Dead Simple Python: Idiomatic Python for the Impatient Programmer

1007 Pages·2022·5.955 MB·English

by  Jason C McDonald

CONTENTS IN DETAIL
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Who Is This Book For?
What Does “Simple” Mean?
What’s in This Book?
What’s NOT in This Book
How to Read This Book
About the Vocabulary
Theory Recaps
Objective or Opinionated?
The Examples
What About a Project?
Prerequisites
PART I: THE PYTHON ENVIRONMENT
CHAPTER 1: THE PYTHON PHILOSOPHY
What Is Python, Exactly?
Myths: What Python Isn’t
Myth #1: Python Is Merely a Scripting Language
Myth #2: Python Is Slow
Myth #3: Python Cannot Be Compiled
Myth #4: Python Gets Compiled Behind the Scenes
Myth #5: Python Is Unsuitable for Large Projects
Python 2 vs. Python 3
Defining “Pythonic” Code
The Zen of Python
Documentation, PEPs, and You
Who Calls the Shots?
The Python Community
The Pursuit of the One Obvious Way
Wrapping Up
CHAPTER 2: YOUR WORKBENCH
Installing Python
Installing on Windows
Installing on macOS
Installing on Linux
Installing from Source
Meet the Interpreter
Interactive Session
Running Python Files
Packages and Virtual Environments
Creating a Virtual Environment
Activating a Virtual Environment
Leaving a Virtual Environment
Introducing pip
System-Wide Packages
Installing Packages
requirements.txt
Upgrading Packages
Removing Packages
Finding Packages
One Warning About pip . . .
Virtual Environments and Git
The Whole Shebang
File Encoding
A Few Extra Virtual Environment Tricks
Using a Virtual Environment Without Activating
The Alternatives
The Line Limit Debate
Tabs or Spaces?
Quality Control: Static Analyzers
Pylint
Flake8
Mypy
Style Janitors: Autoformatting Tools
autopep8
Black
Testing Frameworks
An Exhibition of Code Editors
IDLE
Emacs and Vim
PyCharm
Visual Studio Code
Sublime Text
Spyder
Eclipse + PyDev/LiClipse
The Eric Python IDE
Wrapping Up
CHAPTER 3: SYNTAX CRASH COURSE
Hello, World!
Statements and Expression
The Importance of Whitespace
Doing Nothing
Comments and Docstrings
Docstrings
Declaring Variables
What About Constants?
Mathematics
Meet the Number Types
Operators
The math Module
Logic
Conditionals
Comparison Operators
Boolean, None, and Identity Operators
Truthiness
Logical Operators
The Walrus Operator
Ellipsis
Strings
String Literals
Raw Strings
Formatted Strings
Template Strings
String Conversion
A Note on String Concatenation
Functions
Classes and Objects
Error Handling
Tuples and Lists
Loops
while Loop
Loop Control
for Loop
Structural Pattern Matching
Literal Patterns and Wildcards
Or Patterns
Capture Patterns
Guard Statements
More About Structural Pattern Matching
Wrapping Up
CHAPTER 4: PROJECT STRUCTURE AND IMPORTS
Setting Up the Repository
Modules and Packages
PEP 8 and Naming
Project Directory Structure
How import Works
Import Dos and Don’ts
Importing Functions from Modules
The Problem of Shadowing
The Trouble with Nested Packages
Beware of Importing All
Importing Within Your Project
Absolute Imports
Relative Imports
Importing from the Same Package
Entry Points
Module Entry Points
Package Entry Points
Controlling Package Imports
Program Entry Points
The Python Module Search Path
What Really Happens
Wrapping Up
PART II: ESSENTIAL STRUCTURES
CHAPTER 5: VARIABLES AND TYPES
Variables According to Python: Names and Values
Assignment
Data Types
The type() Function
Duck Typing
Scope and Garbage Collection
Local Scope and the Reference-Counting Garbage Collector
Interpreter Shutdown
Global Scope
The Dangers of Global Scope
The nonlocal Keyword
Scope Resolution
The Curious Case of the Class
Generational Garbage Collector
The Immutable Truth
Passing by Assignment
Collections and References
Shallow Copy
Deep Copy
Coercion and Conversion
A Note About Systems Hungarian Notation
Terminology Review
Wrapping Up
CHAPTER 6: FUNCTIONS AND LAMBDAS
Python Function Essentials
Recursion
Default Argument Values
Keyword Arguments
On Overloaded Functions
Variadic Arguments
Keyword Variadic Arguments
Keyword-Only Parameters
Positional-Only Parameters
Argument Types: All Together Now!
Nested Functions
Closures
Recursion with Closures
Stateful Closures
Lambdas
Why Lambdas Are Useful
Lambdas as Sorting Keys
Decorators
Type Hints and Function Annotations
Duck Typing and Type Hints
Should You Use Type Hinting?
Wrapping Up
CHAPTER 7: OBJECTS AND CLASSES
Declaring a Class
The Initializer
The Constructor
The Finalizer
Attributes
Instance Attributes
Class Attributes
Scope-Naming Conventions
Nonpublic
Public
Name Mangling
Public, Nonpublic, or Name Mangled?
Methods
Instance Methods
Class Methods
Static Methods
Properties
Setting Up the Scenario
Defining a Property
Property with Decorators
When Not to Use Properties
Special Methods
Scenario Setup
Conversion Methods
Comparison Methods
Binary Operator Support
Unary Operator Support
Making Callable
More Special Methods: Looking Ahead
Class Decorators
Structural Pattern Matching with Objects
Functional Meets Object Oriented
When to Use Classes
Classes Aren’t Modules
Single Responsibility
Sharing State
Are Objects Right for You?
Wrapping Up
CHAPTER 8: ERRORS AND EXCEPTIONS
Exceptions in Python
Reading Tracebacks
Catching Exceptions: LBYL vs. EAFP
Multiple Exceptions
Beware the Diaper Anti-pattern