Water software and python¶

Tags: python, nelenschuurmans, lizard, django

Weird link I got from a colleague this evening: some Dutch ICT awards were awarded this week. The link is in Dutch, but trust me if I say that the two (to me) relevant awards were awarded to Python (as a fantastic computer language) and to hydrologic (a Dutch water+ict company, for their water software).

For me, the weirdness is three-step process:

• Ok, an award for Python is nice! Almost all our (Nelen & Schuurmans) software is written in Python. And virtually all of it is open source. Just look at github: https://github.com/nens/ and especially https://github.com/lizardsystem/ . Lots of Python and Django.

• The water software award goes to a closed source Microsoft shop.

• We (Nelen & Schuurmans) are the perfect combination of water software and open source Python.

We’re a water consultancy company. And a successful one, too. Lots of great projects. Most of them centered around something called Lizard (http://lizard.net for the mostly-Dutch business language stuff, http://lizard.org for the English IT stuff). Lots of partners working on and with it. It is a real platform with every partner putting in ideas and expertise. Most of the actual programming happens at our place, to be fair, at the moment. But… I’ve now personally been involved with already three partner companies that have been working with the Python code.

Ok, now what’s the weird thing? Well, the things being said in the other company’s award text are actually the things I’d use to describe the Lizard products :-) The core tenet of Lizard is “combining data” and that’s literally what’s in the award text. I have got the videos and screenshots to prove it. I can show you the lines in lizard-map’s models.py that are the core of our information-combination structure.

Well, let them have fun. If you’re looking for water-related software, Lizard is the one you want. Combining data, friendly visualization, big data, flood calculations, a lot. And… most of it is open source. And our software combines water with the other award winner: Python! Open source Python water software. That’s much better than the current water software award winner: I can hardly find a screenshot on their webpage. And not a lot of specifics. We have got all our stuff on github and a bunch of demo videos on http://video.nelen-schuurmans.nl/.

I’m very happy working where I work now. Water + open source + python: it can hardly get better. I notice the same mindset in my colleagues: we’re a big force that’s pushing forwards and putting out lots of very good software. Including source code, screen shots and videos. To me, that’s pretty different from working for a company without open source, with microsoft-only software and with hardly a screenshot on their website. (Perhaps weird that I’m hammering on the lack of screenshots, but I still haven’t managed to see one of “their” websites in real life, so I’m personally (probably unfairly) thinking about it as brochure-ware instead of as a potential threat…)

Wanna work on great Python water software in Utrecht? Mail us (provided you speak Dutch, that’s pretty much a necessity). A nice working location dead smack in the center of Utrecht next to the oude gracht. Especially nice now that the weather is good!