[Baypiggies] Discussion for newbies/beginner night talks

[Alex Martelli]

On 2/9/07, Chad Netzer <chad.netzer at gmail.com> wrote:
   ...
> Some Python beginner tips and idioms:
>
> 1) Do not use lists, dicts, or any mutable object as default
> arguments; use None instead.
>
> 2) If you need to do a lot of string appends, use lists and join().
>
> 3) Understand and use iterators in loops.
>
> 4) Use dictionaries, sets, and other mappings for searches and
> queries.
>
> 5) Understand and use the decorate/sort/undecorate (DSU) idiom.

...which is best expressed today with the key=... argument to sort &c.


> 6) Catch exceptions that you can handle, don't suppress ones you
> can't.
>
> 7) Ask forgiveness, not permission. Ie. perform conversions and
> other operations using "try". Avoid queries to determine if an
> operation will succeed.
>
> 8) Use assert() to document your code.
>
> 9) Don't overuse tuples as "read only" lists.  Use them to make
> dictionary keys, or pass around short lived groups of objects.
>
> 10) Use open() to open files, not file(). (trivial, perhaps)

11) never, ever alter the list (or other mutable container) on which
you're looping with a 'for' statement -- when feasible, build a new
container -- or, if you must, loop on a copy of the original container
if you absolutely do need to alter the original

12) if you think you need to use 'eval', or, even worse, 'exec', think
again -- most likely you do NOT need it (read up about getattr and
setattr builtins); if you DO need it, it's almost unheard of that
you'll need to do it with default locals and globals -- almost
invariably, for the rare cases where eval (or exec... if ever...) is
appropriate, you want one or two explicit dictionaries for locals and
globals.

13) eschew eschew repetition repetition -- say what you mean and say it ONCE


Alex