These are my favorite Python stories and blogs from 2019.

“What makes Python a great language?” by Steve Dower

“If you came expecting a well researched article full of citations to peer-reviewed literature, you came to the wrong place. Similarly if you were hoping for unbiased and objective analysis. I’m not even going to link to external sources for definitions. This is literally just me on a soap box, and you can take it or leave it.”

“PyGame : A Primer on Game Programming in Python” by Jon Fincher

Jon had way-too-much fun putting this together, but it is full of some things you could be working on over the holidays. PyGame is one of the best libraries for putting together arcade games, like platformers or scrollers.

“Why you should use python -m pip" by Brett Cannon

Brett goes over a practice that everyone should be using and how it can stop you from accidentally installing the wrong thing in the wrong place

“Overusing list comprehensions and generator expressions in Python” by Trey Hunner

Trey has a unique writing style and approach that comes through in his talks as well. If you ever get the opportunity to see Trey speak at conferences — make time on your agenda!

This article is no exception, Trey presents some funny, ugly and confusing anti-patterns for list comprehensions and generator expressions

“So, You want to Contribute to Cpython : Gather here !!” by Joannah Nanjekye

Newly inducted CPython core developer, Joannah Nanjekye talks about her experiences getting involved in CPython development

“Managing Multiple Python Versions With pyenv” by Logan Jones

PyEnv is really useful for load-testing branches of CPython and compiling custom CPython binaries from source. Logan goes through its usage in detail

“MicroPython: An Intro to Programming Hardware in Python” by Chris Garrett

Chris presents some fun exercises to use with MicroPython on IoT

“Async IO in Python: A Complete Walkthrough” by Brad Solomon

I find asyncio hard and confusing. This article goes through the whole ecosystem, how it works and how to use the APIs. Very useful.

“My Path to Becoming a Python Core Developer” by Emily Morehouse

Emily is the chair of PyCon 2020 and 2021, and this article tells a story of how she found herself in that position and how intimidating it was trying to become a core developer.

“The Next Level of Data Visualization in Python” by Will Koehrsen

Sick of having graphs and visualizations that look like a bag of smashed crabs? This article shows you how to many nice-looking visuals in your notebooks and apps

“Python Type Checking (Guide)” by Geir Arne Hjelle

Still need to be convinced on type annotations in Python? This article goes through the different approaches and tools, how you can use them literally or just for documentation

My own posts from this year

I’ve been quiet on the blogging front this year because work has been so, so, so busy as I’m in the middle of an $11bn merger. But here are the major things I published:

Review of Azure Pipelines with Python

A letter of encouragement to the Python community in Africa

I explored the sub-interpreters support in 3.8 and their impact on the Python GIL

I looked at code complexity and how to refactor Python effectively

Then I wrote a (very) long article about CPython 3.8’s source code

This will be a book published in 2020!

Thank you for reading,

Have a great holiday and New Year

Anthony Shaw