Python Zen

After reading Federico Viticci’s Automating iOS: How Pythonista Changed My Workflow, I think its time I added the Python Programming Language to my repertoire.

The first thing I learned about Python is the Zen of Python by Tim Peters:

  • Beautiful is better than ugly.
  • Explicit is better than implicit.
  • Simple is better than complex.
  • Complex is better than complicated.
  • Flat is better than nested.
  • Sparse is better than dense.
  • Readability counts.
  • Special cases aren’t special enough to break the rules.
  • Although practicality beats purity.
  • Errors should never pass silently.
  • Unless explicitly silenced.
  • In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
  • There should be one – and preferably only one – obvious way to do it.
  • Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you’re Dutch.
  • Now is better than never.
  • Although never is often better than right now.
  • If the implementation is hard to explain, it’s a bad idea.
  • If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
  • Namespaces are one honking great idea – let’s do more of those!

I think this really applies to all languages and programming in general.

Posted By Hilton Lipschitz · Nov 15, 2012 4:18 PM