Posts published by: Scott Triglia

"Building a basic package pt. 1: Bare Bones"

Every once in a while I get the itch to turn some one off script I wrote into a proper package. Turns out advice on the subject is a little scattered, and if you're anything like me it can be frustrating to track down relevant posts on the entire subject. So, just for fun, let's walk through the process of taking a one-off script I wrote and making it into a nice python package, complete with isolated testing, uploading to pypi, and convenient installation.

Now knowing my blogging habits, I'm splitting this into a few small posts in the hopes that I actually get through them. So lets take a current project I have and decide where to start.

"There is no such thing as magic"

Do you know my favorite fact about programming? In the end, everything is build from code and you can understand it all -- there is absolutely no magic. With enough effort, almost everything you interact with can be dug into, demystified, and explained. I know I often interact with various tools I use as if they were black boxes, either for lack of time, lack of interest, or a fear that I wouldn't understand them if I tried. But let's fight back against that.

So for this post, let's understand what's going on with python's virtualenv package.

"Coding-Free Interview Tips"

Interviews are a tricky thing to administer well. I still remember overflowing with nervous energy when I interviewed with Yelp and Google a couple years ago, wondering whether I'd make a complete fool of myself when it came time for the inevitable programming challenge. I stumbled through the various questions, handling some easily and getting completely flustered by others, and overall was relieved when the ordeal was over. Perhaps most importantly, the whole time I had basically zero clue what I was doing or how I should be presenting myself -- I was simply going with the flow and testing out whatever anecdotal advice I picked up along the way.

Having spent a year or so on the other side of the table, there are several easy ways to improve how you come across in an interview -- and none of them involve cramming!

"Sins of the Test"

We all make mistakes…some more embarrassing than others in hindsight. I always really appreciate when programmers I look up to make a point of pointing out their own faults, so I figured it was only fair for me to do the same.

So in that spirit, let's talk about where I've gone wrong! Looking back on the tests I've written in the last six months has made me realize several things I'd change if I could write them again.

"Elegant n-gram generation in Python"

A quick few snippets of code today -- solving how to compactly and elegantly generate n-grams from your favorite iterable.

"A New Year"

All the cool kids wrote New Year posts, so I figured that was excuse enough for me to chime in with a quick one.

Writing here has been a nice outlet for the end of 2012, but I figure now's as good a time as any to make a couple …

"Hiding complexity with Context Managers"

Very reliably, my favorite part of programming is the simple process of taking a series of steps that I used to have to do by hand and packaging it up in a nice, reusable form. It's pretty wonderful that it remains just as rewarding now as it did when I wrote my first function in C++ 8 years ago.

So in that spirit, I figured I'd write down a few thoughts on python's context managers -- the latest built-in feature that I've grown quite attached to.

"Testing with Mock"

More than any other area, I've found software testing to be the discipline which I knew the least about before joining up at Yelp full time. Sure, there was the normal insistence in my time as an undergraduate that I learn how to test units of code, and I'd heard plenty about the value of unit testing from any number of people or blogs, but when it came right down to it relatively few people I knew ever employed it to a meaningful degree during college and my graduate work. The simple truth was that projects rarely lasted long enough for the fruits of proper testing to be borne out.

Now I am sure plenty of people would disagree with that statement, pointing to how their various school projects were made better or simpler by judicious application of unit tests, but the goal of this post isn't arguing about whether or not testing is worthwhile. My goal is to dive in a little bit to one particular area of testing that I had essentially zero exposure to before joining industry -- the mocking of methods in tests.

"Why namedtuples?"

If you had asked me to explain all I knew about Python's namedtuple class at the start of this year, I would have probably muttered something about mutability and trailed off into an uncomfortable silence. The fact of the matter was, I had seen them used once or twice but never really understood the reason they were used. Hopefully by the end of this entry I can explain at least a couple of places you might consider using them over the typical Python class.

"First things first"

As all good internet citizens do eventually, I've decided to try writing down my various software-related trials and tribulations down in a blog. For the time being, I'm sticking with Octopress as I care more about the content than the web design. Maybe later this will become an exercise in …