[Baypiggies] Code/Idea Review (WARNING: SPOILER)

[Glen Jarvis]

As a recent transplant to the Bay Area, I must say that I never  
realized how much of a geek haven this was. I knew it would be richer  
in geeks, but I did not know moving here would be one of the smartest  
decisions I ever made!

I went to my second Bay Piggies meeting. And, I had an incredible  
time. JJ was absolutely awesome and allowed me to ride with him. And,  
he, his co-worker, several people he socialized with, and myself had  
some incredible conversations for several hours. You can't help but  
genuinely like all of these guys. They're fun to talk to, smart, and  
just 'get it' instead of getting board or eyes glassing over.

And, I'm usually a very big duck in a little puddle. At BayPIGgies,  
I'm an itty bitty new duckling, wet behind the ears. And, there are  
so many people who genuinely want to help.

I learned two really incredible things this time: PEP-8 and the  
Python Challenge. Because of the talk, I discovered the Python  
Challenge (http://www.pythonchallenge.com/). What a great way to  
challenge ourselves. The first two (0, and 1) were real easy  
challenges. However, instead of just marching on, I am trying to be a  
code nazi. I want to keep the code for each of these challenges, I  
want it to pass a PEP-8 level code review, and I want it to be the  
most 'intelligent' choice for the objective.

In challenge 1, I was able to create some python code fairly quickly  
to translate the text enough to catch the gist fairly quickly.  
However, as a typical non-python coder, I used a loop instead of  
string.maketrans(). After reading the string module help, I was able  
to keep reducing and rewriting this until it was closer to what I  
thought the challenge wanted us to do.

I would like it, if you don't mind, if you gave me a thorough peer  
review for such a small piece of code. I want to know anytime I break  
convention with PEP-8. Also, if I received replies like "crap code,  
dude." that, unfortunately is not helpful. What would be helpful if I  
heard *why* it was crap so I could learn from it. The same is true  
for "cool code." That doesn't tell me what my weaknesses or strengths  
are.

I believe lines 6 and 7 can be reduced to be more readable and better  
written. If any (or all) can oblige, I would love to learn. Be  
warned, however, that this is a solution to the second Python  
Challenge. You should do the first two challenges yourself so there  
are no spoilers.

I *heart* BayPIGgies!

Cheers,


Glen
Chief Gumby on a Bicycle (i.e., the dork who has a busted shoulder)
--
415-680-3964
glen at glenjarvis.com
http://www.glenjarvis.com

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." -M. Gandhi


1  #!/usr/bin/env python
2
3  import sys
4  import string
5
6  alpha_list=map(chr, range(ord('a'), ord('z') + 1))
7  alphabet_=string.join(alpha_list, '')
8
9  re_map=alphabet_[2:] + alphabet_[:2]
10
11 trans_table = string.maketrans( alphabet_, re_map)
12
13 print "g  fmnc wms bgblr rpylqjyrc gr zw fylb. rfyrq ufyr  
amknsrcpq ypc dmp. bmgle gr gl zw fylb gq glcddgagclr ylb rfyr'q ufw  
rfgq rcvr gq qm jmle. sqgle qrpgle.kyicrpylq() gq pcamkkclbcb. lmu  
ynnjw ml rfc spj.".translate(trans_table)