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I'm not sure if it's Pythonic as I've never written Python. It's a habit I carried over from the .NET world, actually.

Wouldn't the Pythonic thing be to only fail after you've tried, instead of validating your parameters in advance?

Yes. It's easier to beg for forgiveness than to look before you leap. You just use your parameters regardless of types and let the exceptions fly.

Is that really Pythonic? Isn't that just general best practice in programming?