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Saturday, December 29, 2018

The Zen of Python is well sed :)

- By Vasudev Ram - Online Python training / SQL training / Linux training

$ python -c "import this" | sed -n "4,4p;15,16p"
Explicit is better than implicit.
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.

- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and consulting

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Saturday, March 11, 2017

Analyse this Python code snippet

By Vasudev Ram

Hi reader [1],

Analyze the snippet of Python code below. See what you make of it.

I will discuss it in my next post.

>>> a = 1
>>> lis = [a, 2 ]
>>> lis
[1, 2]
>>> lis = [a, 2 ,
... "abc", False ]
>>>
>>> lis
[1, 2, 'abc', False]
>>> a
1
>>> b = 3
>>> lis
[1, 2, 'abc', False]
>>> a = b
>>> a
3
>>> lis
[1, 2, 'abc', False]
>>> lis = [a, 2 ]
>>> lis
[3, 2]
>>>

[1] This product is suitable for Pythonistas aged 1 to 2 (approximately). For those of higher age, the dose may have no effect :)

- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and consulting

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Friday, February 17, 2017

import this as comic # THE ZEN OF PYTHON ILLUSTRATED

By Vasudev Ram

I'm blogging this as a special case. That's the only way to do it ... [1]

Saw this via Twitter. Nice one:

THE ZEN OF PYTHON ILLUSTRATED

[1] :)

- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and consulting

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Friday, February 10, 2017

Nice one: Problem exists between keyboard and chair

By Vasudev Ram

Good one by Andy Brice (blogger at SuccessfulSoftware.net and founder of Perfect Table Plan and HyperPlan):

Problem exists between keyboard and chair

As a person who has done a good amount of both software development and troubleshooting, and as a user too, the different viewpoints resonate with me (as they still say in Silicon Valley :).

Another good one on similar lines: the best debugging tool is the one between your ears.

Another one (I've heard it attributed to the Pennsylvania Dutch):

We get too soon old and too late schmart

- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and consulting

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Monday, January 23, 2017

To log or not to log, that is the question

By Vasudev Ram

Hamlet image attribution

I was teaching some students about debugging print statements, so thought of doing a Google search for them.

Here is the search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=debugging+print+statements

Viewed a few of the search results. One, from the site softwareengineering.stackexchange.com, had an interesting discussion about the pros and cons of debugging print statements vs. logging vs. using a debugger:

Is printing to console/stdout a good debugging strategy?

And there are other interesting results of the search.

The title of this post is, of course, a word play on the famous quote:

To be, or not to be

from the play Hamlet by Shakespeare.

And the image at the top is of the actor Edwin Booth playing Hamlet.

- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and consulting

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- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and consulting

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Saturday, September 24, 2016

A TCP joke

By Vasudev Ram

Nice one: A TCP joke.

If you didn't recv it from the link above:

(Click image to enlarge)

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Thursday, September 8, 2016

"Please don't assume Lisp is only useful for Animation and Graphics, AI, Bioinformatics, B2B and E-Commerce, Data Mining, ...

By Vasudev Ram

"Please don't assume Lisp is only useful for Animation and Graphics,

AI, Bioinformatics, B2B and E-Commerce,

Data Mining, EDA/Semiconductor applications,

Expert Systems, Finance,

Intelligent Agents, Knowledge Management, Mechanical CAD, Modeling and Simulation, Natural Language, Optimization, Research, Risk Analysis, Scheduling, Telecom,

and Web Authoring just because these are the only things they happened to list." --Kent Pitman

One could say somewhat the same about Python ...

