Tagged Questions

28
votes
8answers
3k views

How can I learn to effectively write Pythonic code?

Doing a google search for "pythonic" reveals a wide range of interpretations. The wikipedia page says: A common neologism in the Python community is pythonic, which can have a wide range of ...
1
vote
2answers
191 views

Python code style - blank lines in long list

I'm curious, is there a standard approach to dealing with long lists in the Python community, and in particular, is there any antipathy toward doing blank lines followed by comments to break up a ...
5
votes
1answer
314 views

Is using '{}' within format strings considered Pythonic?

I just learned you can write '{}{}'.format(string_a, string_b) instead of '{0}{1}'.format(string_a, string_b) in Python, i.e. you can omit the numerals for the string format parameters when you ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views

Differences between “Java OOP” and “Pythonic OOP”? [closed]

I started with ActionScript 2.0 and then went on with Java. I have learned, or at least used, a bunch of languages since then, including Python (probably my favorite). I'm afraid that my style of ...
12
votes
2answers
2k views

What's wrong with relative imports in Python?

I recently upgraded versions of pylint, a popular Python style-checker. It has gone ballistic throughout my code, pointing out places where I import modules in the same package, without specifying ...
1
vote
3answers
201 views

Hacking Python “Requests” library.. How to start as an intermediate pythonista?

My question is conceptual, yet extremely vital for me. I'm an intermediate Python developer. I know fair enough about it, and actually use it on a daily basis. Now, I would like to transform my ...
8
votes
2answers
270 views

In python, is it considered better to define a module with functions or a module with a class that contains functions? [closed]

In my code either of the above two options would work equally well but I am interested in finding out the pros and cons of both approaches.
5
votes
2answers
174 views

Questioning pythonic type checking

I've seen countless times the following approach suggested for "taking in a collection of objects and doing X if X is a Y and ignoring the object otherwise" def quackAllDucks(ducks): for duck in ...
23
votes
3answers
1k views

Python Forgiveness vs. Permission and Duck Typing

In Python, I often hear that it is better to "beg forgiveness" (exception catching) instead of "ask permission" (type/condition checking). In regards to enforcing duck typing in Python, is this try: ...
4
votes
1answer
319 views

Pythonic use of the isinstance function?

Whenever I find myself wanting to use the isinstance() function I usually know that I'm doing something wrong and end up changing my ways. However, in this case I think I have a valid use for it. I ...
5
votes
2answers
193 views

Abstracting away the type of a property

In Python luckily most of the times you don't have to write getters and setters to get access to class properties. That said sometimes you'll have to remember that a certain property is a list or ...
2
votes
4answers
339 views

Give a more formal definition for the term “pythonic” than PEP8?

For me as python programmer having a formal definition for the term "pythonic" would be much more important and less subjective compared to asking more rhetoric (non-formal) questions. This may lead ...
4
votes
1answer
200 views

What is the typical Pythonic view on re-using python modules outside of their initial intent?

Short Question Does it fly in the face of the Pythonic view to reuse / repurpose python modules for projects out side of their intent? Background Over the past several months I have been working on ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views

Why doesn't Python allow multi-line lambdas?

Can someone explain the concrete reasons why BDFL choose to make Python lambdas single line? This is good: lambda x: x**x This results in an error: lambda x: x**x I understand that making ...