Will McGugan

My name is Will McGugan, I am a freelance software developer, currently living in Edinburgh, Scotland (UK).

I specialise in writing software for the internet with Python; from web to websockets to custom protocols. I have many years experience using Django to build web applications, but my favourite framework is Moya (an open source web platform created by myself), which powers this blog. I'm a full-stack developer in that I actually enjoy working with HTML, CSS and JS as well as the back-end.

I am the author of Beginning Game Development with Python and Pygame

Here are some of my recent projects:

Rich - Rich content rendering in the terminal
PyFilesystem - Filesystem abstraction for Python
S3FS - Amazon S3 filesystem for PyFilesystem
Lomond - Robust and easy-to-use WebSocket client
Moya - Web application platform

For a less career-oriented post, see /will-mcgugan/.

Do you need to contact me?

Follow @willmcgugan

dainiel —

will,i want to be your Apprentice u have the head i always wish i have .all i need 3o minutes daily.

Reply to dainiel

WIll McGugan —

Daniel, best I can offer is my advice! What would you like to know?

Reply to WIll McGugan

Rigoberto Vides —

Hi Will, I just got your book. I'll start reading it this week. I'm just starting with python & game development. I hope I've made a good choice with this book.

Have a nice week Will!

Reply to Rigoberto Vides

Will McGugan —

Thanks Rigoberto, hope you enjoy the book!

Reply to Will McGugan

Matt Maclean —

Hi Will, i was wondering if you would be able to give any advice on where to start with 3D programming in python. I was planning on programming a 3D rubik's cube as a summative for a programming class i'm taking. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Reply to Matt Maclean

Calvin Robinson —

Hi Will,

Is a £20 Scottish note legal tender in the UK?

Kind Regards,

Me

Reply to Calvin Robinson

Ruk Cooray —

Will,

What's the meaning of life? if you say 42 i'll nut you.

the end

ruk

Reply to Ruk Cooray

Calvin, the term ‘legal tender’ in the legal sense means a form of currency that must be accepted as payment of debt. In that respect, Scottish money is legal tender in the UK. However it does not mean that shops have to accept Scottish notes as this is defined as a purchase and not payment of debt, but then shops aren't legally obliged to accept English notes either.

Ruk, as a secular humanist, I believe there is no meaning in life other than that which we consciously bestow upon it. Personally, I have decided that the only ‘meaning’ required is to strive to be happy, and to be nice to others.

I trust that answers your questions, gentleman.

Ruk —

Reply to Ruk

Mirgorod —

Will, your book is awesome! English is not my native language but i understand almost all in this books! It's the best book in my life!

Reply to Mirgorod

Joshua —

Hello Will! I just got your book as well, I'm taking a programming class in High School right now and we've been working with the early chapters of your book so far. I've become really interested in the subject and took the time to pick it up out of school. I wanted to give my sincerest thanks for writing the book. I've journeyed across the internet several times looking for a good programming book on Python, and it appears every other produced one, excluding yours, is for those that are experts at C++ making them extremelly hard to understand. So far, yours has been an easy read and I am actually enjoying reading a technical manual. If that doesn't show the quality of your work, well I have no idea what will.

Thanks,
Joshua

Reply to Joshua

Kevin —

I read most of your python game development book and I like your approach to teaching. Do you have any django tutorials available? I wish you had written a book on Django. You are a talented person.

Reply to Kevin

Keven, thanks. No Django tutorials here unfortunately. There are some decent Django books from Apress.

Jordan —

Hi Will, I found your book on amazon and let me just say I have been looking for a decent pygame and python guide for a LONG time and your's is amazing and meets all my needs. Unfortunately, time goes on and so does the versions of python. I am accustomed to python 3, while your book is based on python 2. As you can imagine suddenly changing isn't easy and is generally not the direction I want to be going. I was just wondering whether you by any chance are thinking about updating the book to accommodate the modern versions of python because it's a fantastic book and I think it is a shame for it to be forgotten.

Thanks so much, hope to see a reply soon!!

