The Real Python Podcast

Selecting Inheritance or Composition in Python

17 snips
Aug 15, 2025
Christopher Trudeau, a recurring guest and author of 'Django in Action,' dives into the nuanced battle of inheritance versus composition in object-oriented programming. He discusses a thought-provoking article that uncovers the deeper reasons behind choosing one over the other. The conversation also touches on recent Python community updates and intriguing projects like converting HTML to markdown and a library for audio processing. Plus, Trudeau highlights why understanding dunder methods is essential for effective Python coding.
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ANECDOTE

PedalBoard Demo At PyCon

  • Christopher Bailey recounts Peter Sobot's PedalBoard talk demonstrating audio processing in Python, including echo and distortion demos.
  • The talk used Pyodide for a live browser demo and showcased VST plugin support in PedalBoard.
INSIGHT

Emojis Can Hide Data

  • Unicode variation selectors can hide arbitrary bytes inside an emoji, creating steganographic channels.
  • The Unicode spec's handling of unknown selectors (leave them intact) enables this data-smuggling technique.
ADVICE

Don’t Call Special Methods Directly

  • Avoid calling dunder (special) methods directly; use the language-level functions and operators instead.
  • Let Python invoke special methods via len(), str(), operators, or context managers for clearer, safer code.
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