Make beautiful Python code (talk at PyCon IE ’13)
Another year, another amazing PyCon. I guess I repeat myself, but I keep being impressed about the quality of the talks and the friendly, vibrant atmosphere. It is always a pleasure to spend some time with people interested in code and technology… There was also an increase in the number attendees, and quite a lot students. I said that on Twitter, but Python Ireland, you guys rock. Of all the talks I attend to, I’d like to comment two that were especially interesting. The first was one of the keynotes, PRISM-as-a-Service: Not… Read More
ffind is now available on PyPI
Remember ffind (A sane replacement for command line file search) module/script ? I’ve just pushed it to PyPI, so anyone interested in giving it a try can install it doing pip install ffind Brilliant! As this was my first submission to PyPI, I’ve follow this guide. It has been quite simple, once it is prepared to use setup.py. And remember, the code is available on Github, so feel free to check it and contribute!
80 chars per line is great
Probably the most controversial part of PEP 8 is the limit of 80 characters per line. Well, is actually 79 chars, but I’ll use 80 chars because is a round number and the way everybody referes to it. There are a lot of companies where the standard seems to be “PEP8, except for the 80 chars line restriction”. On GitHub projects, which in general follow PEP8 (it seems to be a very strong consensus), that’s typically not found. In explicit code guidelines, the restriction could be increased (100, 120) or even removed… Read More
Great female participation on PyCon US 2013
I have read that around 20% of PyCon attendees were women. I’m sure I’ve seen it on more places I can’t find at the moment, but is at least here. This is fantastic news, a great success for the PyCon, the Python community, and specially groups like PyLadies and Lady Coders. The opening statements of Jesse Nollan is a must see. As I have previously expressed some concerns in this blog about whether requiring a Code of Conduct is the best approach, I’d like to say that I was wrong and it seems that… Read More
Narcissistic numbers
Here is a nice mathematical exercise from Programming Praxis. Is about finding the “narcissistic numbers”, n digit numbers numbers where the sum of all the nth power of their digits is equal to the number. To reduce the problem a little, I decided to start by limiting the number of digits. So, the first approach will be just calculate if a number is narcissistic of not. So, after checking it and making a couple of performance adjustments, the code is as follows…
Thoughts on Code of Conducts
I’ve just read this statement from the PSF about requiring a Code of Conduct, and I felt somehow a little down. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that a CoC is something bad, and everything it says (at least the referenced PyCon US one and the example in geekfeminism.com) makes sense. It’s just that needing a CoC feels a little … formal. I don’t like very much formality, as I like to think that PyCon conferences are more a bunch of somehow friends getting together and sharing knowledge. I’ve always felt… Read More
In defense of resting
I have been watching recently some documentaries about software development, including the classic Triumph of the nerds (available in YouTube in three episodes, 1, 2 and 3) and Indie Game: The Movie. They are both very good and I’d recommend them not only to developers, but to people interested in technology and/or entrepreneurship in general. But they are very good exponents into something very present on the software scene, which is presenting crunch mode, working insane hours, in some sort of glamourised way. It is part of the usual storytelling and, and probably,… Read More
ffind
A sane replacement for command line file search I tend to use the UNIX command line A LOT. I find it very comfortable to work when I am developing and follow the “Unix as IDE” way. The command line is really rich, and you could probably learn a new different command or parameter each day and still be surprised every day for the rest of your life. But there are some things that sticks and gets done, probably not on the most efficient way. In my case, is using the command `find` to… Read More
Magical thinking in Software Development
I guess we all Python developers heard this kind of argument from time to time: Python is slower than C++/Java/C# because is not compiled. Other than the usual “blame the others” when working with other companies (usually big corporations than thinks than using anything except C# or Java is laughable), you can also see a lot of comments in technical blogs or places like Hacker News or Reddit with similar, simplistic arguments. You can recognise them on the usual rants about how technology X is The Worst Thing That Ever Happened™ and… Read More
Mis softwarevaches para trabajar (y II)
Continuando el post que escribí el otro día acerca de los cachivaches que uso para trabajar, voy a hablar también un poco de el software que utilizo. Trabajo programando en Python sobre OS X, de manera que muchos de los programas que comento están orientados a este entorno. Mi trabajo es desarrollando código para servidores que luego corren en Linux, así que muchas de las herramientas pueden usarse en Linux. He usado recientemente también HTML, JavaScript y Ruby, siendo el entorno totalmente aplicable.
Wrong Side of Memphis 