S.Lott -- Software Architect

Clean Architecture API Lesson Learned

S.Lott — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 07:41:00 -0400

BLUF

Clean Architecture means implementation choices can be revoked.

Ignore the "Dependency Inversion" part of the SOLID design principles at your peril.

Think through at least one alternative design and make sure the API covers more than one data structure.

(Full disclosure. I failed to do this recently. Don't follow …

Object-Oriented Design: Binary or Enum?

S.Lott — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 07:41:00 -0400

BLUF

Some aspects of a problem are superficially binary, perhaps modeled as a boolean value.

Don't be misled. Some aspects of a problem are clearly not binary, and a boolean is wrong. Other aspects may or may not be binary, and a boolean might not be ideal.

Clearly Not Binary …

Hard Problem? Use Test Cases as Debug Aids

S.Lott — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:28:00 -0400

BLUF

Can't get the software to work?

The test cases are places to gather debugging details. Some simple tricks:

Observability: add debugging outputs to the code
Enable debugging output in failing test cases
Make Failure an Option

The Detailed Example

I've been struggling to create an accurate emulation of the …

Hard Problem? Stop Staring At The Code

S.Lott — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 09:32:00 -0400

BLUF

Can't get the software to work?

Stop Staring At It.

Often, there are two problems:

The code doesn't work.
You're making faulty assumptions about why it doesn't work.

It's essential to stop staring (and hand-wringing) over the code and gather evidence.

This will allow you to challenge your faulty …

Hard Problem? Try Shifting Position

S.Lott — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 13:32:00 -0400

BLUF

Can't get the software to work?

Rewrite it.

Seriously.

It's often faster to pick a new paradigm and start a rewrite than to bang your head against a wall.

Modern languages (like Python) don't require a lot of overhead or boilerplate to start again.

Can't get the object model …

A Review of Some Slopware

S.Lott — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 10:32:00 -0400

I've been subjected to two (obvious) examples of slopware apps. I've read dozens and dozens of conference submissions that appeared to be slopware. I have some observations.

BLUF

My observations:

AI Writing is Crap
AI-Written Apps are Crap
AI-Written Apps Reflect Second-Espresso Bad Ideas
AI-Written Apps Displace Problems

Important

One …

We Write Code By Hand

S.Lott — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 13:54:00 -0400

Here's an interesting group:

https://handcraftedcode.org

I'm an "absolutely no LLM" bigot. I need to do the thinking. I like to do the fiddly, tedious hard parts. I always have liked it.

OpenD6 Tools Project -- Released

S.Lott — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 09:31:00 -0400

I have (finally) released a usable DSL for OpenD6 spells and characters.

See the OpenD6 tag for a bunch of related content.

See https://github.com/slott56/opend6-tools for the final product.

I doubt there will ever be a PyPI package. For the few who want to use these tools …

OpenD6 Tools Project -- Status

S.Lott — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 09:31:00 -0400

See the OpenD6 tag for a bunch of related content. I have a DSL for OpenD6 spells and OpenD6 characters. At this moment, the test suite statistics are these:

Statements	Misses	Coverage
2701	166	94%

Background

The OpenD6 tools have two extensive DSL's. These differ in a profound way:

Spell …

OO Design and Card Games

S.Lott — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 07:32:00 -0400

Lets look at my favorite OO-Design problem domain: card games.

We'll compare the design of two games: Cribbage and Canasta.

Why? Because they have three common abstractions: cards, hands, and a score.

Overall the players are dealt cards, form hands, and at some point, accumulate a score. Of course, all …

AI Generated Code Means Software Is Worthless

S.Lott — Fri, 22 May 2026 18:20:00 -0400

What does the AI bubble mean? It means software has no intrinsic value. Since software is worthless, creating good software is a waste of effort.

This is a conclusion of reached from observing the software industry for a half-century

Gather 'Round The Fire All You Youngs

Once upon a time …

Experience Points and Levels

S.Lott — Wed, 06 May 2026 07:46:00 -0400

See Writing Project -- perhaps a bad idea. I'm trying to dig around in my old notes to pull together a "World Book" with a fantasy setting I think has a lot of good gaming opportunities. I have a problem, though.

