Ask HN: Python Script Best Practices?

20 points by shlip 3y ago ↗ HN

I recently stumbled on this article about Shell Script Best Practices (https://sharats.me/posts/shell-script-best-practices/) here on HN and appreciated the format (concise, curated, well explained, based on experience).

I was wondering if someone knows of a similar ressource for python ?

6 comments

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j0hnyl 3y ago ↗

https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/

nuancebydefault 3y ago ↗

Also, the conformity to pep8 can be easily automatically checked. I remember when using pycharm as an editor, it was rather easy to comply. As a side note, I remember i learned a lot of tricks that make your code more easy to read/maintain after searching for articles about "pythonic python code"

[deleted] 3y ago ↗

(comment deleted)

4oo4 3y ago ↗

Use a linter, personally pylint has helped me learn to write more "Pythonic" code. If you're using vscode, you can easily integrate it or any other python linter.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/python/lintin...

If you also want a linter for bash, check out shellcheck: https://github.com/koalaman/shellcheck

wodenokoto 3y ago ↗

Read pep8, as others suggest, but don’t use a linter.

> However, know when to be inconsistent – sometimes style guide recommendations just aren’t applicable. When in doubt, use your best judgment. Look at other examples and decide what looks best.

-pep8

wonkyspecs 3y ago ↗

To follow up on this, if you've got a spare hour, one of the python core developers has a great demo of how pep8 can sometimes be blinding to larger issues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf-BqAjZb8M

That said, most of what pep8 says is great to follow in the vast majority of cases.