GettingStartedWithTwisted¶

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Getting started with the Twisted Framework¶

This 3-hour tutorial session will introduce the fundamentals of Twisted. It answers the question: “Where do I start?” And while some complaints have been made regarding a lack of documentation, there’s plenty of it out there if you know how to read and understand it.

Target audience¶

Programmers experienced with Python but no real experience with Twisted.

Focus¶

This tutorial explains how to use Twisted in a controlled environment, where the programmer has the ability to define what’s running on both sides of a network connection. (This means that I will _not_ be talking about Twisted in the context of the web, or the use of a browser as the user interface.)

Outline¶

A. Fundamental Concepts

The asynchronous programming model
Finite State machines

A. Twisted Features

Reactors
Cred
Deferreds
Perspective Broker a. Realms b. Avatars c. Perspectives

Case Study¶

Using Twisted to build a Chat Server.

This sample application is capable of highlighting all the topics listed above. A full exploration of a chat server will include issues like authentication and authorization, and can include discussions about topics like moving more arbitrary data between clients such as executables or graphical images. Some other subjects, such as using a GUI toolkit on the client, will be touched on just enough to provide necessary functionality.

Note: Students are encouraged to bring a laptop - preferably preloaded with Python, Twisted, and wxPython.