History

History is my problem.

Some of this world-building and …

Revisiting Old Ideas

S.Lott — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 17:37:00 -0400

This isn't …

A Writing Project -- perhaps a bad idea

S.Lott — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 14:37:00 -0400

I'm trying to push the envelope in my writing.

I write a fair amount of non-fiction. https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/4537706.Steven_F_Lott. This is a comfortable spot for me.

I've got some self-published titles:

Another D6 Dice Mechanic -- Equiprobable Choices

S.Lott — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:37:00 -0400

When playing a game using D6 -- and only D6 -- we're sometimes confronted with a need to make a selection from equiprobable items.

For example, pick a random day of the week: 7 choices, but only 6 sides to a die.

What can we do?

How can we select fairly among …

The human.json Protocol

S.Lott — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 09:20:00 -0400

See https://codeberg.org/robida/human.json.

This content is human-generated. All the mistakes are mine, without the taint of AI slop.

I've added the needed human.json, and can update it if you want me to vouch for your content, also.

OpenD6 Deep Dive -- Area Effect Aspect

S.Lott — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 16:20:00 -0500

I went deep into OpenD6, chasing an idea through a maze of strange shapes.

See this extract from a Jupyter Notebook: Area Effect Aspect Volume Computations.

It was a lot of fun to uncover two errors in the rules, and work out what could have been used instead.

TL;DR …

Python Illustrated -- a Purrfect Book for New Programmers

S.Lott — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 13:28:00 -0500

Maaike and Imke van Putten’s delightful Python Illustrated follows innocent Wiesje on a journey to learn the secrets only Zia seems to know. The journey is long and filled with discoveries about Python as well as the ways Wiesje needs to adapt and grow.

No, you’re not reading …

OpenD6 TTRPG DSL -- Spell Definitions

S.Lott — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 13:28:00 -0500

The OpenD6 Table-Top Role-Playing Game (TTRPG) has a complicated bit of accounting around the definition for magical spells and invocations. For me, the accounting suggested a need for software tools. This -- in turn -- forced me to invent a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) to work with OpenD6 spells.

I like the OpenD6 …

LLM Vibe Coding or Illiterate Programming

S.Lott — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 11:13:00 -0500

BLUF

Your LLM conversations are emphatically not Literate Programming. The term "Literate Programming" cannot include code with separate documentation.

I won't call it "Illiterate Programming."

Sad Story

An LLM coder had a lot of things to say about productivity, and explained their approach. They wrote 800 or so words, and …

TTRPG Progress Report

S.Lott — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 10:31:00 -0500

See The eval() Conundrum for background. Also, see https://github.com/slott56/writing-tools.

Permit me a long story about budgeting and a language to describe magic. The story leaves footprints that reveal the impossibility of making the right design choices up front.

Important

TL;DR.

Almost all software design seems …

LLM Conference Talks 2

S.Lott — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 10:25:00 -0500

Please do not use an LLM to create a conference talk.

Please.

If you can't be bothered to put in the effort to write your own material, why should we put in effort to read the LLM slop you had your LLM post to the submission form?

What's in it …

LLM Conference Talks

S.Lott — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 08:29:00 -0500

Please do not use an LLM to create a conference talk.

Please.

We want to hear your actual words in your actual voice We do not want diluted words created for you by sparkling auto-complete. We really don't.

The vibe around LLM slop may seem better to you. But it's …

The Python Object-Oriented Programming 5th Edition

S.Lott — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 11:40:00 -0500

In time for your Holiday Reading. Want guidance on OO design in Python? Want a lot of concrete examples, fully tested?

Master OOP fundamentals with hands-on examples and expert insights
Learn design patterns and type hinting with real-world Python 3.13 code
Develop scalable programs using testing and concurrency best …

A get_object_size() Function -- Again

S.Lott — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 13:08:00 -0400

BLUF

You rarely need this. Python handles memory management for you. Except in an edge case where you have a lot of objects to work with.

