Workaround for flask/babel/sphinx bug on Python 3+
I’m using Python 3.4 on Windows. Recently I tried to install and use Sphinx. When I did, I encountered an error that ended with the string an integer is required (got type str) Googling that string, I...
View ArticlePython3 pickling
Recently I was converting some old Python2 code to Python3 and I ran across a problem pickling and unpickling. I guess I would say it wasn’t a major problem because I found the solution fairly quickly...
View ArticleYet Another Lambda Tutorial
modified to use the WordPress [sourcecode] tag — 2012-01-14 There are a lot of tutorials[1] for Python’s lambda out there. One that I stumbled across recently and really found helpful was Mike...
View ArticleRead-Ahead and Python Generators
One of the early classics of program design is Michael Jackson’s Principles of Program Design (1975), which introduced (what later came to be known as) JSP: Jackson Structured Programming. Back in the...
View ArticleCracking passwords is getting easier
Not Python-related, but really worth reading. Why passwords have never been weaker — and crackers have never been stronger on ars technica.
View ArticleDeath Swamp
Recently a friend sent me this. I recognized it instantly, although I never knew that it had a name. There is a management technique called “death swamp” (or “death bog” or “fly paper”). It works this...
View Articleenum in Python
Recently I was reading a post by Eli Bendersky (one of my favorite bloggers) and I ran across a sentence in which Eli says “It’s a shame Python still doesn’t have a functional enum type, isn’t it?” The...
View ArticlePython Decorators
In August 2009, I wrote a post titled Introduction to Python Decorators. It was an attempt to explain Python decorators in a way that I (and I hoped, others) could grok. Recently I had occasion to...
View ArticleUnicode – the basics
An introduction to the basics of Unicode, distilled from several earlier posts. In the interests of presenting the big picture, I have painted with a broad brush — large areas are summarized; nits are...
View ArticlePython’s magic methods
Here are some links to documentation of Python’s magic methods, aka special methods, aka “dunder” (double underscore) methods. Rafe Kettler’s A Guide to Python’s Magic Methods ::—>...
View ArticleGotcha — Mutable default arguments
Goto start of series Note: examples are coded in Python 2.x, but the basic point of the post applies to all versions of Python. There’s a Python gotcha that bites everybody as they learn Python. In...
View ArticleBacking up your email
Just in case someone might find this useful … I recently had something bad happen to me. I use Thunderbird (on Windows Vista) as my email client. I asked Thunderbird to compact my email files, and it...
View ArticleUnicode for dummies — Encoding
Another entry in an irregular series of posts about Unicode. Typos fixed 2012-02-22. Thanks Anonymous, and Clinton, for reporting the typos. This is a story about encoding and decoding, with a minor...
View ArticleHow to post source code on WordPress
This post is for folks who blog about Python (or any programming language for that matter) on WordPress. Updated 2011-11-09 to make it easier to copy-and-paste the [sourcecode] template. My topic today...
View ArticlePython3 pickling
Recently I was converting some old Python2 code to Python3 and I ran across a problem pickling and unpickling. I guess I would say it wasn’t a major problem because I found the solution fairly quickly...
View ArticleYet Another Lambda Tutorial
modified to use the WordPress [sourcecode] tag — 2012-01-14 There are a lot of tutorials[1] for Python’s lambda out there. One that I stumbled across recently and really found helpful was Mike...
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