Learning Python

[yesthattom]

I’ve decided to not read LJ for a week and instead use that time to learn the Python programming language. If there is something you specifically want me to see, please email it.

I may be posting little “oh my god that’s so cool” kind of ramblings. Here’s an example:

Rather than having to bother with sprintf like in C and perl, they have a freakin’ brilliant idea to overload an operators to mean “format this with printf-style formatting rules”. So if you do:

print “%4.2f” % 3.1412

it formats as if you had done this in perl:

print sprintf( “%4.2f”, 3.1412)

(Obviously you could use “printf” instead, but this is just a demo).

And having infinite precision integers (if the value is larger than 32-bits, it starts using a “big int” library to manage the values) as a first-class citizen is just so cool.

Comments

[stitchinthyme.livejournal.com]

The consulting company our group hired to build some new applications loves Python. They gave us some training in it, and it's not bad, but a lot of us kind of resented having to learn a whole new language just because the powers-that-be who signed the contract with them didn't bother to stipulate that they needed to write their code in a language that the employees (who will be maintaining the stuff when their contract is over) actually know. That's what happens when non-techies draft contracts like that.