What goes into building a spreadsheet application in Python that runs in the browser? How do you make it launch quickly, and where do you store the cells of data? This week on the show, we speak with Chris Laffra about his project, PySheets, and his book “Communication for Engineers.”

As a software engineer, Chris has worked at IBM, Google, Uber, and several financial institutions. He speaks about developer productivity and communication skills as an engineer. We begin our conversation by digging into his background, his approach to building engineering teams, and strategies for improving communication.

Chris’ idea for PySheets is to have Excel inside Python with everything running locally in your browser. He was inspired by the success of Jupyter Notebooks but wanted to develop a tool more suited to a spreadsheet’s non-linear graph structure.

PySheets is built to run locally in the user’s browser, taking advantage of PyScript. We discuss finding the right solution for storing data in the browser and developing a graphic toolkit to create the UI. Chris also shares the novel method he found to get the interface up and running while the larger assets are loading.

This episode is sponsored by Sentry.

Course Spotlight: Understanding Python’s Global Interpreter Lock (GIL)

Python’s Global Interpreter Lock, or GIL, is a mutex (or a lock) that allows only one thread to hold the control of the Python interpreter at any one time. In this video course, you’ll learn how the GIL affects the performance of your Python programs.

Topics:

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:02:25 – Background with building engineering teams
00:08:43 – Communication for Engineers book
00:16:17 – What do customers want and experiences at IBM
00:24:28 – Starting the development of PySheets
00:27:19 – Working with the DOM
00:29:41 – Success of Jupyter notebooks
00:35:46 – Sponsor: Sentry
00:36:52 – Little Toolkit for PyScript
00:43:24 – Finding funding
00:46:58 – Building a product before selling
00:52:27 – Video Course Spotlight
00:53:46 – Finding the right data storage in IndexedDB
01:01:57 – Exploring the trial page and extensibility
01:08:26 – Contributing to the project or forking
01:11:56 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?
01:16:20 – What do you want to learn next?
01:17:25 – How can people follow your work online?
01:18:05 – Thanks and goodbye

Show Links:

Chris Laffra
C4E - Communication for Engineers (ePUB)
PySheets - Spreadsheet UI for Python
PySheets: Source for PySheets
PyScript - Python in the browser - Chris Laffra - YouTube
Python in Excel - Microsoft 365
pyscript/ltk: LTK is a little toolkit for writing UIs in PyScript
LTK - Little Toolkit
PROCOL: a parallel object language with protocols - ACM SIGPLAN
IndexedDB API - MDN
First steps - PyScript
Pyodide — Version 0.26.3
PyScript Updates: Bytecode Alliance, Pyodide, and MicroPython
MicroPython - Python for microcontrollers
FreeCAD: Your own 3D parametric modeler
Chris Laffra - How to become a Happy and Productive Engineer - YouTube

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