are available
for individual tutoring sessions, daytime, evenings, and/or weekends.
We have an hourly rate plus travel costs (if not local). Appointments
must be arranged in advance.
Consulting and Engineering
As described above, our primary instructor, Wesley Chun, is not just a
"technical trainer" but rather, an experienced senior software engineer
who just happens to have long-term teaching experience. With his 25+
years of programming, writing, and teaching experience, he is the perfect
trainer, mentor, and consultant for your complex software projects. This
means that he can communicate directly with software engineers, engineering
managers, and project managers with regards to your Python-related project.
He is well-versed in the ever-mutating triangle of time, resources, and
features and can serve as a sounding board to your senior architects in
terms of making critical system design decisions and issue resolution. If
you need him to roll up his sleeves and get into the trenches with your
development team, he can do that too. We have both consulting as well as
architect/engineering rates.
We also consult in other areas in addition to
our work in Python. Please contact us for more
information and scheduling.
Technical Documentation
Have some Python documents which need review? Planning on writing a Python
book, magazine or journal article? Need the advice or opinions or copy-edit
skills of a seasoned writer and programmer? We can do this too.