Principles for Considering Your Python Tooling

26 snips

Jan 17, 2025

Christopher Trudeau, a frequent contributor to PyCoder's Weekly, joins to discuss essential principles for choosing Python tools. He shares insights on recognizing common pitfalls in decision-making for teams and emphasizes the importance of solid foundational knowledge. The conversation also highlights exciting developments like the top Python libraries for 2024, a Django quiz, and innovative projects like a TUI expense tracker. Additionally, they dive into managing dependencies using Python Poetry, making it easier for developers to streamline their projects.

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INSIGHT

Python's Flexibility

Python's flexibility is a double-edged sword, allowing for rapid development but not enforcing best practices.
This makes establishing consistent tooling and workflows crucial, especially for teams.

ADVICE

Handling Code Style

Address code cruft (dead code, commented-out code, unused arguments).
Establish consistent code style and formatting within the team.

ADVICE

Promote Internal Packages

Leverage internal packages to promote code reuse and reduce duplication.
Host a private PyPI server to manage internal libraries seamlessly.

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What are the principles you should consider when making decisions about which Python tools to use? What anti-patterns get in the way of making the right choices for your team? Christopher Trudeau is back on the show this week, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects.

We discuss a recent article about effective Python developer tooling. Instead of digging into a list of current libraries, we talk about the principles you must consider before making decisions for your team. We cover common pitfalls teams get mired in and how to avoid them.

We also share several other articles and projects from the Python community, including a news roundup, a huge collection of the top Python libraries of 2024, programming sockets in Python, merging dictionaries, a Django quiz, mistakes to avoid in production, building a Portal sentry turret, a powerful TUI expense tracker, and a pure-Python async rendering engine.

Course Spotlight: Managing Dependencies With Python Poetry

Learn how Python Poetry can help you start new projects, maintain existing ones, and master dependency management.

Topics:

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:01:53 – DjangoCon US 2025 (Chicago, Sept 8-12) Announced
00:02:38 – Textualize 1.0 Released
00:03:15 – Top Python Libraries of 2024
00:07:07 – Programming Sockets in Python
00:11:56 – Merging Dictionaries in Python
00:17:03 – Django Quiz 2024
00:17:55 – Confessions of a Django Dev: Mistakes To Avoid in Production
00:18:40 – Sentry Turret Straight Out of the ‘Portal’ Franchise
00:20:00 – Video Course Spotlight
00:21:26 – Effective Python Developer Tooling in December 2024
00:41:13 – Bagels: Powerful TUI Expense Tracker
00:43:42 – htmy: Async, Pure-Python Rendering Engine
00:45:41 – Thanks and goodbye

News:

Show Links:

Top Python Libraries of 2024 – For the past ten years, Tyrolabs has put together a list of their favorite Python libraries of the year. This list includes ten general purpose libraries and ten more specific to AI/ML and Data.
Programming Sockets in Python – In this in-depth video course, you’ll learn how to build a socket server and client with Python. By the end, you’ll understand how to use the main functions and methods in Python’s socket module to write your own networked client-server applications.
Merging Dictionaries in Python – There are multiple ways of merging two or more dictionaries in Python. This post teaches you how to do it and how to deal with corner cases like duplicate keys.
Django Quiz 2024 – Adam runs a quiz on Django at his Django London meetup. He’s shared it so you can try it yourself. Test how much you know about your favorite web framework.
Confessions of a Django Dev: Mistakes To Avoid in Production – This post covers some of the common mistakes you might make when taking a Django project into production.
Sentry Turret Straight Out of the ‘Portal’ Franchise – “Reckless_commenter has created a Raspberry Pi-powered sentry turret that looks and sounds just like the creepy machines found in the ‘Portal’ franchise.” Logic and sound effects managed through the PyGame library.

Discussion:

Effective Python Developer Tooling in December 2024 – This post talks about how tooling doesn’t solve all your problems when you code, especially with a team. It outlines some principles to implement, and bad practices to avoid when writing Python.
Mistakes engineers make in large established codebases - Sean Goedecke

Projects:

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