Python Essays
In this directory I place short essays (anything from 500 to 5000
words) on various Python subjects. See also a collection of presentations I have given.
--Guido van
Rossum
Table of contents (in mostly chronological order)
- Unifying types and classes in
Python 2.2
- An introduction to the type/class unification effort in Python
2.2. Note that the unification work is officially labeled
experimental and is subject to change in future releases of
Python.
- Foreword for "Programming Python" (1st ed.)
- Written in 1996, this gives an overview of the early history and
background of Python and some of my philosophy about software design
and project management. See also my foreword
to the 2nd edition.
- Implementing Graphs
- An elegant and perhaps not obvious way to represent graphs using
Python's most fundamental and versatile data types, lists and
dictionaries.
- An Optimization Anecdote
- Required reading if you find that your Python code runs too slow.
- Python Style Guide
- Part of my view on how the proper way to write Python code. This
is an unfinished work; so far, it covers whitespace, indentation,
comments, doc strings, naming conventions. (This version is no
longer the ultimate reference; PEP 8 and PEP 257 have taken over
that role, see the PEP index.)
- Metaclass Programming in Python 1.5
- Warning: reading this document may cause your brain to explode.
- Built-in Package Support in Python 1.5
- The most official documentation for the new package features in
Python 1.5.
- Standard Exception Classes in Python
1.5
- The most official documentation for the new exception features in
Python 1.5. (Updated for Python 1.5.2 by Barry Warsaw.)
- Glue It All Together With
Python
- A position paper I wrote for and presented at the OMG-DARPA-MCC
workshop on compositional software architectures in Monterey,
California, January 6-8, 1998.
- What Is Python? Executive Summary
- A short (two paragraphs) high-level presentation of Python's
virtues.
- Comparing Python to Other Languages
- Activist ammo or flame fodder? (Note: I received lots of feedback
when I posted this to comp.lang.python. Unfortunately the feedback
was diverted to a separate mailbox that I didn't know I had -- when I
findally found it, I was a bit overwhelmed and so far have not yet
found the time to update the article.)
- Proposed Improvements to Module Cleanup
- A revised version of the proposal I posted to comp.lang.python on
Feb 6, 1998. This has been adopted in Python 1.5.1.
- Open Source
Summit Trip Report
- My trip report of O'Reilly's Open Source Summit, essentially as
posted on c.l.p. This version published in the Linux Gazette (it's an
external link), in their May 1998 issue.
- Debugging Reference Count Problems
- An edited version of a posting to c.l.p on this subject, on May
27, 1998.
- Computer Programming for Everybody (old)
- A funding proposal that was accepted by DARPA in March 1999.
- Computer Programming for Everybody
- Revised, extended version of the previous proposal.
- Interview in Linux Journal
- Not quite an essay, but a stream of consciousness penned down by a
journalist... More thoughts about CP4E.
- Interview in by Frank Willison for "Frankly Speaking" column
- Another stream of consciousness transcribed by a friendly
listener... Not just on CP4E.
- Foreword for "Programming Python" (2nd ed.)
- The story continues...