Vim speed is not really the point
I am a Vim user. And a Vim fan. I was fiddling around for some time, you know, just knowing the basics, because it is convenient to do small changes on servers without having to worry about installing anything. Just the basics, insert mode, some search, save, and a couple more things. Then, around two years ago, I decided to give it a try as my main editor, after watching a presentation of a co-worker (my boss, actually) about how to use Vim (he has been using Vim for around 20 years) At… Read More
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
GitHub for reviewing code
A couple of weeks ago we started (in my current job) to use GitHub internally for our projects. We were already using git, so it sort of make sense to use GitHub, as it is very widespread and used in the community. I had used GitHub before, but only as a remote repository and to get code, but without much interaction with the “GitHub extra features”. I must say, I was excited about using it, as I though that it will be a good step forward in making the code more visible… 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
Password Extravaganza: Open discussion about security
In recent times, I’ve been thinking quite a lot about security on Internet. And I mean my personal security on Internet. There has been some recent examples of leaked passwords on some common websites (LinkedIn, I am talking about you!), and I get the impression that the way I was handling passwords on the past was no longer good enough. Luckily, I never had problems, but I thought that I needed review my habits and to take it more seriously. As with everything that is new, when I open my first email… 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
Wrong Side of Memphis 