PyCon Ireland 2013: Beautiful python code

(via http://python.ie/pycon/2013/talks/beautiful_python_code/)
Speaker: Jaime Buelta (http://twitter.com/jaimebuelta)

Sure, Python can produce great readable code. But what are the best techniques for making your code shine? Some discussion about the values and principles behind great code.

UPDATE: Blog post: http://wrongsideofmemphis.com/2013/10/14/make-beautiful-python-code-talk-at-pycon-ie-13/

Transcript

1. MAKING BEAUTIFUL PYTHON CODE Or Readability Counts JAIME BUELTA BY Thursday 17 October 13
2. Developers like Python because code is beautiful Thursday 17 October 13
3. Almost no one will appreciate it Thursday 17 October 13
4. (At least until there’s a problem) Thursday 17 October 13
5. BOSS DOES NOT CARE worried about costs and stuff Thursday 17 October 13
6. CUSTOMERS DON’T CARE worried about functionality and stuff Thursday 17 October 13
7. but your team will care Thursday 17 October 13
8. most of the time, the effort difference between good code and bad code is small Thursday 17 October 13
9. MY DREAM Thursday 17 October 13
10. Thursday 17 October 13
11. Thursday 17 October 13
12. Thursday 17 October 13
13. Thursday 17 October 13
14. Thursday 17 October 13
15. CODE IS ALWAYS CHANGING Thursday 17 October 13
16. CODE NEEDS TO WORK Thursday 17 October 13
17. “There's a difference between getting your hands dirty and being dirty.” DS Justin Ripley Thursday 17 October 13
18. “There's a difference between getting your hands dirty and being dirty.” DS Justin Ripley (yes, the picture is not from Luther, but from The Good Cop) Thursday 17 October 13
19. WHAT MAKES BEAUTIFUL CODE? Thursday 17 October 13
20. EASY TO UNDERSTAND Thursday 17 October 13
21. (THEREFORE, EASY TO CHANGE) Thursday 17 October 13
22. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND Thursday 17 October 13
23. OVERDESIGN Thursday 17 October 13
24. GOOD CODE Thursday 17 October 13
25. FITS IN YOUR HEAD Thursday 17 October 13
26. BAD CODE... Thursday 17 October 13
27. Thursday 17 October 13
28. Thursday 17 October 13
29. Function Thursday 17 October 13
30. Function Module Thursday 17 October 13
31. Function Module System Thursday 17 October 13
32. Show how good you are HERE Not here Thursday 17 October 13
33. Thursday 17 October 13
34. Thursday 17 October 13
35. LOCALITY CONSISTENCY VERBOSITY Thursday 17 October 13
36. CONSISTENCY VERBOSITY Keep related stuff together LOCALITY Thursday 17 October 13
37. LOCALITY VERBOSITY Use patterns CONSISTENCY Thursday 17 October 13
38. LOCALITY CONSISTENCY When in doubt, explain VERBOSITY Thursday 17 October 13
39. Be as OBVIOUS as possible in other words... Thursday 17 October 13
40. LOCALITY Thursday 17 October 13
41. MSG_TEMPLATE = ‘Template {date}: {msg}’ MORE_CONSTANTS... .... def log_msg(message): formatted_msg = MSG_TEMPLATE.format( date=utcnow(), msg=this_message ) print formatted_msg Thursday 17 October 13
42. def log_msg(message): MSG_TEMPLATE = ‘{date}: {msg}’ formatted_msg = MSG_TEMPLATE.format( date=utcnow(), msg=message ) print formatted_msg Thursday 17 October 13
43. MSG_TEMPLATE = ‘{date}: {msg}’ def log_msg(message): formatted_msg = TEMPLATE.format( date=utcnow(), msg=message ) print formatted_msg Thursday 17 October 13
44. Related classes on the same module Function used only in a module not in independent module Keep files short Avoid boilerplate Separated business logic Thursday 17 October 13
45. CONSISTENCY Thursday 17 October 13
46. Humans are amazing recognizing patterns (so good we tend to see too many) Thursday 17 October 13
47. PEP8 IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PATTERN COLLECTION OUT THERE Thursday 17 October 13
48. Abstract common operations List comprehensions Decorators and with statement No private methods No getters and setters Thursday 17 October 13
49. I LOVE MY BRICK! syndrome Thursday 17 October 13
50. VERBOSITY Thursday 17 October 13
51. data = "+RESP:GTTRI,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,"\ "%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s,%s\0" % (imei, number, reserved_1, reserved_2, gps_fix, speed, heading, altitude, gps_accuracy, longitude, latitude, send_time, mcc, mnc, lac, cellid, ta, count_num, ver) Thursday 17 October 13
52. data = (‘+RESP:GTTRI,{imei},{number},{reserved_1},’ ‘{reserved_2},{gps_fix},{speed},{heading},’ ‘{altitude},{gps_accuracy},{longitude},’ ‘{latitude},{send_time}, {mmc}, {lac}, {cellid}’ ‘{ta},{count_num}, {version}’).format( imei=imei, number=number, reserved_1=reserved_1, reserved_2=reserved_2, gps_fix=gps_fix, speed=speed, heading=heading, altitude=altitude, gps_accuracy=gps_accuracy, longitude=longitude, latitude=latitude, send_time=send_time, mcc=mcc, mnc=mnc, lac=lac, cellid=cellid, ta=ta, count_num=count_num, version=ver, ) Thursday 17 October 13
53. WHEN IN DOUBT, COMMENT Thursday 17 October 13
54. PUTTING ALL TOGETHER Thursday 17 October 13
55. results = [] for row in query_results: tag, value, updated = row if value and updated > last_time: TEMP = ‘tag: {0}, value: {1} result = TEMP.format(tag, value) results.append(result) Thursday 17 October 13
56. def format_result(row): tag, value, _ = row TEMP = ‘tag: {0}, value: {1}’ return TEMP.format(tag, value) def interesting(row): _, value, updated = row return value and updated > last_time results = [format_result(row) for row in query_results if interesting(row)] Thursday 17 October 13
57. SMART IS THE ENEMY OF READABILITY Thursday 17 October 13
58. HAVE A GOOD REASON TO BE SMART And comment accordingly Thursday 17 October 13
59. ONE DAY, SOMEONE WILL BE SURPRISED WITH YOUR CODE Thursday 17 October 13
60. YOURSELF!!! Thursday 17 October 13
61. SO, REMEMBER Thursday 17 October 13
62. Thursday 17 October 13
63. BE OBVIOUS Thursday 17 October 13
64. ASSUME YOU CAN’T FIT A LOT OF CODE ON YOUR HEAD Thursday 17 October 13
65. BE SMART IN SYSTEMS, NOT IN FUNCTIONS Thursday 17 October 13
66. LOCALITY CONSISTENCY VERBOSITY Thursday 17 October 13
67. Tell your buddies how much you appreciate them writing simple code! Thursday 17 October 13
68. Thursday 17 October 13