Code Snippets

[Ned Batchelder]

On 11/1/17 1:25 PM, Stefan Ram wrote:
>    I started to collect some code snippets:
>
>    Sleep one second
>
> __import__( "time" ).sleep( 1 )
>
>    Get current directory
>
> __import__( "os" ).getcwd()
>
>    Get a random number
>
> __import__( "random" ).random()
>
>    And so on. You get the idea.
>
>    However, reportedly, all those snippets are anti-patterns
>    because they use »__import__«.
>
>    But what I like about them: You just paste them in where
>    you want them to be, and your done.
>
>    What I'm supposed to do instead, I guess, is:
>
>    Sleep one second
>
> import time
> ...
> time.sleep( 1 )
>
>    Get current directory
>
> import os
> ...
> os.getcwd()
>
>    Get a random number
>
> import random
> ...
> random.random()
>
>    Now, the user has to cut the import, paste it to the top
>    of his code, then go back to the list of snippets, find
>    the same snippet again, copy the expression, go to his code,
>    then find the point where he wanted to insert the snippet again,
>    and finally insert the snippet. And still there now is a
>    risk of name collisions. So, it seems to me that __import__
>    is just so much better!
>

You should not optimize for the shortest time to paste a line of code.  
You should take time and care writing your code, so that it reads best 
and runs best.  If you needed another os function, would you have two 
__import__("os") in your code? Ugh.

--Ned.