Book Image

Mastering Python

By : Rick van Hattem
Book Image

Mastering Python

By: Rick van Hattem

Overview of this book

Python is a dynamic programming language. It is known for its high readability and hence it is often the first language learned by new programmers. Python being multi-paradigm, it can be used to achieve the same thing in different ways and it is compatible across different platforms. Even if you find writing Python code easy, writing code that is efficient, easy to maintain, and reuse is not so straightforward. This book is an authoritative guide that will help you learn new advanced methods in a clear and contextualised way. It starts off by creating a project-specific environment using venv, introducing you to different Pythonic syntax and common pitfalls before moving on to cover the functional features in Python. It covers how to create different decorators, generators, and metaclasses. It also introduces you to functools.wraps and coroutines and how they work. Later on you will learn to use asyncio module for asynchronous clients and servers. You will also get familiar with different testing systems such as py.test, doctest, and unittest, and debugging tools such as Python debugger and faulthandler. You will learn to optimize application performance so that it works efficiently across multiple machines and Python versions. Finally, it will teach you how to access C functions with a simple Python call. By the end of the book, you will be able to write more advanced scripts and take on bigger challenges.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Mastering Python
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
6
Generators and Coroutines – Infinity, One Step at a Time
Index

Introduction


Before you start with this chapter, it is important to note that this chapter will require a working compiler that plays nicely with your Python interpreter. Unfortunately, these vary from platform to platform. While generally easy enough for most Linux distributions, this can be a big challenge on Windows. With OS X, it's generally easy enough provided you install the correct tools.

The generic building instructions are always available in the Python manual:

https://docs.python.org/3.5/extending/building.html

Do you need C/C++ modules?

In almost all cases, I'm inclined to say that you don't need C/C++ modules. If you are really strapped for best performance, then there are almost always highly optimized libraries available that fit your purpose. There are some cases where native C/C++ (or just "not Python") is a requirement. If you need to communicate directly with hardware that has specific timings, then Python might just not do the trick for you. Generally, however, that kind...