How many is a lot? Enough that your app crashes with MemoryError exception. Or, is consuming so much memory other processes have trouble working …

A get_object_size() Function [Updated]

S.Lott — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 13:08:00 -0400

BLUF

You rarely need this. Python handles memory management for you. Except in an edge case where you have a lot of objects to work with.

How many is a lot? Enough that your app crashes with MemoryError exception. Or, is consuming so much memory other processes have trouble working …

OO Design Principles: GRASP patterns

S.Lott — Sat, 04 Oct 2025 09:46:00 -0400

Some quotes to provide context.

"I read several times that ideally I should avoid inheritance with ABCs and if I do, then from a standard class. That is, I should avoid creating a typical base and subclass construct that is used in a strategy pattern, for example."

"If I look …

OO Design Principles: CUPID

S.Lott — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 09:46:00 -0400

Some quotes to provide context.

"I read several times that ideally I should avoid inheritance with ABCs and if I do, then from a standard class. That is, I should avoid creating a typical base and subclass construct that is used in a strategy pattern, for example."

"If I look …

OO Design Principles: SOLID

S.Lott — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 09:46:00 -0400

Some quotes to provide context.

"I read several times that ideally I should avoid inheritance with ABCs and if I do, then from a standard class. That is, I should avoid creating a typical base and subclass construct that is used in a strategy pattern, for example."

"If I look …

OO Design Principles: ABC's

S.Lott — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 09:46:00 -0400

Some quotes to provide context.

"I read several times that ideally I should avoid inheritance with ABCs and if I do, then from a standard class. That is, I should avoid creating a typical base and subclass construct that is used in a strategy pattern, for example."

"If I look …

The eval() Conundrum and Python-as-DSL

S.Lott — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 09:46:00 -0400

Many people will proclaim that the eval() function is reprentnatly evil.

Feel free to skip the two rants.

BLUF

The eval() function is relatively easy to work with.

Important

Limit the globals to the fewest possible names.

Eval() Rant

A too-common claim is that we can't use eval() because an …

Humble Bundle Offer

S.Lott — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 16:02:00 -0400

This is delightful: Packt has this Humble Bundle including The Modern Python Cookbook.

The Humble Bundle with The Modern Python Cookbook

Since it's right arund my birthday, consider this discount my gift to you.

Invest in yourself.

Gloom and Despair -- LaTeX Edition

S.Lott — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 09:54:00 -0400

I write all my books using LaTeX. Parts of LaTeX are (at first) confusing.

Recently, I had a moment of despair when my LaTeX processing tools no longer worked.

BLUF

Don't panic. Gather the data.

If the logs aren't good enough to reveal what's going on, fix the logs.

The …

Some Recommended Reading

S.Lott — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 11:20:00 -0400

Q: "Can you recommend books that are good for a beginner wanting to learn python?"

Me: "Depends on the person’s background..."

Q: "They has a deep background in the problem domain. Recently they've been doing a lot of reporting and analytics using SQL."

Okay. That's excellent.

One of the …

The Payout From Learning

S.Lott — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 15:46:00 -0400

The back-story. See Coping With Complexity. See https://github.com/cloud-custodian/cel-python for the code base.

Back around May 26, I created this branch. Today -- July 2 -- I've got the tests to pass.

BLUF (TL;DR)

I made mistakes. I spent a lot of time making a some significant mistakes …

An Investment in Learning

S.Lott — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 09:06:00 -0400

The back-story. See Coping With Complexity. See https://github.com/cloud-custodian/cel-python for the code base.

I've reached the point where progress is clearly impossible. A bad decision a few weeks ago has reached it's inevitable conclusion. I've made a terrible mistake. About 1,000 lines of code -- and tons …

Coping with Complexity

S.Lott — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 08:01:00 -0400

I'm struggling with brain cramps trying to understand something my past self wrote. Current me needs to go outside and do something that doesn't involve software or complexity. Sadly, current me is trying to make one small change and it feels like the software has passed out of the realm …

Testing Your AI

S.Lott — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 18:11:00 -0400

We test software. We test people.

My lawyer, all my various doctors, even the coffee bar on main street is subject to testing. The coffee shop proudly posts their score from health inspections. Want to know about food safety? Ask them.

