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I'm not sure if anyone knows, but the developer of the wonderful Acemoney software was killed, along with his family, several weeks ago in an aeroplane crash in Russia.  Alexander was a role model for what a developer should do - frequent updates and very active on his support forum.

Currently, the forum is full of people trying to find out what will happen to the software now.  As morbid as it is, do people have plans for what will happen to their software if the worst happens?

It's not free, but I'm now using PyCharm as my IDE.  For an IDE for a dynamically-typed language, it works very well.

I tried IronPython a while back and there is a console that comes with it.  I seem to remember it being called ipy.exe or something like that...

I've experience of Rational Rose (the UML part of Rhapsody) working in a large team

Pros:

• Allows a standardised documentation method.
• Means that information should all be in one place.

Cons:

• Once it's part of a corporate environment, the methodology guys add a huge layer of complexity to the tool (which they don't have to use).  I'm very much of the opinion that diagrams are there to communicate processes, rather than having to be a stickler for methodology-based rules and complexity.
• Like every documenting system, it quickly drifts out of sync with the development and becomes useless.  In a perfect world, the logical models and use-cases should be kept updated, but no-one ever has the time or inclination to do this.

Like mouser says, they are overkill for a small team.  I don't think that you can beat scribbling random flow diagrams and bullet points on paper or a whiteboard and then archiving them with your mobile phone's camera.

JetBrains are offering a 50% discount on the final version of PyCharm, due in the autumn.

50% off PyCharm

For the price, it's a very good editor and is the first python editor that's made me consider moving away from a bog-standard text editor.  The debugging support seems excellent.

Users too fall for sexiness... They often request new (almost useless) features to counter their natural hedonistic adaptation or because they'd like the software to be simply... "sexier" (sexy UI anyone ?) according to their own standards/vision -- which has nothing to do per se with the actual function of the software.

I totally agree.  People get angry when a new major release doesn't have a look-and-feel change.  As a result, new major versions of software are often just gui changes due to the pandering of the users.  This can de detrimental when the gui was perfectly adequate in the previous version.

Isn't another issue around the sexiness of new projects and the dismissing of old ones?  The next idea a developer has is really sexy and he definitely won't make the same awful design decisions he made last time.  While the developer is busy writing an application that will cure all the world's problems, the blossoming user community starts asking for bigger and better functions, especially ones that were outside of the original design.  After enough pestering, the developer has to part from his new, perfectly-architected application and work on the old one to shut the forum dwellers-up.  To speed up the process, he doesn't even want to understand how the original big, hairy mess of code works and he bodges it in with no thought for the architecture.

It works...just.  The forum-dwellers are happy bunnies and then go-away and dream-up new and exciting things the developer can add to the application...and generate a list of bugs with the code the developer bodged in.  The developer then gets sick-to-death of these dwellers constantly asking him to add more stuff to this hateful, badly-architected old code and vows never again to revisit that damn forum again.  Instead, he destroys the forum and sets-up a complex and impossible to use "support ticket" system where these people can never ever meet and exchange their evil thoughts again.  If it's complex enough, he might even be able to avoid ever seeing these issues again and can get on with the new and sexy project.

Maybe I'm wrong though...

Wow, that brings back memories  

It could be a mellotron.  Even if not, the link is definitely worth wathcing  

LittleRunner 1.3 is now available.

New features

• Ability to record a number of laps of a route.
• Pace and average pace.
• Removal of the console window that opens behind littlerunner.

Link: LittleRunner 1.3

Thanks, I'll tell my boss that 

Thanks Deozaan, I'll give Mercurial a try.

I've been playing with Darcs recently, which has been great as I can create the repository inside the project directory and this then syncs with Dropbox.  Easy to use command line interface too.  I really struggled with the centralised repositories of svn and the need to be running a server with a strange method of specifying the file paths.

A list of open-source applications written in python that should help to explain application structure:
Mercurial

These also use wxPython:
Taskcoach

Feel free to add any more to this thread.

might be nice if the Speed column could display the speed in terms of how many minutes it takes to run a mile.
(e.g. if you run 5 miles in 40 minutes, you have a 8 minute mile).

You're the second person who has asked for that.  Once I can work out how to do it, I'll add it to the next version.

Courtesy of a link on Reddit:
Best and free programming ebooks

I wonder if anyone ever publishes any of them, though... 

How about this chap 

Thanks mouser.  I've been working on the next version on-and-off that adds basic graphing to LittleRunner.  Unfortunately, due to my complete inability to understand svn (know any good links for a single developer?), the suggestions will have to wait until the graphing is stable...

This looks like a great find mouser - an intro the python, pygame and the debugger all-in-one.

So why aren't they migrating to Chrome OS?   

I assume that their development tools aren't web based.

LittleRunner 1.2.2 is now available.

Minor changes

• Speed is now shown to two decimal places

Link: LittleRunner 1.2.2

Supercomputers of the world

A really interesting interactive graphic about the supercomputers of the world.

The most important rite of passage is creating an application for the NANY event.

I completely agree with that.  The first significant-sized application I wrote was for NANY.  I now know exactly how not to structure the next one    My NANY entry this year could well have the "second-system effect" though...

To any learning developers, NANY is a great way to hustle.

The company that makes them is called HumanScale.  They are not cheap.  I'm guessing it will run you between $400-500.  

  Maybe I'll have to put up with the Bobbleheads  

Perhaps a shelf bolted to the wall just above the desk might do the job...

Does anyone use custom multi-monitor stands?

I've got two Samsung 22" monitors (one in the centre and one to the right) and their flimsy (but very "Samsung pretty") stands mean that every knock against the desk turns them in to perpetual-motion Mr Bobbleheads...

Are there sturdy desk-mount options or am I best off going for hideously-expensive wall-mounted options (although these would be good as they could be pushed against the wall when the desk space is needed)?

It's always said that there are certain applications that all learning developers have to write as part of their "rites of passage".

A starter for ten...a text editor.

Any more?

LittleRunner 1.2.1 is now available.

Big fixes

• Fixed a bug that occurred when a database upgrade failed due to the lack of a backup directory

Link: LittleRunner 1.2.1