Image attributions:

Utah teapot

Shopping cart icon

Semiconductor

Dollar

Telecom

- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and consulting

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Sunday, April 17, 2016

A simple joke bot in Python

By Vasudev Ram

Image attribution: Vasudev Ram

Following a chain of thoughts, including about bots and jokes, I had the idea of writing a simple joke bot in Python. Here it is, in file joke_bot.py:

from __future__ import print_function
import sys
import os
from random import randint

'''
A joke bot in Python.
v1.0.
Author: Vasudev Ram
Copyright 2016 Vasudev Ram - http://jugad2.blogspot.com 
'''

jokes = [
    '''
    Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
    A: To get to the other side.
    ''',
    '''
    Q: What is black, white and red all over?
    A: A newspaper.
    ''',
    '''
    Q: What time is it when an elephant sits on your fence?
    A: Time to build a new fence.
    ''',
    '''
    Q: How many elephants will fit into a Mini?
    A: Four: Two in the front, two in the back.
    Q: How many giraffes will fit into a Mini?
    A: None. It's full of elephants.
    ''',
    '''
    Q: What do elephants have that nothing else has?
    A: Baby elephants.
    ''',
    '''
    Knock Knock.
    Who's there?
    Apple.
    Apple Who?
    Apple-y ever after.
    ''',
    '''
    Knock Knock.
    Who's there?
    Amos.
    Amos Who?
    A mosquite bit me.
    Knock Knock.
    Who's there?
    Andy.
    Andy Who?
    Andy's still biting me!
    ''',
    '''
    Knock Knock.
    Who's there?
    Orange.
    Orange Who?
    Orange you going to the party?
    ''',
]

lj = len(jokes)

def tell_a_joke():
    i = randint(0, lj - 1)
    print("Here is a joke for you:")
    print(jokes[i])

def clear_screen():
    # For Windows.
    os.system('cls')
    # For Unix/Linux.
    #os.system('clear')
    # Add clear screen support for 
    # other OS's here if needed.

def main():
    clear_screen()
    print('\nPython Joke Bot v1.0 activated.\n')
    ans = ''
    while ans != 'n':
        tell_a_joke()
        ans = raw_input('Tell another one? [YyNn]: ')
        ans = ans.strip().lower()
        clear_screen()
    print('See you next Funday.')

main()

Run it with:

python joke_bot.py

Sample output:

Python Joke Bot v1.0 activated.

Here is a joke for you:

    Knock Knock.
    Who's there?
    Apple.
    Apple Who?
    Apple-y ever after.

Tell another one? [YyNn]: y

Here is a joke for you:

    Q: How many elephants will fit into a Mini?
    A: Four: Two in the front, two in the back.
    Q: How many giraffes will fit into a Mini?
    A: None. It's full of elephants.

Tell another one? [YyNn]:

Here is a joke for you:

    Knock Knock.
    Who's there?
    Amos.
    Amos Who?
    A mosquite bit me.
    Knock Knock.
    Who's there?
    Andy.
    Andy Who?
    Andy's still biting me!
Here is a joke for you:

    Knock Knock.
    Who's there?
    Amos.
    Amos Who?
    A mosquite bit me.
    Knock Knock.
    Who's there?
    Andy.
    Andy Who?
    Andy's still biting me!

Tell another one? [YyNn]:

Here is a joke for you:

    Q: What time is it when an elephant sits on your fence?
    A: Time to build a new fence.

Tell another one? [YyNn]:

Here is a joke for you:

    Knock Knock.
    Who's there?
    Apple.
    Apple Who?
    Apple-y ever after.

Tell another one? [YyNn]: n

See you next Funday.

A point about the program: it's obviously quite simple. I was almost not going to post about it because of that, but then realized that this, as well as some other small programs I've written in the past and plan to write in the future, though small now, can still illustrate a few points about programming (at least for beginners, including me, a perpetual beginner :).

And, more importantly, it can be built upon incrementally over time, in multiple versions, to illustrate various other programming language and library features. E.g. I can modify/enhance this program to read the jokes from a flat or structured file (such as JSON or XML), a key-value store like BSD DB (supported by the Python stdlib), SQLite (ditto), etc.

See you next Funday :)

- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and consulting

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Monday, March 21, 2016

Motto for Python newbies

- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and programming

Also see:

10,000 Hours of Practice

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell book

The Python Interview

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Monday, December 21, 2015

Microsoft to acquire Linux ...