My professionals all have walls full of diplomas and …

Comma Comma

S.Lott — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 07:58:00 -0400

Ugh.

A painful stretch of hours looking for a problem. Working on this: https://github.com/cloud-custodian/cel-python/wiki/Evaluation-Design. I need to address a performance problem and upgrade things generally to get them ready for 3.13 and 3.14.

You know how it goes, right?

I touched something …

Ransomware Cause and Effect

S.Lott — Mon, 12 May 2025 07:45:00 -0400

This: https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/12/opinion_column_ransomware/

Shabby IT infrastructure built with criminally low budgets.

What did we expect?

Of course there will be ruthless exploitation of weakness.

Clearly, minimal IT budgets -- just enought to "keep the lights on" -- will provide avenues for exploitation.

Domain-Specific Language

S.Lott — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 15:52:00 -0400

Generally, I try to frown on Domain-Specific Languages. Often, a tidy set of related functions, or a group of class definitions with a few decorators can create something that's every bit as expressive as a DSL in native Python syntax.

There are a few cases where a DSL can be …

Joomla Conversion

S.Lott — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 08:52:00 -0500

Recently, we talked about extracting data from complex relational databases. This is -- in a way -- another case study for my Unlearning SQL book. This is a description of what comes next after the "low-level" conversion. Warning: it's complicated.

BLUF: Take the time to get rid of SQL processing.

Database Migration, Part IV

S.Lott — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 07:21:00 -0500

We're talking about extracting data from complex relational databases. This is -- in a way -- another case study for my Unlearning SQL book.

Database Migration, Part III

S.Lott — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 07:21:00 -0500

We're talking about extracting data from complex relational databases. This is -- in a way -- another case study for my Unlearning SQL book.

Database Migration, Part II

S.Lott — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 13:21:00 -0500

We're talking about extracting data from complex relational databases. This is -- in a way -- another case study for my Unlearning SQL book.

Database Migration, Part I

S.Lott — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 13:21:00 -0500

Let's talk about extracting data from complex relational databases. This is -- in a way -- another case study for my Unlearning SQL book.

Seasons Greetings 2024

S.Lott — Sun, 22 Dec 2024 07:21:00 -0500

I'm working on revisions to Python 3 Object-Oriented Programming. Meanwhile, I have big news on Packt's end-of-year promotions.

I’m always striving to make the knowledge in Python Real-World Projects, as useful as possible. That’s why I’m so excited about Packt’s $9.99 End-of-Year Sale! This adds …

Stingray Reader Release 5.1

S.Lott — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 08:00:00 -0400

Starting back in 2011 I was working on a way to manage a variety of spreadsheets in a variety of layouts with a common schema. Over the last 13 years, I've been updating and maintaining this little project. It's not widely used, but it interests me.

Fundamentally, the use of …

Better than grep

S.Lott — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 09:50:00 -0400

In the process of writing Unlearning SQL, I had a need to extract SQL blocks from Python programs. Of course, I tried grep. It wasn't ideal.

Note

Book is available here:

Modern Python Cookbook and Type Hints

S.Lott — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 16:03:00 -0400

Modern Python Cookbook — with lots and lots of recipes — is something you might need. Find the results of checking all these recipes here: https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Python-Cookbook-updated-techniques/dp/1835466389

I (reluctantly) switched from using mypy to using pyright to check all of these recipes carefully. The type alias (PEP …

Revised Books Available

S.Lott — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 14:35:00 -0400

Big Announcement: the 2024.8 version of Unlearning SQL, and the 2024.9 version of Pivot to Python are available from booksellers online. Both are revised and all the code tested with Python 3.12.

Unlearning SQL

This book shows you how to translate essential SQL concepts into the Python …

Sphinx EPUB and Print

S.Lott — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:31:00 -0400

Let's say you want to self-publish an ebook and a print-on-demand paperback book.

This isn't impossible, nor is it particularly easy. Here's what I've learned.

