txStatsD Preview

Sidnei da Silva (of Plone fame) has recently created a Launchpad project for an async StatsD implementation. He's got code in place for review by any Twisted kingpins who'd like to give it a glance.

statsD was originally created in 2008 as a Perl implementation at Flickr for their statistics counting, timing, and graphing needs. Engineers at Etsy ported this work to Node.js (which Sidnei based his version on). A few months ago a regular Python implementation was created (also based on Node.js).

More than another (excellent) addition to the tx family, txStatsD will provide folks with the luxury of collecting stats using a Python server without having to write any blocking code :-) Sidnei also implemented a graphite protocol and client factory for passing the messages along.

Enjoy, and let him know what you think!

TX-Theory

Twisted Community Projects is brand-spankin' new and out on Launchpad!

When Glyph named TX-theory, he did not specify what the "TX" stood for, presumably because he did not feel he had the right to name a theory which he had not been able to fully describe. According to Glyph himself:

"TX" stands for "TwistedmatriX", "Transmit", or "Twisted multipleXed, according to taste.

However, as presented in the upcoming docudrama by producer Chris "radix" Armstrong and director Duncan "oubiwann" McGreggor, "TX" stands for "Twisted Extensions," though this is also contended, sometimes by Chris himself who has already pitched a counter-docudrama (to an un-named Hollywood backer) focusing entirely on the non-extensionness of TX-theory.

Cynics have noted that the "TX" could be rot-13 of Glyph Lefkowitz, in an alternate English alphabet with an additional letter inserted between those of "T" and "X." Even more insidious are the rumors that "TX" stands for "Prophecy Blade Epic Destiny Quest Adventure."

From the definitive history (as yet unwritten, but leaked by the time-traveling nanobots whom we all will one day serve) on the matter:

The name TX-theory is slightly ambiguous. It can be used to refer to both the particular seventeen-dimensional Twisted construct that Glyph originally proposed, or it can be used to refer to a kind of theory which looks -- in various limits -- like the growing number of asynchronous, event-driven networking frameworks implemented in conventional four-dimensional space-time.

Apologies to the author(s) of the M-Threory article on Wikipedia. For a slightly more real take, read the Labs' announcement.

Update: There are now 14 projects registered as belonging to TX on Launchpad :-)

Divmod/Holden Web Partnership

As mentioned before in a few tweets and blog posts, Divmod's been working with Holden Web a lot lately. After lots of brainstorming, sweet jam sessions, and planning, we're finally ready to talk about it: our latest news item says it all :-)

We've got information up on the site about the topics covered in our joint training courses and workshops. You can contact either Divmod or Holden Web with any questions.

The Twisted Think Tank

I'm pleased to announce that we've got a new Divmod site up! We're still making tweaks, but it's ready for public viewing, and open for business.

This change currently doesn't affect our subscriber services... but it will, very shortly :-) JP's working on that now.

Anyone who knows us, knows that we know Twisted. We really know it. And how could we not, with Twisted superheroes like Glyph and JP? We've been solving very interesting problems for the past couple years, and other companies have availed themselves of this expertise. We're no longer trying to hide from our destiny as "the Twisted company."

We've found that providing specialized consulting services has not detracted from our core competency as software developers, but has rather done quite the reverse: provided a great deal of insight and clarity. The two activities have established a complementary feedback mechanism for growth and invention.