Becoming a Pythonista — Platipy 0.2 documentation This chapter is will provide a very brief review of some important python concepts which will be useful and necessary. The basic concepts will be for those who are unfamiliar with Python, but a good refresher for those who don’t write in Python every day. Intermediate concepts will be great for programmers of all levels to refresh on some Python idioms. The code below will focus on Python 2.5+, since that is the version on most XO laptops. PEP8 and The Zen of Python¶ One of the most important aspects of developing in Python is the Python community. Use 4 spaces per indentation level. The Zen of Python is a list of guiding principles behind the design of Python, and a good list of guiding principles for any project written in python. Control Flow in Python¶ The if statement acts predictably in Python. >>> if <conditional>:... statement... elif <conditional>:... statement... else:... statement >>> for <item> in <sequence>:... statement >>> while <conditional>:... statement Numerics¶ Strings¶ Note
Online Python Tutor - Learn programming by visualizing code execution Code Like a Pythonista: Idiomatic Python In this interactive tutorial, we'll cover many essential Python idioms and techniques in depth, adding immediately useful tools to your belt. There are 3 versions of this presentation: ©2006-2008, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike (BY-SA) license. My credentials: I am a resident of Montreal,father of two great kids, husband of one special woman,a full-time Python programmer,author of the Docutils project and reStructuredText,an editor of the Python Enhancement Proposals (or PEPs),an organizer of PyCon 2007, and chair of PyCon 2008,a member of the Python Software Foundation,a Director of the Foundation for the past year, and its Secretary. In the tutorial I presented at PyCon 2006 (called Text & Data Processing), I was surprised at the reaction to some techniques I used that I had thought were common knowledge. Many of you will have seen some of these techniques and idioms before. These are the guiding principles of Python, but are open to interpretation. import this
Code Style If you ask Python programmers what they like most in Python, they will often say its high readability. Indeed, a high level of readability is at the heart of the design of the Python language, following the recognized fact that code is read much more often than it is written. One reason for Python code to be easily read and understood is its relatively complete set of Code Style guidelines and “Pythonic” idioms. Moreover, when a veteran Python developer (a Pythonista) points to portions of code and says they are not “Pythonic”, it usually means that these lines of code do not follow the common guidelines and fail to express the intent in what is considered the best (hear: most readable) way. On some border cases, no best way has been agreed upon on how to express an intent in Python code, but these cases are rare. General concepts Explicit code While any kind of black magic is possible with Python, the most explicit and straightforward manner is preferred. Bad Good One statement per line 3. Note