Basic Workflow

You've got two obvious paths to make sure your EPUB book and your print-on-demand book match:

Convert EPUB to Print. This generally means …

Unlearning SQL, revised

S.Lott — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 16:31:00 -0400

Book (pre) Announcement:

KDP - See https://www.amazon.com/stores/Steven-Lott/author/B00HNRSLEK for my author's page.

https://www.amazon.com/Unlearning-SQL-hammer-every-problem-ebook/dp/B0DDMFMXNW is the book.
Google Play - See https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=23WAEAAAQBAJ. Be sure to get the 2024.08 edition; there's a previous …

Modern Python Cookbook, 3e

S.Lott — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 13:41:00 -0400

Book Announcement:

https://www.packtpub.com/en-us/product/modern-python-cookbook-9781835466384

There are about 130 recipes in here. Some new. Some revised. All examined (and tested) for Python 3.12.

For the Python folks who are just starting as well as those looking to pick up some more skills, this is for …

Synthetic Data Tool

S.Lott — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 14:22:00 -0400

See Synthetic Data.

I've updated the repository with a "Noisy Data" feature.

This will generate bulk data with invalid field values.

It helps with testing ETL pipelines to be sure they will scale to the expected volumes.

Clone https://github.com/slott56/DataSynthTool

Read https://slott56.github.io/DataSynthTool/_build …

Functional SQL in Pure Python

S.Lott — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 08:14:00 -0400

I've published a framework for doing SQL-like programming in Pure Python -- no database required.

Here: https://github.com/slott56/functional-SQL. See the functional-SQL documentation.

This allows us to transform SQL:

SELECT n.name, v.c2
FROM names_table n, values_table v
WHERE n.code = v.c1

To pure Python:

Select(name …

DataSynthTool Repository

S.Lott — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 19:22:00 -0400

I've published a framework for making tools to leverage formal schema definitions to synthesize bulk data for performance tuning.

Here: https://github.com/slott56/DataSynthTool.

See the original talk.

See the documentation

Synthetic Data

S.Lott — Sat, 29 Jun 2024 09:22:00 -0400

Book? Second draft (with tech review comments addressed) off to editors.

Boat? Still on the hard during Hurricane Season.

Synthetic Data

I've had a passing interest in data synthesis for decades.

Early on in my career, I figured out how the Z/OS IEDBG utility worked. See https://www.ibm …

Git Nightmare

S.Lott — Tue, 07 May 2024 08:01:00 -0400

My sailing blog, Team Red Cruising is very large: 859 postings over the last few years. 2,334 image files.

This is a LOT of content.

A few of the files (were) Movies, which tend to create immense files.

The whole mess was so big

How Big Was It?

It …

DBLock Context Manager

S.Lott — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 08:01:00 -0400

Consider, for a moment, the shelve and dbm packages for storing things in a “database.” Built-in. Lightweight. The database is essentially a mapping from identifiers to objects. It can be quite nice.

The shelve module directly puts Python objects in a file. It’s an ideal database structure for Python …

Functional Python and Lambdas

S.Lott — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 08:01:00 -0500

I saw a confusing post on https://fosstodon.org.

I won't link to it, but I will quote it because it repeats some common misconceptions.

I have some iterator chain (in reality longer and more complex than this example).
And now in one or more steps, I need to add …

Rewrites are NOT hazardous

S.Lott — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 08:01:00 -0500

First, read this: Hazards And Safeguards for Software Rewrites. This is an infuriating article. The first part is nonsense. I wonder if it's intended to be read ironically? Maybe it's a list of bad ideas? Skip straight to the Safeguards for Rewrites section. It's really good.

Also, this Characterization Testing …

More Reasons to Stop Bash-ing

S.Lott — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 08:01:00 -0500

There are many good reasons to use shell scripts. Mostly, a script can be useful when it's an alias that launches an application. Beyond that, I have doubts.

BLUF

Incumbency is a popular argument for bash.

It's not a good argument, however.

Use invoke and you'll be much happier.

Background …

Understanding the Abstraction -- matplotlib Edition

S.Lott — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 08:01:00 -0500

I wasted three days because I refused to get a grip on how matplotlib really works.

Most of the time, folks like me are happy and successful using the pyplot module. The Quickstart provides brilliant, working examples.

