Greg,
I do not advocate for writing extremely concise python as mentioned in that
book although I was quite interested and do use some of the methods.
But I worry about what you focused in on. Everyone says a picture is worth a
thousand words. So when writing about python one-liners, you might shorten
some programs even more with a nice illustration!
But if that is an obstacle, perhaps the edition below is less illustrative.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZY7XMX8
Just a reminder. My point was not about a book or set of techniques. It was
that lots of Python features can be used quite effectively to reduce the
need for more lines of cluttered code or places you may be tempted to use
semicolons. Having said that, guess what some one-liner techniques use?
In my view, terseness is not a goal in and of itself. However, it has often
been said that the number of bugs in code often seems correlated with the
number of lines and code written using higher levels of coordination and
abstraction in a language that supports that, can often be written with
fewer lines and apparently even with fewer bugs.
There is also a well-known set of phenomena about us humans in that many of
us are wired to handle fairly small amounts in memory at a time, such as
perhaps 7. People who can do substantially better are often using an
assortment of tricks like clumping. I mean most people can remember a
10-digit phone number for a while because they may chunk it into
xxx-yyy-abcd or something like that where xxx is just remembered as one unit
as a complete area code while abcd is remembered as 4 individual digits.
So languages that allow and encourage not so much terseness as variations
like chunking, meaning using lots of smaller well-named functions, objects
that encapsulate what your program logic is, and yes, terse but easy to
understand ways of doing things like loops and functional programming
methods, and that are extended by modules or packages with a well-defined
interface, can let you focus on the program at higher levels that do fit in
your memory and can be reasoned more easily and accurately.
So some one-liners are great. Others not so much. Can you imagine a list
comprehension with a dozen or so nested loops on one long line, including
regions grouped in parentheses and lots of "if" clauses? It may be one line
that wraps on your screen into many or has to be scrolled sideways. Yes, you
can rewrite it split across many lines. But at some point, it may be better
to refactor it using a functional style or writing the loops out explicitly.
In my experience, some one-liners are accompanied by paragraphs of comments
explaining them. And often they use tricks that are less efficient.
Avi
-----Original Message-----
From: Python-list <python-list-bounces+avi.e.gross=gmail.com@python.org> On
Behalf Of Greg Ewing via Python-list
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2023 1:31 AM
To: python-list@python.org
Subject: Re: semi colonic
On 24/02/23 9:26 am, avi.e.gross@gmail.com wrote:
> Python One-Liners: Write Concise, Eloquent Python Like a Professional
> Illustrated Edition by Christian Mayer (Author)
I didn't know there were any Professional Illustrated Editions writing
Pythom. You learn something every day! :-)
--
Greg
--
https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
--
https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
I do not advocate for writing extremely concise python as mentioned in that
book although I was quite interested and do use some of the methods.
But I worry about what you focused in on. Everyone says a picture is worth a
thousand words. So when writing about python one-liners, you might shorten
some programs even more with a nice illustration!
But if that is an obstacle, perhaps the edition below is less illustrative.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZY7XMX8
Just a reminder. My point was not about a book or set of techniques. It was
that lots of Python features can be used quite effectively to reduce the
need for more lines of cluttered code or places you may be tempted to use
semicolons. Having said that, guess what some one-liner techniques use?
In my view, terseness is not a goal in and of itself. However, it has often
been said that the number of bugs in code often seems correlated with the
number of lines and code written using higher levels of coordination and
abstraction in a language that supports that, can often be written with
fewer lines and apparently even with fewer bugs.
There is also a well-known set of phenomena about us humans in that many of
us are wired to handle fairly small amounts in memory at a time, such as
perhaps 7. People who can do substantially better are often using an
assortment of tricks like clumping. I mean most people can remember a
10-digit phone number for a while because they may chunk it into
xxx-yyy-abcd or something like that where xxx is just remembered as one unit
as a complete area code while abcd is remembered as 4 individual digits.
So languages that allow and encourage not so much terseness as variations
like chunking, meaning using lots of smaller well-named functions, objects
that encapsulate what your program logic is, and yes, terse but easy to
understand ways of doing things like loops and functional programming
methods, and that are extended by modules or packages with a well-defined
interface, can let you focus on the program at higher levels that do fit in
your memory and can be reasoned more easily and accurately.
So some one-liners are great. Others not so much. Can you imagine a list
comprehension with a dozen or so nested loops on one long line, including
regions grouped in parentheses and lots of "if" clauses? It may be one line
that wraps on your screen into many or has to be scrolled sideways. Yes, you
can rewrite it split across many lines. But at some point, it may be better
to refactor it using a functional style or writing the loops out explicitly.
In my experience, some one-liners are accompanied by paragraphs of comments
explaining them. And often they use tricks that are less efficient.
Avi
-----Original Message-----
From: Python-list <python-list-bounces+avi.e.gross=gmail.com@python.org> On
Behalf Of Greg Ewing via Python-list
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2023 1:31 AM
To: python-list@python.org
Subject: Re: semi colonic
On 24/02/23 9:26 am, avi.e.gross@gmail.com wrote:
> Python One-Liners: Write Concise, Eloquent Python Like a Professional
> Illustrated Edition by Christian Mayer (Author)
I didn't know there were any Professional Illustrated Editions writing
Pythom. You learn something every day! :-)
--
Greg
--
https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
--
https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list