Python news wrap-up for December 2022
Python news wrap-up for December 2022
PyCon 2023 registration is now open! Plus, new versions of Python are now available.
Hello Grokking Python readers, and happy new year!
Before we all look ahead to 2023, let's recap what happened in the world of Python in December. It was a little bit of a slow month, so we'll keep it brief.
Congratulations to the 2023 Python Steering Council members
The Steering Council members for 2023 have been elected! The council is responsible for governing the development of the language. The five developers in charge of the 2023 council are Brett Cannon, Pablo Galindo Salgado, Emily Morehouse, Gregory P. Smith, and Thomas Wouters. Congratulations to the council members and to special recognition to Emily Morehouse as she is joining the council for the first time.
PyCon 2023 registration now open
Registration for this year's PyCon is officially open! PyCon 2023 will be held April 19 to 27 in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as online. There are different rates for corporate, individual, and student ticket packages, so be sure to visit the PyCon 2023 Registration Information page to learn more.
2023 marks the 20th anniversary of PyCon, so it's safe to say that this year's celebration will be extra special. If you plan to attend, act quickly, as the first 500 passes are sold at a reduced, early bird rate!
Better performance with Python 3.11
The Python Package Index upgraded to Python 3.11, and they noticed a marked improvement in CPU usage of the web services that power their platform. This increase in performance can be seen in this PyPI tweet. Significantly increased speed contributes to better, richer software systems as well as decreased energy consumption.
Python is constantly improving and growing, further solidifying its place as one of the world's top programming languages. Significant improvements like this show just how dedicated the Python team is to making their language consistently better.
If 3.11 isn't really your speed, the Python release team dropped six simultaneous versions earlier this month.
The first four versions are security releases of legacy versions of Python. The new patch, 3.11.1 has 495 new commits and is the first major maintenance release for 3.11. The 3.12 alpha is an early developer preview for what is to come and represents the second of seven total alpha releases for 3.12. Stay tuned for more changes to the language!
Black auto formatter wants your feedback
If you use the Python auto formatter Black, you may want to check out the new proposed changes for their 2023 stable style. The first draft is available and the Black team is eager to hear feedback about improving the package. This version is just an alpha, but it represents the vision of what Black's maintainers plan to implement in 2023. There are lots of changes planned, too many to list here, but if you like Black and are interested in being a part of the user research process you can read about the 2023 style draft in this blog post.
You can find the release for 23.1a1 on GitHub.
Educative has new Python skill assessments
Got a job interview on the horizon? Just looking to test your Python skills? In December, Educative added two skill assessments for:
Python Pandas: Aimed at testing all your Pandas technical skills, from beginner to advanced. The assessment covers everything from sorting and grouping to merging, slicing, and iterative functions.
SciKit-learn: Thoroughly covers this key machine learning library by focusing on two main topics: feature engineering and supervised learning.
You can attempt each assessment three times, and both come with a completion badge that you can add to your social media profiles.
Happy new year, readers!
We hope you enjoyed this brief recap of December 2022! But enough looking backwards – it's 2023, and that means setting our sights on the year ahead. As always, we'll be covering all things Python. We'll be supplying you with some of our favorite learn-to-code resources in the coming months, so be sure to keep reading if you want to fulfill a resolution to improve your Python skills.
As always, happy learning!