As my partner's grandfather used to say, "We're off to the races in …

It's Not THE Ternary Operator -- there are many

S.Lott — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 08:01:00 -0500

I'm sick of reading about THE Ternary Operator.

There is not merely a single operator that is ternary. There are many operators that are ternary.

Here's one example:

>>> 6+1 >= 6 >= 6-1

The >= >= operator is ternary. It has 3 operands. Count them.

There are a 36 of these ternary operators …

Cleaning up Examples

S.Lott — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 08:01:00 -0500

Stand-alone document files for tech writing are awful. They should not be used as widely as they are.

BLUF: Don't Use MS-Word

We used to call editors like MS-Word WYSIWYG -- What You See Is What You Get. Once upon a time, an editor that immediately presented the final rendered doc …

This is Awful

S.Lott — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 08:01:00 -0500

This is a disheartening thing to read

As someone who doesn't do a ton of JSON parsing on the command line, I tend to forget jq syntax.

Two tools I really like are gron (make JSON greppable) from @tomnomnom and jqp ..., which provides a "tui playground for exploring jq."

98 …

The Debugger

S.Lott — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 18:21:00 -0400

See Python 3.12: what didn't make the headlines. This is very helpful.

It is a great list of 7 key features of Python 3.12.

With one tiny point I need to object to.

I don't like debuggers

This is a strongly-held position.

Debuggers are harmful.

I say this …

Analyzing the "Worst-of-2D6" Dice Mechanic

S.Lott — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 14:57:00 -0400

A "Dice Mechanic"? Yes. The thing you do with the dice to determine an outcome. We'll use Python to see how the dice shake out.

A little backstory

For a casino game of craps, the roll of the dice can be 7 or 11 for an immediate win, 2, 3 …

Preorder the Python Real-World Projects Book

S.Lott — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Want a book with dozens of project ideas?

Each has a description, and approach, and deliverables. It's a lot like ordinary development work, but with some detailed guidance from the author. (And no deadline imposed by your team lead or manager.)

These are projects you can do. You can post …

The Echo-Pipe Trap [Updated]

S.Lott — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0400

This is a great question.

https://fosstodon.org/@JustineSmithies/110979871574705636

This works, they said.

echo -en "Firefox\0icon\x1fweechat" | fuzzel -d -w 100 -l 10

But. The superficial switch to subprocess.Popen() doesn't work.

Why?

The way echo works varies from shell to shell. When MacOSX changes to zsh, things …

More Python Quirks Debunking

S.Lott — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Stuff I found on the internet that I have to disagree with.

(And no, I didn't ask for clarification. If the author posts things without supporting details it suggests they might lack the supporting details. I can be charitable and assume they don't really care about providing useful information, but …

Python Quirks that aren't very quirky

S.Lott — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0400

See https://writing.peercy.net/p/python-quirks

Superficially, most of these are true.

Looking a little more deeply, most of them are also presented in a somewhat misleading way. A few set up a good punch-line. The Inheritance one, for example, is funny.

If the point is to force a …

Two Problems with Python

S.Lott — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0400

I want to call out two huge problems with Python. I'm not the first to point these out, but they've been bothering me for a while.

Surprising Changes
Dependency Hell

I've provided them here to save folks from repeating these. They're now officially "known" and there's no point in repeating …

Literate Programming with PyWebLP

S.Lott — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0400

See https://github.com/slott56/py-web-tool

And https://pypi.org/project/py-web-lp/

I finally made the PyWeb LP tool installable from PyPI.

I need to fix the name of the GitHub repo (some day) to make it also say py-web-lp. I should also fixup my tag cloud to say pyweblp …

An Implementation of Annotated Types

S.Lott — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0400

The typing module includes the mysterious-looking Annotated type hint. See https://docs.python.org/3/library/typing.html#typing.Annotated for details.

What does this do?

Why do I need it?

Where can I see examples?

What does this do?

The Annotated type hint lets us append "details" to a …

any() and all() and Identity Elements

S.Lott — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0400

This was a surprising thing (for me) to see. Surprising because -- after writing a book about functional programming, I'd forgotten that some of the ideas are actually really new to people.

