On Wednesday June 6th, I attended a talk about Python and Docker, this event was hosted by PyLadies RDU meetup. Going in to this activity I was very nervous that I would feel out of place or be completely lost during the presentation. I had many questions in my mind, should I bring my laptop? Will the people be friendly? Will I be taken seriously since I am a student? Will I be looked over because I am just starting to learn Python and do not use it as a professional in the field?

After entering the space, all of my worries were gone. The group was very welcoming. One of the co-organizers Ginny, introduced herself to me, asked me about myself and gave me a brief outline of what to expect. She seemed genuinely glad that I was at the meet up. I got the same feeling from the other attendees that I spoke with.

Notes about the presentation

The speaker was John Carnell, his presentation can be found here in his repository on GitHub. Once in the repository, you’ll see a .ppt folder with the presentation and also a Pyladies 2018 folder where he placed some of his code. Check it out if you’re interested!

Attending this meet up helped me realize that I am truly learning new skills and a new language. I was shocked, surprised and happy that I was able to understand many of the terms that the presenter was talking about. I was able to read through his code and understand what it meant in English. I was also ecstatic about being able to follow along with his presentation without getting lost.

Some of the new vocabulary I learned is below. Beware that I have inserted my interpretation of what the terms mean, I cannot guarantee they are correct.

• pip – I am not sure what this is, I will Google it when I have time 😊
• docker image – my understanding is that you create a docker image before you can run a container
• docker container – this is when the docker image you created is running
• docker swarm – this seems to be a collection of docker containers
• docker manager and docker node – a docker manager manages several worker nodes

Here’s some terms that I was familiar with because we have learned them in class:

• yaml
• html
• parameter
• function
• command line

Some code I recognized was:

with open (filename) as file:

Notes about the community

I was glad to see that PyLadies RDU is a diverse community of people. Being a black female, I am cognizant of the biases that some people may have about me. Some are biased against me because I am a female or because I am black or sometimes both. I think this is why I was most comfortable with planning to attend a “ladies” meetup. I was already nervous about going to my first meetup and the unfamiliar that comes with that, knowing I was welcome as a female was one less thing I had to worry about.

I plan to continue to attend the PyLadies RDU meetups and will try some of the other meetups that were recommended to me.

TiA