Book Image

Expert Python Programming - Third Edition

By : Michał Jaworski, Tarek Ziadé
Book Image

Expert Python Programming - Third Edition

By: Michał Jaworski, Tarek Ziadé

Overview of this book

Python is a dynamic programming language that's used in a wide range of domains thanks to its simple yet powerful nature. Although writing Python code is easy, making it readable, reusable, and easy to maintain is challenging. Complete with best practices, useful tools, and standards implemented by professional Python developers, the third edition of Expert Python Programming will help you overcome this challenge. The book will start by taking you through the new features in Python 3.7. You'll then learn the advanced components of Python syntax, in addition to understanding how to apply concepts of various programming paradigms, including object-oriented programming, functional programming, and event-driven programming. This book will also guide you through learning the naming best practices, writing your own distributable Python packages, and getting up to speed with automated ways to deploy your software on remote servers. You’ll discover how to create useful Python extensions with C, C++, Cython, and CFFI. Furthermore, studying about code management tools, writing clear documentation, and exploring test-driven development will help you write clean code. By the end of the book, you will have become an expert in writing efficient and maintainable Python code.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Before You Start
4
Section 2: Python Craftsmanship
12
Section 3: Quality over Quantity
16
Section 4: Need for Speed
20
Section 5: Technical Architecture
23
reStructuredText Primer

Choosing Good Names

Most of the standard library was built keeping usability in mind. Python, in this case, can be compared to the pseudocode you might think about when working on a program. Most of the code can be read out loud. For instance, this snippet could be understood even by someone that is not a programmer:

my_list = []  
if 'd' not in my_list: 
    my_list.append('d') 

The fact that Python code is so close to natural language is one of the reasons why Python is so easy to learn and use. When you are writing a program, the flow of your thoughts is quickly translated into lines of code.

This chapter focuses on the best practices to write code that is easy to understand and use, including:

  • The usage of naming conventions, described in PEP 8
  • The setting of naming best practices
  • A short summary of popular tools that allow you to check for compliance...