Real Python Podcast Episode #98 Title Artwork

Episode 98: Drawing Fractals With Python and Working With a Weather API

The Real Python Podcast

Feb 18, 2022 51m

Have you been wanting to explore fractals and complex numbers in Python? Would you like to practice working with APIs in Python through a new project? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, and he’s taking on the task of curating new issues of PyCoder’s Weekly going forward. He’ll be joining me as a cohost every other week and bringing a fresh batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects.

Episode Sponsor:

We discuss a Real Python article about drawing the Mandelbrot set in Python. The tutorial guides you through creating fractal art using Matplotlib and Pillow. We also share a new step-by-step project building a weather-reporting command-line interface (CLI) app.

We cover several other articles and projects from the Python community, including a news roundup, a better Pygame main loop, ways to work with static and media files in Django, and a library for pleasing console output.

Topics:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction
  • 00:02:15 – Black, the Python Code Formatter, Is Stable
  • 00:04:07 – Apple Removes Python 2.7 in macOS Monterey 12.3
  • 00:06:36 – GitHub Survey on Languages and More Developer Things
  • 00:10:14 – CPython 3.11.0a5 Is Available
  • 00:11:48 – Django Security Releases Issued: 4.0.2, 3.2.12, and 2.2.27
  • 00:12:43 – A Better Pygame Main Loop
  • 00:21:22 – Sponsor: CData Software
  • 00:22:04 – Draw the Mandelbrot Set in Python
  • 00:29:12 – The Fastest Way to Read a CSV in Pandas
  • 00:35:16 – Video Course Spotlight
  • 00:36:26 – Working With Static and Media Files in Django
  • 00:41:42 – Raining Outside? Build a Weather CLI App With Python
  • 00:48:15 – konsole: Readable, Pleasing Console Output
  • 00:50:27 – Thanks and Goodbye

News:

Articles:

  • A Better Pygame Main Loop – Improving your game’s main loop for smoother gameplay that takes less battery power: “Now your players’ laptops run cool while playing, and the graphics don’t have ugly tearing artifacts any more!”
  • Draw the Mandelbrot Set in Python – In this tutorial, you’ll visualize the famous Mandelbrot set using Python’s Matplotlib and Pillow libraries. You’ll learn how to draw the fractal in black and white, grayscale, and color.
  • The Fastest Way to Read a CSV in Pandas – This article covers pandas’ default CSV reading, the faster and more parallel CSV reader introduced in v1.4, and a different approach that can make things even faster.
  • Working With Static and Media Files in Django – A look at how to work with static and media files in a Django project, locally and in production.

Projects:

Additional Links: