What if Jane Austen had been an engineer?

As a developer with two English degrees, over the years I’ve identified some concrete ways this education makes me a better developer. This talk will discuss how we can take lessons from literature to write more readable code, make better tests, and create more usable websites. At the end of the day, after all, our job is to write. Surely the techniques of great writers have something to teach us.

In this humanities-based talk, you’ll learn about Freytag’s pyramid and what it has to do with writing clean code, why writing those dastardly outlines before your term papers helped prepare you for your job as an engineer, and see for yourself how The Zen of Python is basically a modern retelling of Strunk and White’s classic Elements of Style. You will leave inspired to go read your favorite book to get some tips for your next project.

Transcript

1. What if Jane Austen
   had been an engineer?
   Lacey Williams Henschel
   PyGotham 2018
   !
   @laceynwilliams | @revsys
   

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2. @laceynwilliams | @revsys
   

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3. @laceynwilliams | @revsys
   

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4. I read it immediately and with
   great pleasure.
   — Jane Austen
   @laceynwilliams | @revsys
   

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5. @laceynwilliams | Source: Django
   

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6. @laceynwilliams | Source: Django docs
   

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7. @laceynwilliams | Source: Django Girls
   

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8. @laceynwilliams | Source: REVSYS
   

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9. @laceynwilliams | Source: StackOverflow
   

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10. @laceynwilliams | Source: GitHub
    

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11. preface
    "They all paint tables, cover screens, and net
    purses."
    -- Charles Bingley
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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12. "... thorough knowledge of music, singing,
    drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to
    deserve the word; and besides all this, she must
    possess a certain something in her air and
    manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her
    address and expressions, or the word will be but
    half-deserved."
    -- Caroline Bingley
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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13. "All this she must possess, and to all this she
    must yet add something more substan6al, in the
    improvement of her mind by extensive reading."
    -- Fitzwilliam Darcy
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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14. If someone has skills in
    ✦ music
    ✦ languages
    ✦ miscellaneous other skills
    ✦ nonspecific "person" skills
    then they are accomplished.
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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15. Chapter One
    Planning
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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16. @laceynwilliams | Source: J.K. Rowling via Endpaper & Andrew Godwin
    

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17. @laceynwilliams | Source: PyCon 2015 & Django
    

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18. Namespaces are one honking great
    idea.
    — Tim Peters
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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19. todo:
    1.Have a Person
    2.Let that person have skills
    3.Decide if they are skilled in specific areas
    4.Decide, based on their skills, on their overall
    "accomplished" status
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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20. Chapter Two
    Wri$ng chapters, not epics
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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21. write one scene at a time
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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22. from django.db import models
    class Person(models.Model):
    music = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    singing = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    drawing = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    dancing = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    modern_languages = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    nonspecific_air = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    good_walker = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    good_tone = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    address_expression = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    reader = models.BooleanField(default=False)
    # add more as we need them
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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23. from django.db import models
    class Person(models.Model):
    ...
    def is_accomplished(self):
    return (
    self.music and
    self.singing and
    self.drawing and
    self.dancing and
    self.modern_languages and
    self.nonspecific_air and
    self.good_walker and
    self.good_tone and
    self.address_expression and
    self.reader
    # etc.
    )
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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24. When a sentence is made stronger,
    it usually becomes shorter.
    — Strunk & White, The Elements of Style
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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25. from django.db import models
    class Accomplishment(models.Model):
    MUSICAL = 0
    LINGUISTIC = 1
    OTHER = 2
    ACCOMPLISHMENT_TYPES = (
    (MUSICAL, 'Musical'),
    (LINGUISTIC, 'Linguistic'),
    (OTHER, 'Other')
    )
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    accomplishment_type = models.IntegerField(
    choices=ACCOMPLISHMENT_TYPES
    )
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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26. from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
    from django.db import models
    from accomplishments.models import Accomplishment
    User = get_user_model()
    class Person(models.Model):
    user = models.ForeignKey(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    accomplishments = models.ManyToManyField(
    Accomplishment, related_name='people'
    )
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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27. class Person(models.Model):
    @property
    def is_accomplished(self):
    return (
    self.is_musically_skilled() and
    self.is_linguistically_skilled() and
    self.is_otherwise_accomplished() and
    self.is_something_in_air() #returns True
    )
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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28. Chapter Three
    Wri$ng well
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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29. Your code communicates; you control how well
    it does that.
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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30. Simple is be*er than complex.
    Sparse is be*er than dense.
    Readability counts.
    -- Tim Peters, The Zen of Python
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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31. ... your descriptions are often
    more minute than will be
    liked...
    — Jane Austen
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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32. class Person(models.Model):
    @property
    def is_accomplished(self):
    return (
    self.is_musically_skilled() and
    self.is_linguistically_skilled() and
    self.is_otherwise_accomplished() and
    self.is_something_in_air()
    )
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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33. class Person(models.Model):
    def is_musically_accomplished(self):
    return self.get_musical_accomplishment_count() >= 3
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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34. class Person(models.Model):
    def get_musical_accomplishments_count(self):
    return self.accomplishments.filter(
    accomplishment_type=Accomplishment.MUSICAL
    ).count()
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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35. Chapter Four
    Understanding plot
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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36. @laceynwilliams | Source: Wikipedia
    

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37. 1.
    !"#$%&' () *
    2.
    +,
    ,
    #➕(
    =
    .
    ,
    $➕)
    = ,
    3.
    )2$
    =
    ⛔
    ,
    %4*
    4.
    )*
    ,
    #4(
    5.
    )4$
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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38. exposition
    class Person(models.Model):
    user = models.ForeignKey(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    accomplishments = models.ManyToManyField(
    Accomplishment, related_name='people'
    )
    def is_musically_accomplished(self):
    return self.get_musical_accomplishments() >= 3
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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39. rising action
    class Person(models.Model):
    user = models.ForeignKey(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    accomplishments = models.ManyToManyField(
    Accomplishment, related_name='people'
    )
    def is_musically_accomplished(self):
    return self.get_musical_accomplishments() >= 3
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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40. climax
    class Person(models.Model):
    user = models.ForeignKey(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    accomplishments = models.ManyToManyField(
    Accomplishment, related_name='people'
    )
    def is_musically_accomplished(self):
    return self.get_musical_accomplishments() >= 3
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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41. falling action
    class Person(models.Model):
    @property
    def is_accomplished(self):
    return (
    self.is_musically_skilled() and
    self.is_linguistically_skilled() and
    self.is_otherwise_accomplished() and
    self.is_something_in_air()
    )
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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42. denouement
    >>> mr_wickham.is_accomplished()
    False
    >>> elizabeth_bennett.is_accomplished()
    True
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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43. Chapter Five
    Character development
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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44. Everything we do involves reading and wri2ng.
    Everything we read and write involves other
    people.
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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45. It is only a program... or, in short,
    only some work in which the greatest
    powers of the mind are displayed...
    in the best-chosen language, Python.
    — Jane Austen, probably
    @laceynwilliams | Source: Susan Yin
    

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46. !
    github.com/williln/djane-austen
    !
    @laceynwilliams
    !
    lacey@revsys.com
    !
    revsys.com
    !
    laceyhenschel.com
    @laceynwilliams | @revsys
    

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