Writing (Python) Code that Doesn't Suck, v2

My last post on this subject got a number of good comments, both here and on the biology-in-python mailing list, so I've amended and updated it. (Note that Brandon King is now listed as a contributor.)

I would particularly appreciate comments on the licensing section and the conclusions. Also, I'll reply to one or two comments in another post.

cheers,

--titus


Writing Code That Doesn't Suck

Here are some prescriptions for writing Python code that other Python programmers will find more usable and readable than it might otherwise have been (i.e. code that "doesn't obviously suck"). This advice is intended for people writing anything more advanced than isolated code snippets: anything that you might eventually want to release, for example, or share with other people.

Follow coding conventions

Follow the suggested Python style guide, PEP 8 (http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/). Also read the docstring style guide, PEP 257 (http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/).

If you follow these style guides, then other people will be able to read your code more easily.

Also, try not to override built-in Python objects, e.g. str = 5 or id = myOwnObject.

Organize your code

Be systematic in the way you organize your code. I tend to use the following conventions (see http://ivory.idyll.org/articles/advanced-swc/#modules-and-scripts for my motivation):

  • module filenames must be valid Python identifiers, but scripts should use '-' instead of '_' (which renders them non-importable).

  • use shallow package hierarchies for naming, e.g.

    import pkg.fasta_io

    instead of

    import pkg.seq.readers.file_readers.fasta

    The latter one may seem better organized, but no one will ever remember the whole package name! Note that you can always organize your actual files in as deep a hierarchy as you want, while keeping the public API shallow and easy to use.

  • modules, when executed from the command line, should either run tests or do nothing.

  • provide README.txt, lib/, bin/, doc/, and setup.py. Everyone knows what each of those files/directories contains.

Use setup.py and Distutils

Provide a setup.py file (see docs.python.org, distutils documentation), even if it's incomplete. This will let people install your code in the standard Pythonic way.

Even better, post your code to the Python Package Index and make sure that it can be installed with easy_install. This makes it really trivial to get the latest "official" version of your package.

Provide Automated Tests

Python has some excellent built-in testing frameworks, including unittest and doctest. Use them to provide at least some simple automated tests.

Even simple unit tests are really important, and they don't take much time to write. Put big/complicated functional tests under tests/; put smaller/simpler unit tests with the code they're testing.

One very useful technique is to write examples in doctest format: write a text or reStructuredText document that contains discussion interspersed with executable code, in the form of commands and their expected output. Then run them with doctest, which will tell you if any of your commands produce unexpected output. This will keep you honest and make sure that your examples are always up-to-date.

Provide a simple, obvious and/or standard way to run all of your automated tests. Test discovery frameworks like nose or py.test may help with this. If you want to provide flexibility in which tests to run, that's great, but make sure that the default command runs a fast and useful set of tests.

More advanced advice: use code coverage (look up coverage.py or figleaf) to determine which sections of your code aren't covered by your current tests; use continuous integration (buildbot) to run your tests nightly on several different platforms.

Provide API Documentation

Put in docstrings; they're a fundamental part of Python. Adhere to the docstring "coding standard", PEP 257 (http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/).

There are several tools for extracting docstrings and module/package information and building Web pages out of them; I personally like epydoc, but there are several other choices out there. Use one, and update your HTML docs nightly or weekly as your code changes.

Write some examples. Was there a particular problem that motivated you to write your code? If so, describe how you solved it, in simple language, with really simple code.

If you have users and you change the API, be sure to tell them, e.g. use a ChangeLog.

Making Releases

Provide regular zip and/or .tar.gz files of your entire distribution, with docs and generated files. Make them available via HTTP and/or FTP.

Name and number your releases systematically, preferably either by date (if you haven't formally released the package yet!) or number. Use something that will stay in approximate lexical order, e.g.

myproject-0.1
myproject-0.2
myproject-0.3
myproject-1.0

Don't go over the number 10, e.g. project-0.10 looks too much like project-0.1 for comfort, both by eye and to the computer.

Don't use -latest except for snapshots, e.g. if you use project-latest.tar.gz it should be an automatically generated snapshot.

Don't use -current unless it's a symbolic link to the latest release. (Preferably, keep old releases in a separate location, like OLD/, and only have one obvious release -- the latest one -- on the main page or in the main download directory.)

Always have a file named project-x.y.tar.gz unpack into project-x.y/. Never have it unpack into the current directory, or into another directory name where it may conflict with an older/different version of your software.

Release fairly regularly. It's (much!) better to have a release with some known bugs than it is to never release anything at all.

Use version control and provide public access

Use CVS or Subversion to store and publish your code; everyone has clients for them and everyone knows how to use them. If you use darcs or bazaar-ng or git, that's great -- but provide a nightly snapshot of your latest source code, so that I don't have to install something in order to get your latest version.

Conclusions

People often start out programming with their own conventions, or their teacher's conventions. In Python, there is really One Right Way to Do It -- see PEP 8.

Not interested in conforming? Well, I know you're brilliant and idiosyncratic and your personal naming conventions, or spacing choice, or homegrown test framework, are important signs of your individuality and creativity -- but unfortunately they're likely to get in my way when I try to use your code. What I'm really interested in is the creativity of your approach and algorithms. After all, the point of sharing code is to share your code and your solutions, not your idiosyncratic approach to programming! So, if you follow the above conventions, you have a better chance of providing code that other people will want to use.

If you need help with getting any of the above things to work, please just ask. The Python community is always quite happy to help people work through issues related to making your code look better, behave better, and play more nicely with other code.

Contributors

C. Titus Brown wrote the first draft. Brandon King submitted detailed comments that were incorporated into the second draft. We welcome comments or diffs!

(sep25/2007 draft.)


Legacy Comments

Posted by Kumar McMillan on 2007-09-26 at 19:39.

very nicely put.  two comments:    1. An ammendment (IMHO) to release
often: Do not perpetuate a "dev" release.  That is, if you have to
tell people to easy_install my_module==dev,>=r2151 then just cut a
release!      2. I strongly feel that "tests" should be a submodule of
your module.  I.e. my_module.tests.  Some people disagree with this so
here are my arguments:  I want to run your tests on my production
server to, uh, be sure that it still works over there.  No matter how
many times your tests pass for **you** it doesn't mean they will pass
for me.  I want to easy_install your release and if I find a bug I
want to also submit a test so you don't break it again!  Lastly, it's
easy.  Is it 1977?  Are you trying to save disk space? :)

Posted by Titus Brown on 2007-09-26 at 20:28.

Hey Kumar,    while less specific, I feel that this advice:    Provide
a simple, obvious and/or standard way to run all of your automated
tests.    covers your point -- I don't care **where** your tests are,
I just want to run 'em!    --titus

Posted by Titus Brown on 2007-09-26 at 20:31.

Also note:    <a href="http://use.perl.org/~chromatic/journal/34552?fr
om=rss">http://use.perl.org/~chromatic/journal/34552?from=rss</a>
Even Perl folk agree! ;)    (and, chromatic -- in response, note the
"obviously"  in 'code that "doesn't obviously suck"'.  Of course
there's a lot more to writing good code than these rules, but these
are good guidelines for packaging, IMO.)

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