Reply to Jordan

hanke9087 —

我刚学完Python，现在就开始读你的书了，写的非常好！向你致以我崇高的敬意！

Reply to hanke9087

Morpheous —

Hey Will
Ive been studying your book for over a year. Its great and ive written some great programs. I wrote a program to record your weight, hangman, tic tac toe and also a lotto program. Ive also just learned a bit of Qt and applied your concepts to that and wrote a contact database to use for my business.

Thanks for your contribution to the world. Its really great when a talented person helps others.

Hope you get the results you want also.

Regards Morpheous. (That really is my name as well.)

Reply to Morpheous

firdaus —

hi will,

i just want to ask you about considering taking Python as serious career. I have heard many stories about programmer who spend 2-3 months to create apps and then sold their apps for millions..my questions, is that possible with python ?? can we create commercial python apps which can be sold for million dollars?

Reply to firdaus

@firdaus That is highly unlikely, but you can make a very good living with Python…

Jan-Bart Spang —

Will, I initially found a PDF of your PyGame book on some dodgy and probably illegal Ukrainian website after doing a Google search on “pygame tutorial pdf” and have decided to buy it. It's a great write and I hope it will be of great benefit to me! Keep up the great work!

Bart

Reply to Jan-Bart Spang

@Bart I forgive you for the pirating! Hope you enjoy the book.

Tony —

Will,

Do you have any plans on coming out with a 2nd edition?

Tony

Reply to Tony

Not in the near future, I'm afraid!

Suresh —

Moya looks interesting.

Reply to Suresh

Nick —

Hi Will,

I never do this but I like your book on Pygame and Python so much I felt like I should write to you. Although I have some experience will Dr. Java I have used the first few chapters of your book to learn Python and it is very easy to follow. So thanks for all your work!

-Nick

Reply to Nick

Adriano Rodrigues —

Hi Will! I am using your book and trying to do the game who ants and leaves and spider interact themselves (chapter 7, take me to your leader). In this project, there is the use of your module gameobjects. But when I try to import in my program gameobjects.vector2, python complains there's no module called util. I 've tried to import util in the module vector2 (before the from util import format_number), but the error remains. I'm using python 3.5. I'd to change all lines 'print' in modules to 'print(...)', but I could not fix the error!

Could you help me?

Reply to Adriano Rodrigues

Yan —

will where can i download gameobjects from other site than google code, i hope your help, thanks in advance

Reply to Yan

Lyndon VanWagner —

Thank you so much for Beginning Game Development with Python and Pygame. It was the "missing manual" for me getting started in Pygame. I'm an old guy (turned 60 this year), and have been looking for something describing the best graphical I/F for python games. I'm sharing your book with my son-in-law, who is gamer, and wants to get into writing them too.

Reply to Lyndon VanWagner

Hi Lyndon, I'm glad you enjoyed my book. Glad it got you started, hope you and your son in law have fun building games. :-)

Antonio Fernando Vieira de Sousa —

Wow! I'm begining to learn about python and their various developments, but discover someone what developed a framework to this is awesome.

Reply to Antonio Fernando Vieira de Sousa

Josh —

Hey Will - found you on HN. I'd love to know more about your mindset. You've managed to take several ideas from conception to popularity. You do all of this while also managing to write in the blog, publish books and more. To what do you attribute your productivity? Thanks!

Reply to Josh

I wouldn't say I'm all that productive, but I think the trick is to start something with no expectation of immediate results. Do something that interests you regularly, and after a while you might have something to show for it.

Bloo Alien —

Greetings, Will. Just wanted to say "Thank you so very much!" for all the fantastic open source Python code you've released. I've found it to be extensively useful; especially Rich and Textual… You're one of those people who are literally making the world a better place. Stay happy and healthy, sir. Thank you for doing the things you do.

Reply to Bloo Alien

Kid Cudi Merch —

Its blog give information from another people very well I am impress its information an information is very nice. Enter Glatic

Reply to Kid Cudi Merch