Python Bytes
Python Bytes
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Python Bytes is a weekly podcast hosted by Michael Kennedy and Brian Okken. The show is a short discussion on the headlines and noteworthy news in the Python, developer, and data science space.

#298 "Unstoppable" Python

August 24, 2022 00:32:22 27.32 MB Downloads: 0

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About the show

Sponsored by Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub.

Brian #1: Uncommon Uses of Python in Commonly Used Libraries

  • by Eugene Yan
  • Specifically, Using relative imports
  • Example from sklearn’s base.py from .utils.validation import check_X_y from .utils.validation import check_array
  • “Relative imports ensure we search the current package (and import from it) before searching the rest of the PYTHONPATH. “
  • For relative imports, we have to use the from .something import thing form.
  • We cannot use import .something since later on in the code .something isn’t valid.
  • There’s a good discussion of relative imports in pep 328

Michael #2: Skyplane Cloud Transfers

  • Skyplane is a tool for blazingly fast bulk data transfers in the cloud.
  • Skyplane manages parallelism, data partitioning, and network paths to optimize data transfers, and can also spin up VM instances to increase transfer throughput.
  • You can use Skyplane to transfer data:
    • Between buckets within a cloud provider
    • Between object stores across multiple cloud providers
    • (experimental) Between local storage and cloud object stores
  • Skyplane takes several steps to ensure the correctness of transfers: Checksums, verify files exist and match sizes.
  • Data transfers in Skyplane are encrypted end-to-end.
  • Security: Encrypted while in transit and over TLS + config options

Brian #3: 7 things I've learned building a modern TUI framework

  • by Will McGugan
  • Specifically, DictViews are amazing. They have set operations.

  • Example of using items() to get views, then ^ for symmetric difference (done at the C level):

        # Get widgets which are new or changed
    print(render_map.items() ^ new_render_map.items())

  • Lots of other great topics in the article

    • lru_cache is fast
    • Unicode art in addition to text in doc strings
    • The fractions module
    • and a cool embedded video demo of some of the new css stuff in Textual
  • Python’s object allocator ascii art

Michael #4: ‘Unstoppable’ Python

  • Python popularity still soaring: ‘Unstoppable’ Python once again ranked No. 1 in the August updates of both the Tiobe and Pypl indexes of programming language popularity.
  • Python first took the top spot in the index last October, becoming the only language besides Java and C to hold the No. 1 position.
  • “Python seems to be unstoppable,” said the Tiobe commentary accompanying the August index.
  • In the alternative Pypl Popularity of Programming Language index, which assesses language popularity based on Google searches of programming language tutorials, Python is way out front.

Extras

Brian:

  • Matplotlib stylesheets can make your chart look awesome with one line of code.

Michael:

Joke: Rakes and AWS