Book Image

Mastering Object-Oriented Python - Second Edition

By : Steven F. Lott
Book Image

Mastering Object-Oriented Python - Second Edition

By: Steven F. Lott

Overview of this book

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a relatively complex discipline to master, and it can be difficult to see how general principles apply to each language's unique features. With the help of the latest edition of Mastering Objected-Oriented Python, you'll be shown how to effectively implement OOP in Python, and even explore Python 3.x. Complete with practical examples, the book guides you through the advanced concepts of OOP in Python, and demonstrates how you can apply them to solve complex problems in OOP. You will learn how to create high-quality Python programs by exploring design alternatives and determining which design offers the best performance. Next, you'll work through special methods for handling simple object conversions and also learn about hashing and comparison of objects. As you cover later chapters, you'll discover how essential it is to locate the best algorithms and optimal data structures for developing robust solutions to programming problems with minimal computer processing. Finally, the book will assist you in leveraging various Python features by implementing object-oriented designs in your programs. By the end of this book, you will have learned a number of alternate approaches with different attributes to confidently solve programming problems in Python.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Tighter Integration Via Special Methods
11
Section 2: Object Serialization and Persistence
17
Section 3: Object-Oriented Testing and Debugging

A SOLID principle design test

We generally think of testing as something applied to the final code (in Chapter 17, Design for Testability, we'll look at automated testing in detail). However, we can also apply a test to a SOLID design. The test is to replace a given class with an equivalent class to provide an alternative algorithm to accomplish the same purpose. If we've done our design job well, then a change to one class should have a minimal splash with few ripples.

As a concrete example, consider the Domino class shown earlier in this chapter, under the Interface Segregation Principle section. We used a NamedTuple to represent the pair of numbers. Some alternatives are possible:

  • Use a frozenset to retain one or two distinct values. If there's one value in the set, the tile is actually a double, or spinner.
  • Use a Counter to retain the counts for the values...