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Comment by baseballMan | Hacker News Reader

I'm by no means a hardcore python dev but I feel like these are all pretty basic, common things. No?

They're basic but also things you'd never look up, especially if you've been doing python a long time.

For example, I just learned about f strings, because why would I need to ever look up if there is a replacement for .format()?

And the LRU cache. I've been hand rolling that for years, but I never thought to see if they had added it to the standard library, because why would I look?

It pays to look thru the stdlib every so often, there is just so much there, and plenty of dark corners (in the Warcraft sense) to look in.

I hand rolled stuff in itertools/functools for years before discovering them.... collections Counter, etc.

Or how about str.partition instead of try: str.split() ?

On a related note, every couple of years I make an effort to man page every cli tool I use, and re-read the man page, just in case. Most times I discover there is some argument that I've missed before in a tool (or has been added in the intervening time)

When my dad sold cars he’d always tell his customers to read the car manual again after six months for the same reason.

don't you read about what's new when new versions come out?

I've been programming python, on and off, since 2001, and I still learnt a couple of things.

I don’t think an LRU cache is basic

If you’ve ever needed it, and I imagine most people have, it shows up on any web search.

That being said I usually end up rolling my own that can serialize complex objects.

If you’ve ever needed it, and I imagine most people have, it shows up on any web search.

It didn't last time I googled it (because it didn't exist then), so I had no idea it existed.

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