How do you start building your project documentation? What if you had a tool that could do the heavy lifting and automatically write large portions directly from your code? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We talk about a Real Python step-by-step project from Martin Breuss about MkDocs. The project walks you through generating nice-looking and modern documentation from Markdown files and your existing code’s doc...
Jul 22, 2022•55 min•Ep. 118
How maintainable is your Python code? Is it possible to hold the code for your functions in your head? When is it appropriate to use measurements in a code review? This week on the show, Reka Horvath and Ben Martineau from Sourcery are here to discuss their recent PyCon talk, “Actionable insights vs ranking: How to use and how NOT to use code quality metrics.” Reka and Ben share their thoughts on how metrics can provide insights into your Python code. We discuss four measurements of code complex...
Jul 15, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 117
Would you like to explore the functional programming side of Python? What are the advantages of this approach, and what tools are built into the language? This week on the show, author Bruce Eckel talks about functional programming in Python. Bruce is the author of several programming books, including Thinking in Java , Thinking in C++ , Thinking in Python , Atomic Scala , and most recently, Atomic Kotlin . He’s been an explorer of programming languages over his career. Functional programming—wi...
Jul 01, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 116
Have you heard about PyScript? The brand-new framework has the community excited about building interactive Python applications that run entirely within the user’s browser. Would you like to dig into the details beyond the “Hello World” examples? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We talk about a Real Python tutorial from Bartosz Zaczyński about PyScript. The article provides an initial look at the framework and t...
Jun 24, 2022•56 min•Ep. 115
Are you interested in a career in security using Python? Would you like to stay ahead of potential vulnerabilities in your Python applications? This week on the show, James Pleger talks about Python information security, incident response, and forensics. James has been doing information security for over fifteen years, working at some of the biggest companies, government agencies, and startups. He shares numerous Python resources to dive into detecting threats and improving your projects. We dis...
Jun 17, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 114
Would you like a fast way to share your data science project results as an interactive dashboard instead of a Jupyter notebook? Streamlit is a library for creating simple web apps and dashboards using just Python. This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We talk about the article “Forget About Jupyter Notebooks - Showcase Your Research Using Dashboards.” It covers the basics of turning a data science script into an inte...
Jun 10, 2022•50 min•Ep. 113
What do you do when your data science project doesn’t fit within your computer’s memory? One solution is to distribute it across multiple worker machines. This week on the show, Guido Imperiale from Coiled talks about Dask and managing large data science projects through distributed computing. We talk about projects where an orchestration system like Dask will help. Dask is designed to take advantage of parallel computing, spreading the work and data across multiple machines. Many familiar techn...
Jun 03, 2022•46 min•Ep. 112
What are the differences between the various Python game frameworks? Would it help to see a couple of game examples across several libraries to understand the distinctions? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We discuss a Real Python article by previous guest Jon Fincher titled “Top Python Game Engines”. Jon compares five different game frameworks and provides example projects and thorough commentary for each. We t...
May 27, 2022•52 min•Ep. 111
Would you like a way to send structured serialized data between different platforms and languages? What if the data was self-documenting, could automatically generate Python code, and would validate itself? This week on the show, Liran Haimovitch talks about protocol buffers and communicating with microservices through Remote Procedure Calls (RPC). Protocol buffers, aka protobuf, are a language-neutral, platform-neutral system for serializing structured data. Liran talks about how they go beyond...
May 20, 2022•58 min•Ep. 110
Did you know you can add testing to your Python code while simultaneously documenting it? Using docstrings, you can create examples of how your functions should interact in a Python REPL and test them with the built-in doctest module. This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. Christopher shares an article by previous guest Mike Driscoll about testing with doctest. This is a great way to get started with testing your own ...
May 13, 2022•57 min•Ep. 109
Have you heard about the projects working toward getting Python to run in the browser? Maybe you would like to try it out for yourself, by building an interactive Python REPL with Pyodide and WebAssembly (WASM). This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, and he’s brought another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We talk about a step-by-step project that shows you how to build a Python code editor in the browser using WebAssembly through Pyodide and CodeMirror. You’re goin...