(I've omitted the source of the quote because I want to reuse this without worrying about link rot. Some …

Python and Encapsulation -- How do I private?

S.Lott — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0400

Central to OO design is "encapsulation." It's so central it is part of several separate principles.

In the S. O. L. I. D. design principles it's the Interface Segregation Principle. And a significant part of the Single Responsibility Principle.

In some cases, Python n00bz -- folks who already know some OO …

Software Rewrites to Add Hints

S.Lott — Thu, 04 May 2023 08:00:00 -0400

Let's reach way, way back. 1989 - 1990. This will let me talk about OO programming and Python Type Hints. (really) And doing OO design for things that are as pervasive (and transparent) as air. Things that need to be part of a design, but don't appear in any documentation.

In …

Some Design Pattern Thoughts

S.Lott — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 08:00:00 -0400

The question was "Favorite Design Patterns."

This is tricky because -- well -- so many patterns appear and re-appear in software. Picking a few from the vast world of patterns is fraught with difficulties.

Here are some thoughts:

Side Quest

S.Lott — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 08:00:00 -0400

Few things are as distracting as those god-awful side quests.

In this case, I had to search out all of the examples in my new book drafts.

Previously

Once upon a time, it was a manual check of code in the book to be sure it made sense.

Ugh. Not …

EDI Message Parsing

S.Lott — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 08:00:00 -0400

Reaching back to 2008. Yes. Decade(s) ago. Python 2.5.

I was reminded of this when a former colleague pinged me about this: https://github.com/slott56/TigerShark.

Yes, it's an X12/EDI message parsing library from -- well -- decades ago.

What is all this about?

Short answer: Parsing X12 …

Programming Languages -- In Time Order

S.Lott — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 08:00:00 -0500

See Programming Languages I've Learned (more-or-less in order) [Update].

This came up on Twitter and Fosstodon.

See https://fosstodon.org/@vpavlyshyn/109908255464181943 and https://fosstodon.org/@slott56/109908527412493172.

I omitted a few things from the list because -- well -- there are a LOT of languages.

For example, in the 90's I …

New Monitor

S.Lott — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 08:00:00 -0500

The (almost) 10-year old 27" Thunderbolt display finally died.

Well, it didn't really die.

The Thunderbolt connector had gotten impossibly flaky. If I looked at it wrong, the monitor glitched or disonnected.

It was dead enough that I wasn't going to deal with it.

It involved this morass of adapters …

Jupyter Notebook for Tide Table Analysis

S.Lott — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 08:00:00 -0500

I'm undecided if this goes into the next book. Maybe this is a teaser... And yes, this is a Python to the Rescue story.

I live on a boat. See Red Ranger Blog for details. What's essential is this little complication.

The South Gulf Cove Boat Lock.

The lock keeps …

Python Confusion

S.Lott — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 08:00:00 -0500

For social contact, I'm generally following people on https://fosstodon.org/home. I'm https://fosstodon.org/@slott56.

Or @slott56@fosstodon.org <https://fosstodon.org/@slott56> as they say in the Fediverse.

But I saw some stuff on Twitter that was disheartening.

I thought Python🐍wasn't strongly typed.🤔 But this code …

Book Offers

S.Lott — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 08:48:00 -0500

Packt Publishing

See https://www.packtpub.com/product/functional-python-programming-third-edition/9781803232577

Much newness here.

Apple Books

Pivot to Python

A Guide for professionals and skilled beginners

https://books.apple.com/us/book/pivot-to-python/id1586977675

I've recently updated this to fix some cosmetic problems with title pages, the table of contents and …

Behave Tests and Fixtures

S.Lott — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 08:00:00 -0500

BLUF

Behave fixtures totally rock for testing complex applications.

I had been doing them wrong. Doing them right is simpler.

History

I'm a fan of the Gherkin language for specifying the behavior of software.

Scenario: Works for Me

Given a configuration
When a request is made
Then the response can …

Link Rot and Editing

S.Lott — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 08:00:00 -0500

As noted in Finished Moving: Lessons Learned link rot is real.

Links vanish.

