August 2016
Beginner
338 pages
7h 58m
English
Content preview from The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python
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Appendix A. Additional Notes
Python’s Community
Python has a rich, inclusive, global community dedicated to diversity.
BDFL
Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python, is often referred to as the BDFL—the Benevolent Dictator for Life.
Python Software Foundation
The mission of the Python Software Foundation (PSF) is to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers. To learn more, see the PSF’s main page.
PEPs
PEPs are Python Enhancement Proposals. They describe changes to Python itself, or the standards around it. People interested in Python’s history, or in language design in general, would find them all really interesting—even the ones that eventually get rejected. There are three different types of PEPs, defined in PEP 1:
- Standards
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Standards PEPs describe a new feature or implementation.
- Informational
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Informational PEPs describe a design issue, general guidelines, or information to the community.
- Process
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Process PEPs describe a process related to Python.
Notable PEPs
There are a few PEPs that could be considered required reading:
- PEP 8—Style Guide for Python Code
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Read this. All of it. Follow it. The pep8 tool will help.
- PEP 20—The Zen of Python
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PEP 20 is a list of 19 statements that briefly explain the philosophy behind Python.
- PEP 257—Docstring conventions
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PEP 257 contains the guidelines for semantics and conventions associated with Python ...
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I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.