Did I get the title right?

I’m not sure. Maybe I should have replaced “returns” with reimagined, revisited, continued, expanded, focused, or something even more descriptive that could help me with direction as I keep producing more episodes of this thing.

This post is a reflection of why I stopped in August 2022. I’d like to also talk about where the podcast is going in the future. But I’m not really sure.

I’ve got actually quite a bit of audio to edit from interiviews ranging from last August to just yesterday. So my first order of business is to get those episodes edited and out the door. It’s not really fair to the people who took the time to talk with me to leave those in limbo.

I’ve got:

  • The oldest audio is Anthony Sotille talking about what we’d like to change with pytest if we could forget about backwards compatibility. That’s fun. That’s from August 2022.
  • Most recently is Pamela Fox talking me through what it takes to get a web app off of your laptop and into the cloud for the world to see it. That was just this week. That’s super relevant right now as I’m working on a SAAS project idea, as I know many of you are.
  • Before that was Thomas Depiere, from Jan 2023. He wrote an article called “I’m not a supplier” about some reaction to the supply chain thinking around open source projects. Gotta get that out. I know there’s a lot of frustration on both the consumer and producer side of open source projects. I don’t think we have an answer yet, but it’s a good discussion.
  • Then there’s some interviews I did in Sept around changelog creation.
    • Sorin Sbarnea and using GitHub releases
    • Hynek and Towncrier
    • Ned Bachelder and Scriv
  • I’ve been thinking about packaging a lot lately, so also in September I talked with Brett Cannon about trove classifiers.

So yes, I would like to get those out as soon as I can.

But what else? And why did I stop for so many months?

Let’s tackle the gap next.

I finished the 2nd edition of “Python Testing with pytest” in March of 2022. I wanted to get a course out based on the book. I did end up releasing a “Getting Started with pytest” course in Sept 2022.

Then there’s work, family, life, and everything else.

I’ve got a full time role as a lead software engineer. That means I’m an embedded C++ developer working with RF test equipment, and a manager. And of course we use Python for system testing and a whole bunch of other things.

Then there’s

  • Python Bytes, which is weekly.
  • and then the work on the course.
  • and Test & Code weekly,
  • and I’m also an antique dealer, but that’s a different story.

But I also wanted to do more:

  • I’ve got notes down and am going to start recording the full book of “Python Testing with pytest” as an online course. Possibly in parts matching the parts of the book.
  • I’ve been doing pytest training for small teams, up to like a dozen people over remote in a series of 90 minute sessions. Super fun. I want to do more of that.
  • Some form of open enrollment cohort training like those I do for teams would be fun.
  • I’ve got notes and research for a SAAS project, I’d like to get off the ground. This is one of those “I know people who have software needs and hey I’m a developer, why not solve it” kind of things.

So last fall, something had to give, and it was Test & Code. I just needed to set it aside for a bit to catch my breath.

But I think I’m ready to pick it back up again.

It’s probably not going to be weekly, but we’ll see. I need it to stay healthy for me and my family and all the rest.

I definitely want to get all of the recorded audio out that I have.

Then what?

Well:

  • I’ve been thinking about packaging a lot lately, so I’ll probably talk about that.
  • There’s tons of people doing interesting things in Python and elsewhere in software and testing that I’d like to talk to.
  • I’m sure I’ll learn alot as I bring that SAAS project along. There’s a decent chance I’ll ask Pamela or someone else from Azure or other services on to discuss the hurdles there.
  • I want to bring on more people that maybe don’t have answers, but have questions, and try to get those questions heard in a wider setting.

And… We’ll see.. If nothing else, we’ll have fun.

Thanks for sticking around.

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