I've got 23 ancient (2004 to 2006, ancient) posts with clearly broken links. These are easy to identify because the service vanished years ago.

The tricky part is figuring out of there's any content worth preserving. In …

Finished Moving: Lessons Learned

S.Lott — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 08:00:00 -0500

Moved everything from blogger.com to "here" (https://slott56.github.io).

What did I learn?

BLUF

Don't use WYSIWYG editors. Always use plain text markup.
Think about your categories and tags.
Links rot.
Have a data model and tooling to process entries.

History

Back in the early '00's (up to …

DZone's lack of a Python Zone

S.Lott — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 10:00:00 -0500

Check out DZone's Coding zone: https://dzone.com/coding. Hover over the "Coding" drop-down menu.

Notice anything lacking?

I'll give you a hint: Python.

They have "Frameworks", "Java", "Javascript", "Languages" and "Tools".

The "Languages" seems to be general programming, and the posts include Java, JavaScript and numerous other languages.

Let's …

Christmas Book Offers

S.Lott — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 11:00:00 -0500

Apple Books

Pivot to Python

A Guide for professionals and skilled beginners

https://books.apple.com/us/book/pivot-to-python/id1586977675

I've recently updated this to fix some cosmetic problems with title pages, the table of contents and stuff like that. The content hasn't changed. Yet. It's still an introduction to …

On Algorithm Design

S.Lott — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 11:00:00 -0500

Some background: FAERIE DUST™, Obstinate Idiocy, Obstinate Idiocy, Expanded, and even Permutations, Combinations and Frustrations. I want to set up algorithm design as the diametric opposite of Obstinate Stupidity. To do that, let's look at Obstinate Stupidity.

The theme?

We did something wrong, and we don't want to fix it …

My algorithm performs badly, do I need asyncio?

S.Lott — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 11:00:00 -0500

Real Question (somewhat abbreviated): "My algorithm performs badly, do I need asyncio?"

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Sigh. No. Do you need a slap upside the head?

Here's how it plays out:

Q: "We figured that if we 'parallelize' it, then we can apply multiple cores, and it will run …

Functional Programming and Finite State Automata (FSA)

S.Lott — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 11:00:00 -0500

When I talk about functional programming in Python, folks like to look for place where functional programming isn't appropriate. They latch onto finite-state automata (FSA) because "state" of an automata doesn't seem to fit with stateless objects used in functional programming.

This is a false dichotomy.

It's emphatically false in …

Permutations, Combinations and Frustrations

S.Lott — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 17:21:00 -0500

The issue of permutations and combinations is sometimes funny.

Not funny weird. But, funny "haha."

I received an email with 100's of words and 10 attachments. (10. Really.) The subject was how best to enumerate 6! permutations of something or other. With a goal of comparing some optimization algorithm with …

Obstinate Idiocy, Expanded

S.Lott — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 17:15:00 -0500

See Obstinate Idiocy for some background.

Here are three warning signs I was able to deduce.

No Rational Justification
Ineffective Tool Choice
Random Whining

To which I can now add two more.

Symptom 4 of Obstinate Idiocy is that all questions are rhetorical and they often come with pre-argued answers …

FAERIE DUST™

S.Lott — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 16:39:00 -0500

Here's how to recognize a Faerie Dust request:

We have identified a problem. It can be with almost anything: scalability, reliability, auditability, any Quality Measure.
We're pursuing a specific technology. Typically, something that has the lowest impact on our architecture.
We can't address anything other than this specific technology variation …

Testing with PySpark

S.Lott — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 11:00:00 -0500

This isn't about details of pySpark. This is about the philosophy of testing when working with a large, complex framework, like pySpark, pandas, numpy, or whatever.

BLUF

Use data subsets.

Write unit tests for the functions that process the data.

Don't test pyspark itself. Test the code you write.

Some …

Buzz in the general public regarding software bugs

S.Lott — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 10:17:00 -0500

I got this the other day: "there seems to be a lot of buzz out in the general public regarding software bugs".

Attached to this was an article from The Economist in 2003 plus one from 2010. To me, this doesn't seem to be a "lot" of buzz. But what …