May 06, 2022•56 min•Ep. 108
Are you using an Object-Relational Mapper (ORM) for your Python projects? What if it could work with SQL or No-SQL databases and be fully type-safe? This week on the show, Robert Craigie talks about Prisma Client Python. Prisma Client Python is built on top of Prisma, which was created for TypeScript and Node.js. It uses a schema file to declare your application’s data models and relationships in a human-readable form. The schema file allows you to easily switch the database type. Prisma Client ...
Apr 22, 2022•59 min•Ep. 107
Do you know the difference between creating a class instance and initializing it? Would you like an interactive tour of the Python Pillow library? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, and he’s brought another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We talk about the recent Real Python tutorial “Image Processing With the Python Pillow Library.” It walks you through manipulating, filtering, and creating images from scratch. Christopher shares an article about Python class c...
Apr 15, 2022•58 min•Ep. 106
What goes into creating those enhanced error messages in the latest versions of Python? How does the new PEG parser help to pinpoint where errors have occurred? This week on the show, Pablo Galindo Salgado talks about the work that goes into creating these improvements. Pablo is a core CPython developer and is the release manager for Python versions 3.10 and 3.11. He is also serving his second term on the Python Steering Council. Pablo is pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback for the new...
Apr 08, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 105
Do you understand how a hash table works? What if you could learn about building one while practicing test-driven development? What are best practices when designing a REST API? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, and he’s brought another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We talk about the recent Real Python article “Build a Hash Table in Python With TDD.” The tutorial shows how to implement a hash table prototype from scratch in Python. It also provides a hands-on...
Apr 01, 2022•53 min•Ep. 104
Do you wonder if you’re taking the right approach when shaping data in pandas? Is your Jupyter workflow getting out of hand? This week on the show, Matt Harrison talks about his new book, “Effective Pandas: Patterns for Data Manipulation.” Matt discusses working as a corporate consultant and migrating Excel users toward Python. We explore several “NumPy-isms” that beginners get stuck on. Matt shares advice about chaining operations in pandas, which some developers find controversial. Course Spot...
Mar 25, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 103
Would you like to build visualizations that allow your audience to play with data? How do you effectively use Python’s assert statement during development? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, and he’s brought another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We talk about an article that shows how to build interactive visualizations with pandas, seaborn, and ipywidgets. These widgets allow you to add sliders, buttons, and dropdown menus to your Jupyter Notebooks. Christoph...
Mar 18, 2022•47 min•Ep. 102
There are many ways to get Python installed on your computer. If you were going to start fresh, what tools would you use? What if you need to manage multiple versions of Python and virtual environments? What about all the additional tools that make your coding workflow complete? This week on the show, Calvin Hendryx-Parker is here to talk about bootstrapping your Python environment. Calvin is the co-founder and CTO of Six Feet Up and a Python Web Conference co-organizer. As a consultant, Calvin ...
Mar 11, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 101
How do you define Python functions that accept optional arguments or default values? Are you wondering how to go beyond being a beginner with Python? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, and he’s brought another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. Christopher shares a Real Python article, “Defining Python Functions With Optional Arguments.” We talk about function flexibility, specifying default values, and using args & kwargs. We discuss resources for a Python beg...
Mar 04, 2022•53 min•Ep. 100
Have you thought about what authentication system you want to use for your Python project? Should you use an existing Python library or a third-party service? This week on the show, Dan Moore is here to talk about authentication systems and OAuth 2. Dan is the head of developer relations at FusionAuth. He shares advice about setting up an authentication system, setting up device grants, using social login, and addressing privacy issues. Dan also provides multiple resources to learn much more abo...
Feb 25, 2022•59 min•Ep. 99
Have you been wanting to explore fractals and complex numbers in Python? Would you like to practice working with APIs in Python through a new project? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, and he’s taking on the task of curating new issues of PyCoder’s Weekly going forward. He’ll be joining me as a cohost every other week and bringing a fresh batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects. We discuss a Real Python article about drawing the Mandelbrot set in Python. The tutorial gu...
