Bite code!

Bite code! is a Substack focused on Python programming, offering insights into its nuances, best practices, and challenges. It covers Python's evolving ecosystem, including updates in the community and software development techniques. Themes include technology hype cycles, practical software engineering, Python-specific features and traps, and comparisons of Python implementations.

Software Development Practices Python Programming Programming Languages Technology Trends Software Engineering Python Community Updates Debugging and Error Handling

The hottest Substack posts of Bite code!

And their main takeaways

How much effort is it to create software?

1590 implied HN points • 06 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Software Development Coding Information processing Tech Tools Human Interaction
  1. Creating software has become easier due to resources and tools available, but it still requires dedication, time, and energy.
  2. Writing software demands perseverance and continuous learning, akin to mastering a musical instrument or a sport.
  3. Working on software involves dealing with humans, extracting requirements, navigating social dynamics, and recognizing the importance of human interaction in the development process.

Redis and Python: 20% of effort, 80% of effects

1467 implied HN points • 03 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Python Database Programming Web Development
  1. Redis is a powerful companion for Python, used for caching, sharing states, and creating queues.
  2. Redis is easy to use and highly efficient, widely employed in the industry for tasks like caching and inter-process communication.
  3. With basic features like lists, hashes, and sets, Redis has vast utility in tasks such as caches, queues, and inter-process communication.

Unexpected python traps for beginners

1957 implied HN points • 19 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Programming Syntax Best Practices
  1. Python automatically concatenates strings written next to each other, making it easier to break long strings across multiple lines.
  2. In Python, be mindful of the differences between functions like sorted() and list.sort(), as they behave differently in terms of returning values.
  3. Tuples in Python are created using commas, with parentheses being optional for non-empty tuples, but crucial for tuples of one element to avoid confusion.

The beautiful theory of TDD and the reality check of practice

2568 implied HN points • 04 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Development Software Testing Programming Pragmatism Productivity
  1. TDD can make your code more flexible, reliable, and less error-prone by focusing on testing upfront.
  2. TDD may not work well for everyone, as it requires experience, ability to hold complex models in mind, and sustained focus.
  3. Not all projects are suited for TDD, and it's important to assess the cost and benefit of testing based on project needs and constraints.

There is no EU cookie banner law

978 implied HN points • 14 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Data Privacy Web browsing Browser Extensions
  1. Cookie banners on websites are not legally required by any EU law; companies choose to implement them.
  2. American companies do not have to comply with EU laws such as showing cookie banners to users in the USA.
  3. Many cookie banners on websites are actually illegal according to EU law, as they use dark patterns to trick users into tracking consent.
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What's up Python: uv light speed, stand alone pythons and a new lock file format

1100 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Python Software Development
  1. Astral released a new Python package manager called uv, which aims to replace existing package and virtual env managers, with smartly integrated features and community contributions.
  2. Stand Alone Python project by indygreg compiles Python for various platforms, offering archives that can be run without installation, providing a consistent experience across different machines and platforms.
  3. A new lock file proposal by Brett Canon aims to tackle the challenge of pinned dependencies for Python projects, with previous attempts in 2021 and the latest proposal focusing on source distribution support and a new file format.

Xmas decorations, part 3

1467 implied HN points • 21 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Python Error Handling
  1. Decorators provide syntactic sugar for code reuse of callback processing.
  2. Popular usages for decorators include intercepting calls, registering functions, and enriching function behavior.
  3. Decorators can be combined and used creatively to enhance your code, but be mindful not to overdo it.

What's up Python ? Python, the video game, pyodide on the rise, numpy breaks...

856 implied HN points • 30 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Programming Python WebAssembly Libraries Updates
  1. A new Python video game, JOY OF PROGRAMMING, is available on Steam for learning programming interactively.
  2. Pyodide, a Webassembly CPython port, now has experimental support from urllib3, enabling Python to run in the browser.
  3. Numpy 2 is set to release soon, with changes that may impact compatibility, so users should prepare by checking and updating dependencies.

The splat operator, or *args and **kwargs in Python

1100 implied HN points • 15 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Python Syntax Functions
  1. The splat operator ( ) in Python is used for unpacking function arguments and defining infinite (variadic) parameters.
  2. Differentiate between arguments and parameters in Python; parameters are defined variables in a function signature, while arguments are values passed to those parameters when calling the function.
  3. Positional and keyword arguments in Python allow passing arguments by position or by name in a function call.

This will be easy

1223 implied HN points • 08 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Programming Networking Error Handling Logging
  1. Making HTTP POST requests can have unexpected challenges, like dealing with network issues and corporate setups.
  2. Using ThreadExecutor and ThreadPoolExecutor in Python can help manage tasks efficiently, especially in scenarios like log aggregation.
  3. Error handling is crucial in programming, and sometimes unconventional solutions are needed to manage exceptions effectively.

This is valid Python syntax

1100 implied HN points • 10 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Programming Python Syntax Functions Learning
  1. Python allows underscores in numeric literals for better readability and formatting of numbers
  2. Unpacking in Python is versatile, allowing assignment to slices and nested structures
  3. Using the splat operator in Python, like with lambdas and unpacking arguments, can make code more concise and powerful

Get the most out of Python dicts

978 implied HN points • 13 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Programming
  1. Merge dictionaries with methods like dict.updates(), **, |, and collections.ChainMap
  2. Deal with missing values in dictionaries using methods like dict.get(), dict.setdefault(), and collections.defaultdict
  3. Extract multiple values at once using tools like operator.itemgetter and match/case

Intro to PDB, the Python Debugger

733 implied HN points • 09 May 23
🕹 Technology Programming Debugging Tips Python
  1. PDB is a basic but useful debugger that comes with Python by default, allowing you to pause programs, enter a debugging shell, and analyze program states.
  2. Learning to use PDB is valuable because it helps you understand debugging fundamentals, and knowing PDB can translate to using other debuggers as well.
  3. PDB offers various helpful commands like 'help', 'quit', 'list', 'next', 'continue', 'until line', 'jump line', 'display', 'step', 'return', 'up', and 'down' for effective debugging in Python.