... skills. :-)

So says:

<a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/linuxfoundation/status/678665931434815490">The Linux Foundation</a>

- Vasudev Ram
jugad2.blogspot.com

Saturday, October 17, 2015

The Python Interview

- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and programming

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Sunday, July 12, 2015

Cut the crap! An absolutely essential tool for writers

- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and programming

KEEP CALM AND BE CONCISE

Like anyone else, every now and then I hear people use redundant words words or phrases. Hey, I do it myself sometimes, but am trying to do less of it.

So one day recently, thinking about ways to help with this issue, I came up with the idea for this program, called "Cut the crap!".

You feed it a redundant word or phrase, and if it "knows" it, it spits out the concise (unredundant? dundant? :-) version. Think a Strunk-and-White-like Python bot.

So, here's the Python code for cut_the_crap.py, an absolutely essential tool for writers. The phrases and words are hardcoded as of now, in this first version, but you can easily modify the program to read them from any persistent store (such as a file or database), along with the concise substitutes:

# cut_the_crap.py
# Author: Vasudev Ram
# Purpose: Given a redundant word or phrase, emits a concise synonym.
# See Strunk and White, et al.

from string import lower
from random import randint

d = {
    'at this point in time':
    ['now', 'at present', 'at the moment', 'at this moment', 
    'currently', 'now', 'presently', 'right now'],
    'absolutely complete': ['complete'],
    'absolutely essential': ['essential', 'indispensable'],
    'actual experience': ['past experience', 'experience'],
    'as to whether': ['whether'],
    'try out': ['try']
}

def cut_the_crap(word):
    if word in d:
        words = d[word]
        i = randint(0, len(words) - 1)
        return words[i]
    else:
        return ""
        
def get_the_word():
    crap_word = raw_input("Enter your word (or type 'exit'): ")
    return crap_word

def main():
    word = get_the_word()
    while lower(word) != 'exit':
        right_word = cut_the_crap(word)
        if right_word != "":
            print "Cut the crap! Say:", right_word
        print
        word = get_the_word()
    print "Bye."

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

And here is a sample run, entering a few redundant words and phrases:

$ py cut_the_crap.py
Enter your word (or type 'exit'): at this point in time
Cut the crap! Say: at the moment

Enter your word (or type 'exit'): at this point in time
Cut the crap! Say: right now

Enter your word (or type 'exit'): at this point in time
Cut the crap! Say: now

Enter your word (or type 'exit'): as to whether
Cut the crap! Say: whether

Enter your word (or type 'exit'): absolutely essential
Cut the crap! Say: indispensable

Enter your word (or type 'exit'): absolutely essential
Cut the crap! Say: essential

Enter your word (or type 'exit'): try out
Cut the crap! Say: try

Enter your word (or type 'exit'): exit
Bye.

- Enjoy.

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Friday, April 10, 2015

A four line Python quine

- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and programming

Something that happened today made me think of writing a quine, in Python.

A four line Python quine;
how's that for a rhyme?
# Not so good.

A four line Python quine;
Yes, this one is mine.
# Ah, better.

A four line Python quine;
Sure, this too is mine.
# So-so.

A four line Python quine;
Can you stretch that to nine?
# It may not be worth my time.

A four line Python quine;
Hello, sir, rise and shine!

Of course, since the quine prints itself (by definition) when run, I don't need to show the code separately from the output:

$ python quine.py
import sys
with open(sys.argv[0]) as program:
    for line in program:
        sys.stdout.write(line)

Let's check that it works right:

$ python quine.py > pq.py
$ fc /l quine.py pq.py
Comparing files quine.py and PQ.PY
FC: no differences encountered

The quine could be shortened to:

import sys
with open(sys.argv[0]) as p:
    for l in p:
        sys.stdout.write(l)

I'm sure someone can come up with a shorter quine; is it thine? but this was my first time writing one, and I had fun :)

- Enjoy.

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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

A first Python one-liner