Feb 18, 2022•51 min•Ep. 98
How often have you thought about your Developer Experience (DX)? How do you improve your workflow, find documentation, and simplify code formatting? This week on the show, Adam Johnson is here to talk about his new book, “Boost Your Django DX.” Adam provides advice on improving your developer experience, specifically inside Django and within Python. We discuss tools to simplify code formatting and linting. Adam shares a couple of his own Django tools designed to simplify development and keep you...
Feb 11, 2022•50 min•Ep. 97
Would you like to experiment with analyzing or manipulating audio with Python? This week on the show, we have Braden Riggs from DolbyIO to discuss extracting audio features and Python libraries for reshaping audio. Braden shares techniques from his recent talk at PyData Global, “Unlocking More From Your Audio Data!” We share several articles, tutorials, and Python libraries to get you started working with audio. We begin with a quick introduction to audio digitization and feature extraction. Aft...
Feb 04, 2022•59 min•Ep. 96
How can you can speed up Python? Have you thought of using a JIT (Just-In-Time Compiler)? This week on the show, we have Real Python author and previous guest Anthony Shaw to talk about his project Pyjion, a drop-in JIT compiler for CPython 3.10. Anthony has been working on Pyjion over the past year and recently released version 1.0. He talks about how he took over the project from Brett Cannon and Dino Viehland. He covers the background on compilers and assembly that he needed to take on this p...
Jan 28, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 95
Are you looking for a project to practice your Django skills? Designing the fundamental interactions of a social network is an instructive way to explore models and relationships while learning advanced Django skills. This week on the show, we talk with previous guest Martin Breuss about his new four-part series, “Build a Social Network With Django”. Martin talks about the design process and ways to include user-focused features. He shares a handy CSS library to make your front end look modern w...
Jan 21, 2022•59 min•Ep. 94
Would you like a simple command to launch your Python programs using the newest version of the language installed on your machine? This week on the show, we continue our conversation with Brett Cannon. Brett discusses his project, the Python Launcher for Unix. We dive into Brett’s workflow to set up projects, virtual environments, and prepare for distribution. He shares some of the tools he employs and reasons for keeping things simple. We also talk about PEP 665, which specifies a file format t...
Jan 14, 2022•51 min•Ep. 93
A year ago, we had Brett Cannon on the show to discuss his blog series about unravelling Python’s syntactic sugar. Brett has written 15 more entries in the series, and he returns to the show this week to continue our conversation. We dive into unravelling ‘async’ and ‘await’ statements and their relationship with Python’s generators. While working through the series, he has uncovered some issues lying under the surface of CPython. We discuss a couple of these discoveries and how the core develop...
Jan 07, 2022•59 min•Ep. 92
It’s been a year of change at Real Python! The Real Python team has written, edited, curated, illustrated, and produced a mountain of Python articles this year. We also added many new members to the team, updated the site’s features, and created new styles of tutorials and projects. Two members of the Real Python team join us this week, Martin Breuss and Sadie Parker. We wanted to share a year-end wrap-up with a collection of articles and step-by-step projects that showcase what our team created...
Dec 24, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 91
The Python community continually grows, with many users coming from different languages and backgrounds. This week on the show, we talk with developer Hugh Tipping about his Python journey. Hugh is also a member of the Real Python community. Hugh has a background in programming C and Perl and started to use Python in a cyber security job. He explains the way he used Python to search for malware. Hugh provides some suggestions for security packages and tools. Recently Hugh has been working with A...
Dec 17, 2021•54 min•Ep. 90
Are you ready to break open the first days of puzzles from the annual Advent of Code challenge? Advent of Code is an advent calendar of twenty-five programming puzzles published each December. Practicing solving puzzles is a great way to build your Python skills. This week on the show, we have previous guest and Real Python author Geir Arne Hjelle to discuss his recent article titled, “Advent of Code: Solving Your Puzzles With Python.” We discuss the history of this online Advent calendar and th...
Dec 10, 2021•57 min•Ep. 89
