mypy wiki

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python gongfu ==> 'work + time/effort'

• Kung fu/Kungfu or Gung fu/Gongfu (Listeni/ˌkʌŋˈfuː/ or /ˌkʊŋˈfuː/; 功夫, Pinyin: gōngfu) is a Chinese term referring to any study, learning, or practice that requires patience, energy, and time to complete.

• In its original meaning, kung fu can refer to any skill achieved through hard work and practice, not necessarily martial arts. The Chinese literal equivalent of "Chinese martial art" would be 中國武術 zhōngguó wǔshù.

• In Chinese, Gōngfu (功夫) is a compound of two words, combining 功 (gōng) meaning "work", "achievement", or "merit", and 夫 (fū) which is alternately treated as being a word for "man" or as a particle or nominal suffix with diverse meanings (the same character is used to write both). A literal rendering of the first interpretation would be "achievement of man", while the second is often described as "work and time/effort".

• the connotation is that of an accomplishment arrived at by great effort of time and energy.

• Originally, to practice kung fu did not just mean to practice Chinese martial arts. Instead, it referred to the process of one's training - the strengthening of the body and the mind, the learning and the perfection of one's skills - rather than to what was being trained.

• It refers to excellence achieved through long practice in any endeavor. This meaning can be traced to classical writings, especially those of Neo-Confucianism, which emphasize the importance of effort in education.

• In the colloquial, one can say that a person's kung fu is good in cooking, or that someone has kung fu in calligraphy; saying that a person possesses kung fu in an area implies skill in that area, which they have worked hard to develop.

• Someone with "bad kung fu" simply has not put enough time and effort into training, or seems to lack the motivation to do so

export PS1='[\033[0;34m][[\033[0;31m]\H [\033[1;35m]\u [\033[0;32m]\w[\033[0;34m]][\033[0m] '

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py notes:

References

• PEP 8 - Style Guide for Python Code
  • A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds
• PEP 20 - get Pythonic
• PEP 257 - Docstring Conventions

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Docstring Conventions:

• "A universal convention supplies all of maintainability, clarity, consistency, and a foundation for good programming habits too..."
• if a method, function, or class begins with a string literal, it is stored in the object's doc attribute
• a phrase ending in a period that PRESCRIBES the function or method's effect AS A COMMAND
  • eg """Do FOO! Return Bar!"""
  • write as a PRESCRIPTION, not as a DESCRIPTION!
  • eg not, """Returns a BAR""" but """Return Bar"""
• multi-line docstrings are one-line summaries followed by blank line then multi-line descriptions
  • eg

   """Multi-Line docstring starts with one-line summary
  
   Followed by a blank line, then a more general description
   requiring as many lines as required
   """

  • all lines of the multi-line docstring are indented to same indent as the first quotes

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the help utility ==> help()

• to start the help utility:
  • type help() in the interpreter
• enter the name of any module
• to call help on a function from the interpreter

help(moduleFoo.functionFoo)

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MISC

• encapsulation: wrapping a piece of code in a function

• generalization: adding a parameter to a function

• keyword arguments: for clarity, include name of parameters in argument list when calling function

  • ex
    polygon(t=bob ,length=50 ,n=5)

• interface of a function: summary of how the function is used.

  • what are the parameters?, what is the return value?, etc.
  • an interface is like a contract between a function and a caller.
    • The CALLER agrees to provide certain parameters (PRECONDITIONS)
    • The FUNCTION agrees to do certain work (POSTCONDITIONS)

• BOOLEANS

  • Do NOT compare boolean values to True or False using ==

   Yes:    if greeting:
   No:     if greeting == True:
   Worse:  if greeting is True:
  

  • For sequences (strings, lists, tuples) use the fact that empty sequences are false

   Yes:    if not seq:
           if seq:
   No:     if len(seq):
       	if not len(seq):
  

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Generic Development Plan

1. Start by writing a small program with no function definitions
2. Once the program is working, encapsulate it in a function and give it a name
3. Generalize the function by giving it appropriate parameters
4. Repeat steps 1-3 until you have a set of working functions
5. Refactor

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Running a script as SCRIPT or as MODULE ==> a self-check

• the following tests whether the code is running on it's own or if it's being imported.
• if running as a script, then the code in the conditional (the test code) will run.
• if imported, then the test script remains dormant

if __name__ == '__main__':
	"""test whether code is running as script or as import.
	Remains silent if being imported.  Instanciates the following code if running as script
	"""
	world = NasWorld()
	nas = rapper()
	nas.delay = 0.0001
	numSided = 5
	wait_for_user()

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Adding Command Line Arguments with argv

• ex

# gets argv from command line  
import sys  
# helps loops through argvs  
import fileinput  
 
def getDimension(argvIndex):  
	'''takes commnad line arg for number of sides of polygon.  
	When no input present, uses default num of sides  
	'''  
  
	if argvIndex+1 > len(sys.argv):  
		return 25  
		
	else:  
		dimension = int(sys.argv[argvIndex])  
		#print dimension  
		return dimension  
  
d = getDimension(1)  
print d  
print "variable type = ", type(d)  

#check the range  
for i in range(len(sys.argv)):
	print sys.argv[i]
lengthArgsArray = len(sys.argv)
print lengthArgsArray