This post will try not to repeat Code Complete and PEP-8 and talk about Python specifically.

Common sense:

  • Do NOT overwrite system’s python, unless you know what you’re doing: Gentoo user or have full backup.
  • virtualenv per project, do not sudo pip install, it’s like using namespace std; + import <bits/stdc++.h>.
  • export PYTHONBYTECODEBASE=0 because .pyc are imported prior to your new .py files with bugs fixed.
  • Time complexity of common operations.
  • awesome-* projects are mostly bullshit : if you know what library/framework to choose, you don’t need them; if you don’t, you can’t distinguish good from bad ones(I’m not taking awesome-python personally) until you start using and reading others code.

Convenience:

  • pyflakes + pep8 + pylint(and more) to check your code, a pre-commit hook could be overkill, but integrating them with CI should be trivial.
  • Meta programming: jsondatabase shows good use of __get__(though can’t really appreciate this silver bullet method)
  • Pythonic code review introduces pythonic/convenient syntax like namedtuple, and more importantly, what to focus when reviewing code.

Traps/gotchas:

  • This post is a good summary.
  • Gotchas are caused by too much expectations(why this does not work?!), try to have minimal expectations and write codes that you can understand and you’re sure they will work.

Debug:

  • logging module is your friend, read official document and some best practices: proper logging level, __name__ as logger name …
  • Simple script can be debugged using ipdb or pudb.
  • line_profiler is by far the most intuitive profiling tool I’ve used.
  • This article introduced segfaults handler, monitoring and more debugging tools.