MP 139: A systematic, inquisitive approach makes debugging simple issues easier, and complex bugs possible. Note: This post is part of an ongoing series about debugging in Python. The posts in this series will only be available to paid subscribers for the first 6 weeks. After that they will be
MP 138: Debugging is often learned "on the job", but you can learn a lot with structured practice. Note: This is the first post in a series about debugging. This post is free to everyone, but the remainder of the series will be available to paid subscribers only
MP 137: I just learned about the webbrowser module; maybe it can save you some work as well. Note: I'll start a new series about debugging on Thursday, April 3. The series will cover a variety of debugging tools and techniques, and will also offer a focused way
MP 136: I don't use it often, but I keep coming back to it. The walrus operator was introduced in Python 3.8, back in 2019. I haven't used it often over the last five years, but occasionally I find myself writing some code that looks
MP 135: They're focused on .gov right now, but I'm pretty sure they're coming for all of us. I can't believe I have to use the name DOGE seriously. When I first heard a new government organization would be formed with that
MP 134: Be careful about performance assumptions until you measure them! Note: In the next few weeks, I'm going to slow the pace slightly on Mostly Python. I've been writing at least one post per week for two full years now. I really enjoy writing these
MP 133: Naming things is hard, but renaming things can be even harder. I've been steadily working through the remaining issues that should be closed before the 1.0 release of django-simple-deploy. One of the last things to address involves reconsidering a name that's used throughout
MP 132: It's a simple built-in function, but using it isn't as straightforward as it might seem. A task that's come up repeatedly in my programming work involves looking through a collection of values, and taking an action if a specific item appears anywhere
MP 131: It seems like Git is always more capable than I realized. I've been using Git for almost 20 years now, and I still discover new ways to use it more effectively. I really appreciate a tool that has more to offer every time I use a
MP 130: How do you make a reasonably secure access code for an electronic door lock? We recently moved into a new house, and one of the first tasks after moving in is to change the locks. Rather than just rekey the existing locks, we decided to install electronic locks.
MP 129: Highlights from 2024, and what's to come in 2025. I've been writing Mostly Python for two full years now. I started it in order to write more regularly about Python, and about a wide range of topics from the perspective of a Python user
MP 128: Sometimes a try-except block isn't the best approach for handling missing attributes. In Python it's often reasonable to try doing something, and then respond appropriately if that action doesn't work. This is the "ask for forgiveness rather than asking for permission&