What advice can you extract from the Zen of Python? How can these nineteen guiding principles help you write more idiomatic Python? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects.

Christopher shares a Real Python tutorial by Bartosz Zaczyński titled “What’s the Zen of Python?” We talk about the poem’s origin and ways to access the Zen within Python. We also discuss how different sections provide contradictory advice for what makes good Python code.

We cover a recent post by previous guest Matt Harrison about using Python and pandas for finance. Matt’s article covers methods in the pandas library for aggregation, resampling, and rolling averages.

We cover several other articles and projects from the Python community, including staying up-to-date with news, solving a Legend of Zelda puzzle with Python, avoiding “simply” providing advice, displaying better stack traces, and creating files with fake data.

Course Spotlight: Speed Up Python With Concurrency

Learn what concurrency means in Python and why you might want to use it. You’ll see a simple, non-concurrent approach and then look into why you’d want threading, asyncio, or multiprocessing.

Topics:

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:01:49 – Python 3.11.4, 3.10.12, 3.9.17, 3.8.17, 3.7.17, and Python 3.12.0 beta 3 released
00:02:24 – Enforcement of 2FA for PyPI Began June 1st
00:02:54 – Faster Python 3.13 Plan
00:03:14 – PyPy v7.3.12 Released
00:03:28 – Migrate to .readthedocs.yaml Configuration
00:05:14 – PyCon US 2023 and PyCascades 2023 Videos Are Up
00:05:37 – What’s the Zen of Python?
00:09:22 – Python for Finance: Pandas Resample, Groupby, and Rolling
00:15:24 – Python and the Legend of Zelda
00:17:47 – Don’t Say “Simply” Use Pyenv, Poetry or Anaconda
00:28:54 – Is Parallel Programming Hard?
00:40:54 – Video Course Spotlight
00:42:20 – pymg: A Better Display for Stack Traces
00:44:58 – faker-file: Create Files With Fake Data
00:49:14 – Thanks and goodbye

News:

Python 3.11.4, 3.10.12, 3.9.17, 3.8.17, 3.7.17, and 3.12.0 Beta 2 Released
Python Insider: Python 3.12.0 beta 3 released
Enforcement of 2FA for PyPI Began June 1st – For those accounts that have two-factor authentication turned on for PyPI uploads, the use of 2FA is now required. Users with 2FA who were only using a password in the past will now have to perform 2FA as well. This is all part of the PyPI transition to 2FA across the board.
Faster Python 3.13 Plan – This brief outline highlights the plan for the faster CPython project for the 3.13 release. It includes PEP 669, PEP 554, improved memory management, and more. Here’s the associated Hacker News discussion.
PyPy v7.3.12 Released
Migrate to .readthedocs.yaml Configuration – The Read the Docs site has announced the new requirement that all builds must move to using a .readthedocs.yaml configuration file, version 2. There are some test windows where they’ll be temporarily enforcing the change, but the final release date is September 25, 2023. Read on for details on how to migrate your project.
PyCascades 2023 Videos Are Up
PyCon US 2023 Videos Are Up

Topic Links:

What’s the Zen of Python? – In this tutorial, you’ll be exploring the Zen of Python, a collection of nineteen guiding principles for writing idiomatic Python. You’ll find out how they originated and whether you should follow them. Along the way, you’ll uncover several inside jokes associated with this humorous poem.
Python for Finance: Pandas Resample, Groupby, and Rolling – When working with time series data such as financial information, the resample, grouping, and rolling features of pandas can make your life easier.
Python and the Legend of Zelda – The Game Boy Color version of Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages contains a grid-based puzzle. Gaz writes about creating a brute-force program to solve the challenge using Python.
Don’t Say “Simply” Use Pyenv, Poetry or Anaconda – This article talks about the issues that newer Python coders might encounter by adopting more complicated package management mechanisms and explains why sticking with pip is often the better choice.

Discussion:

Is Parallel Programming Hard?
AsyncIO: Why I Hate It – Charles is the creator of Peewee ORM and often gets the question when will it support asyncio? In this opinion piece, he talks about why he doesn’t like asyncio and which alternatives he prefers.

Projects:

pymg: A Better Display for Stack Traces
faker-file: Create Files With Fake Data

Additional Links:

Level up your Python skills with our expert-led courses:

Threading in Python
Hands-On Python 3 Concurrency With the asyncio Module
Speed Up Python With Concurrency

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