The TurboGears Ultimate DVD
...and the coolest web framework doodads around
Now shipping!
The TurboGears Ultimate DVD is a data DVD from Kevin Dangoor, the founder of the TurboGears project. My idea was to put together a DVD that offers some of the feel of pair programming with me. Sure, nothing beats pairing for real when it comes to knowledge transfer, but there are thousands of TurboGears users around the world and it's hard to spend time one-on-one with everyone :)
For the videos on this DVD, I spend a little time with the user-level API and then drill down into TurboGears core code itself to show you how things work. Unlike with closed source software, TurboGears gives you the complete source. By showing you which parts of the TurboGears code are responsible for each task, and giving you some ideas of how they work, I can bring some as-yet-undocumented features to light. This also gives you the know-how to extend and improve the TurboGears code, should you need to for your projects.
Note to preorder customers
If you preordered the disc, I'm waiting on the cooler, shiny discs to arrive (see the "white disc special" description below for details). If you'd rather that I ship you the less cool looking white disc right away, just email me at kid -at- blazingthings.com and I'll ship your order ASAP!
What's a "white disc special"?
When I sent the DVD off to manufacturing, I sent along a design for the disc that Richard Standbrook had made where the shiny disc surface would show through the golden G gear. Imagine my surprise when instead of seeing the shiny disc surface, I saw a white background!
I called up the manufacturer, and spoke to a nice customer service person and worked out a deal. So, now I have shiny discs *and* white discs, essentially getting the white ones at a big discount.
The content is the same, the case is the same. The only difference is that the G-gear is on white instead of a shiny surface.
What's in there
TurboGears 1.0 has a lot of features to cover. The TurboGears Ultimate DVD is not a replacement for the book-in-progress "Rapid Web Applications with TurboGears". The book covers the user-level APIs in detail, but does not talk about how TurboGears works on the inside. The DVD, on the other hand, covers some specific packages and talks about user APIs and provides a glimpse into the happenings behind the scenes.
The new videos are all high-quality, DV resoution (720x480, 29.97 frames per second) H.264 encoded QuickTime files (see "System Requirements" below). Note that there are a couple of older videos that are a bit lower resolution or encoded in Flash. There is a table of contents to go along with each video, so that you can either view the entire video or jump to just the part that interests you.
The DVD also includes the latest TurboGears software and documentation. The documentation includes an offline-viewable copy of TurboGears.org, plus copies of the documentation for CherryPy, MochiKit, Kid and SQLObject.
Features
The DVD features more than 5.5 hours of video, the majority of which is not available online.
- Using JavaScript with TurboGears
- Demonstration of how to install and use a JavaScript library that has been packaged up as a TurboGears widget. Also demonstrates how to start a new widget project that wraps a JavaScript library. That demonstration goes from quickstart all the way to registration with the Python Package Index (Cheeseshop).
- Introducing Generic Functions (and their use in TurboGears)
- Explanation of what generic functions are, followed by a demonstration of their use in a concrete example. This is followed up with a discussion of how generic functions are used to
- convert objects to JSON (turbojson.jsonify)
- choose widgets for data entry (tgfastdata.formmaker)
- pick an output method for expose() (turbogears.controllers)
- choose an error handler when something goes wrong (turbogears.errorhandling)
- How Widgets Tick
- In-depth coverage of the TurboGears 1.0 widgets API. Walks through the implementation of widgets so that you can see all of the features tucked away in there. Also covers the use of metaclasses in the API.
- TurboGears Core Tour
- A discussion of the packages and modules that make up TurboGears, including a look at modules such as turbogears.startup and turbogears.util that may have useful features that you didn't know about!
- The Future of TurboGears
- I'll talk about what I have in mind for the coming versions of TurboGears and what it means for the applications you're building today. Includes discussion of WSGI, CherryPy, SQLObject and SQLAlchemy.
- The 20 Minute Wiki (2nd Edition)
- The newly revised for TurboGears 1.0 "20 Minute Wiki", with twice as many frames per second as the one that's online.
- The 20 Minute Wiki (1st Edition)
- Feeling nostalgic? So was I, so I put the original "20 Minute Wiki" tutorial on the disc. TurboGears 0.5 seems like so long ago...
- TurboGears Software
- The eggs and tarballs all copied from the TurboGears download site for your convenience.
- TurboGears Website
- Pre-generated, ready-to-browse copy of the TurboGears.org preview site, including the API documentation. This allows offline reading of the docs.
- Other documentation
- HTML copies of the downloadable documentation for MochiKit, SQLObject, Kid and CherryPy are included.
- Global Index
- The DVD includes a single "StartHere" HTML file as a starting point for browsing the content of the disc.
The coolest web framework doodads
Going along with the "gear" theme, a desk of a TurboGears user just isn't complete unless it has an official MarbleGears. $14.95
Need a place to store the wrenches, screwdrivers and drill bits that you use when tackling a particularly tricky coding problem? Or maybe you are looking for the coolest pencil case on the block. The tin TurboGears Toolbox (the real life one, not the one that runs in your browser) is just the thing. (2.125in x 4in x 9.5in) $14.95
And, if you're feeling stressed or just feel like you need to have every bit of TurboGears coolness we've got, here's a cute little squishy stress-relieving TurboGears Toolbox. $4.95
System Requirements
The TurboGears Ultimate DVD requires:
- A DVD-ROM drive
- The free QuickTime Player 7 on Mac or PC (which you probably already have if you use iTunes)
- A recent version of VLC, MPlayer or Totem on Linux. If you can play the 20 Minute Wiki video that's online now, you should be able to play the videos on this disc.
Return Policy
If your DVD is defective, I'll be happy to replace it.
If you are unhappy with your purchase, you may return it within 20 days in new condition for a refund of the merchandise purchase price (the shipping charge is non-refundable).
In either of these cases, please contact me at kid@blazingthings.com and I'll help you get the return going.
