Test & Code

Latest Episodes:

100 Days of Code - Julian Sequeira Dec 28, 2018

Show notes

Julian Sequeira is Co-Founder of PyBit.es (a blog/platform created to teach and learn Python) and a Python Trainer at Talk Python Training.
He's also a survivor of the 100DaysOfCode in Python Challenge.

We talk about the 100 days challenge, about learning Python, and about how cool it is to learn within a community.

Special Guest: Julian Sequeira.

Links:

Genesynth, nox, urllib3, & PyCascades - Thea Flowers Dec 21, 2018

Show notes

Thea Flowers is a Pythonista and open source advocate. She helps empower developers of all backgrounds and experience levels using Python and open source software and hardware.

Thea is the creator of Nox, the co-chair of PyCascades 2019, the lead maintainer of urllib3, and a member of the Python Packaging Authority and Packaging Working Group.

Thea works on Google Cloud Platform's wonderful Developer Relations team where she works on API client libraries and community outreach.

All of that is definitely cool enough. But she is also building a synthesiser based on Sega Genesis chips. So of course, that's where we'll start the conversation.

Special Guest: Thea Flowers.

Links:

REST APIs, testing with Docker containers and pytest Dec 14, 2018

Show notes

Let's say you've got a web application you need to test.
It has a REST API that you want to use for testing.

Can you use Python for this testing even if the application is written in some other language? Of course.
Can you use pytest? duh. yes. what else?
What if you want to spin up docker instances, get your app running in that, and run your tests against that environment?
How would you use pytest to do that?
Well, there, I'm not exactly sure. But I know someone who does.

Dima Spivak is the Director of Engineering at StreamSets, and he and his team are doing just that.
He's also got some great advice on utilizing code reviews across teams for test code, and a whole lot more.

Special Guest: Dima Spivak.

Links:

What is Data Science? - Vicki Boykis Dec 11, 2018

Show notes

Data science, data engineering, data analysis, and machine learning are part of the recent massive growth of Python.

But really what is data science?

Vicki Boykis helps me understand questions like:

No really, what is data science?
What does a data pipeline look like?
What is it like to do data science, data analysis, data engineering?
Can you do analysis on a laptop?
How big does data have to be to be considered big?
What are the challenges in data science?
Does it make sense for software engineers to learn data engineering, data science, pipelines, etc?
How could someone start learning data science?

Also covered:

A type work (analysis) vs B type work (building)
data lakes and data swamps
predictive models
data cleaning
development vs experimentation
Jupyter Notebooks
Kaggle
ETL pipelines

I learned a lot about the broad field of data science from talking with Vicki.

Special Guest: Vicki Boykis.

Links:

How to Lie with Statistics : Darrell Huff
Should you replace Hadoop with your laptop?
Kaggle
Project Jupyter
Soviet Art Bot — A bot that finds socialist realism paintings and tweets them out

Being a Guest on a Podcast - Michael Kennedy Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

Michael Kennedy of Talk Python and Python Bytes fame joins Brian to talk about being a great guest and what to expect.

Even if you have never wanted to be on a podcast, you might learn some great tips. A few of the things we talk about will be helpful for other endeavors, like public speaking, guest blog posts, look for unsolicited job opportunities.

Some people have never been on a podcast before, and are possibly freaked out about some of the unknowns of being on a podcast. That's why we did this episode.

Michael and I discuss a bunch of the niggly details so that you can be relaxed and know what to expect.

Topics include:

If you want to be on a podcast
- How to stand out and be someone a podcast would want to have on a show.
- How to suggest yourself as a guest and the topic you want to discuss.
- Picking a topic for a podcast
What to do before the show to prepare
- Helping the host out with some information
- Some hardware (not much)
- Some software (all free)
- Sending info like bio, headshot, links, etc.
- What to expect the host or show to do before the recording.
- Where to record
- Sketching out some show topics with the host, maybe on a shared document.
What to expect and do
- Right before the show
- During the conversation
- After the recording
- When it goes live (help promote it)

Special Guest: Michael Kennedy.

55: When 100% test coverage just isn't enough - Mahmoud Hashemi Dec 03, 2018

Show notes

What happens when 100% test code coverage just isn't enough.
In this episode, we talk with Mahmoud Hashemi about glom, a very cool project in itself, but a project that needs more coverage than 100%.
This problem affects lots of projects that use higher level programming constructs, like domain specific languages (DSLs), sub languages mini languages, compilers, and db query languages.

Also covered:

awesome Python applications
versioning: 0-ver vs calver vs semver

Special Guest: Mahmoud Hashemi.

Links:

Announcing glom — Restructured Data for Python
Domain-specific language - Wikipedia
awesome-python-applications — Free software that works great, and also happens to be open-source Python.
Meld — a visual diff and merge tool targeted at developers.
ZeroVer: 0-based Versioning
SemVer: Semantic Versioning
CalVer: Calendar Versioning
episode 27: unit, integration, and system testing - Mahmoud Hashemi

54: Python 1994 - Paul Everitt Nov 25, 2018

Show notes

Paul talks about the beginning years of Python.
Talking about Python's beginnings is also talking about the Python community beginnings.
Yes, it's reminiscing, but it's fun.

Special Guest: Paul Everitt.

Links:

53: Seven Databases in Seven Weeks - Luc Perkins Nov 18, 2018

Show notes

Luc Perkins joins the show to talk about "Seven Databases in Seven Weeks: A guide to modern databases and the NoSQL movement."

We discuss a bit about each database: Redis, Neo4J, CouchDB, MongoDB, HBase, Postgres, and DynamoDB.

Special Guest: Luc Perkins.

Links:

52: pyproject.toml : the future of Python packaging - Brett Cannon Nov 05, 2018

Show notes

Brett Cannon discusses the changes afoot in Python packaging as a result of PEP 517, PEP 518, starting with "How did we get here?" and "Where are we going?"

Discussed:

flit
Poetry
tox
Continuous Integration
setup.py, MANIFEST.in, etc.
pipenv
what's with lock files
applications (doesn't go on PyPI) vs libraries (goes on PyPI)
workflows
dependency resolution
deployment dependencies vs development dependencies
will lock files be standarized
multiple lock files
requirements.txt

Special Guest: Brett Cannon.

Links:

51: Feature Testing Oct 30, 2018

Show notes

Andy Knight joins me in discussing the concept of feature testing.

A feature tests is "a test verifying a service or library as the customer would use it, but within a single process." That was a quote from an article that appeared on the Twitter engineering blog. The article describes a shift away from class tests towards feature tests, the benefits of the shift, and some reactions to it.

Feature tests are similar to something I used to call "functional subcutaneous integration test", but it's a way better name, and I plan to use it more often.

The idea fits well with my testing philosophy. Andy Knight is someone still holding onto the testing pyramid. So I thought it would be fun to ask him to discuss feature testing with me. I think it's a balanced discussion. I hope you enjoy it and learn something.

Special Guest: Andy Knight.

Links: