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Brian #1: PEP 772 – Packaging governance process
- draft, created 21-Jan, by Barry Warsaw, Deb Nicholson, Pradyun Gedam
- “As Python packaging has matured, several interrelated problems with the current way of managing the technical development, decision making and processes have become apparent.”
- “This PEP proposes a Python Packaging Council with broad authority over packaging standards, tools, and implementations. Like the Python Steering Council, the Packaging Council seeks to exercise this authority as rarely as possible; instead, they use this power to establish standard processes.”
- PEP discusses
- PyPA, Packaging-WG, Interoperability Standards, Python Steering Council, and Expectations of an elected Packaging Council
- A specification with
- Composition: 5 people
- Mandate, Responsibilities, Delegations, Process, Terms, etc.
Michael #2: Official Django MongoDB Backend Now Available in Public Preview
- Over the last few years, Django developers have increasingly used MongoDB, presenting an opportunity for an official MongoDB-built Python package to make integrating both technologies as painless as possible.
- Features
- The ability to use Django models with confidence. Developers can use Django models to represent MongoDB documents, with support for Django forms, validations, and authentication.
- Django admin support. The package allows users to fire up the Django admin page as they normally would, with full support for migrations and database schema history.
- Native connecting from settings.py. Just as with any other database provider, developers can customize the database engine in settings.py to get MongoDB up and running.
- MongoDB-specific querying optimizations. Field lookups have been replaced with aggregation calls (aggregation stages and aggregate operators), JOIN operations are represented through $lookup, and it’s possible to build indexes right from Python.
- Limited advanced functionality. While still in development, the package already has support for time series, projections, and XOR operations.
- Aggregation pipeline support. Raw querying allows aggregation pipeline operators. Since aggregation is a superset of what traditional MongoDB Query API methods provide, it gives developers more functionality.
Brian #3: Developer Philosophy
- by qntm
- Intended as “advice for junior developers about personal dev philosophy”, I think these are just great tips to keep in mind.
- The items
- Avoid, at all costs, arriving at a scenario where the ground-up rewrite starts to look attractive
- This is less about “don’t do rewrites”, but about noticing the warning signs ahead of time.
- Aim to be 90% done in 50% of the available time
- Great quote: “The first 90% of the job takes 90% of the time. The last 10% of the job takes the other 90% of the time.”
- Automate good practices
- Think about pathological data
- “Nobody cares about the golden path. Edge cases are our entire job.”
- Brian’s note: But also think about the happy path. Documenting and testing what you think of as the happy path is a testing start and helps others understand your idea of how things are supposed to work.
- There’s usually a simpler way to write it
- Write code to be testable
- It is insufficient for code to be provably correct; it should be obviously, visibly, trivially correct
- Brian’s note: Even if it’s obviously, visibly, trivially correct, it will still break. So test it anyway.
Michael #4: Python 3.13.2 released
Extras
Brian:
- Still thinking about pytest plugins a lot.
- The top pytest plugin list
- Has been updated for Feb
- Is starting to include things without “pytest” in the name, like Hypothesis and Syrupy.
- Eventually I’ll have to add “looking at trove classifiers” as part of the search, but for now, let me know if you’re favorite is missing.
- Includes T&C podcast episode links if I’ve covered it on the show.
Michael:
Joke:
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