Hacker News Reader

dmulleron I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

Hello, author here. I edited the article a bit for brevity. But, yes I started by checking all the fuses and relays. I didn't find any bad relays. Unplugging the ROOM fuse also fixed the problem, but at the expense of other interior features (like my stereo).

dmulleron I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

Hello, author here. I did do as you described first---I pulled the ROOM fuse and the draw also went away. But, at the expense of more interior features (e.g. my stereo).

dmulleron Show HN: I wrote a book about Python

In case it's helpful for anyone else, here's what publishing team had to say:

"Yes, your book will eventually show up on the O'Reilly Learning Platform, but it'll be a while still. Most of our books first appear there four to eight weeks after they go into print. So just keep an eye out on OLP, because it's coming."

dmulleron Show HN: I wrote a book about Python

I've not read Fluent Python, but its table of contents looks quite extensive, and covers a lot of good ground.

Intuitive Python does cover some things that aren't present in Fluent Python (as far as I can tell): checking your code for errors with flake8 + mypy, using pdb to debug, profiling with cprofile, running external programs with subprocess, using the sqlite3 module, tempfile module, datetime + timezones, the Python official Docker images, and pip.

Fluent Python's ~800 pages really give great coverage for much of the standard library and patterns your students will see in wild Python, but the more compact ~140 page Intuitive Python might layer on some additional knowledge too.

dmulleron Show HN: I wrote a book about Python

Hi - that's a good question about the O'Reilly platform. I can ask my editor and get back to you on that. What's the best way to reach you?

dmulleron Show HN: I wrote a book about Python

Yeah - I agree, I don't like the default behavior of subprocess.run either. As another commenter pointed out, passing the check=True argument makes subprocess.run raise an Exception if the underlying command doesn't return 0 (would have been nice if this was the default).

Those are two good use cases (using the lower level subprocess.Popen + process group signaling) that the book does not cover---thanks for bringing them up.

dmulleron Show HN: I wrote a book about Python

Hey - thanks for checking the book out.

Yeah, you are correct---the book does not cover packaging a Python program as a click and run style executable.

It's definitely a tricky problem. (Depending on the audience for the tools (e.g. if it's developers), one potential option might be to package your code in a Docker image and distribute it that way---although that's not without its own drawbacks.)

Other commenters have posted potential tools to check out too.

dmulleron Show HN: I wrote a book about Python

Hey - thanks I appreciate it.

I'd take a look at the table of contents and see if any of the topics look familiar/unfamiliar to you. The preface excerpt (http://media.pragprog.com/titles/dmpython/preface.pdf) also has a bit more detail about what's in each of the chapters. The book's content is probably most useful for someone newer to Python, but I still think there might be value in it depending your background

dmulleron Show HN: I wrote a book about Python

I think Python definitely has its drawbacks, and it's not fast. The other downsides listed in that article (whitespace, variable scoping, lambdas, mobile, etc.) may also be get in your way sometimes, but seems doubtful that they are language killers...I agree the argument presented in that article is weak.

I'm biased, but I think Python as your daily driver language is a great choice.

dmulleron Show HN: I wrote a book about Python

Hi everyone,

Last year, I was lucky enough to sign a book deal with The Pragmatic Bookshelf to write an intermediate level book on Python. (The Pragmatic Bookshelf is the publishing company founded by the authors of one of my favorite programming books: The Pragmatic Programmer.)

Having written Python most of my professional career, I wanted a resource that I could give to engineers who might have deeper experience in some language that wasn't necessarily Python. I wanted to help teammates newer to Python quickly discover its virtues (and limitations). I think there are tremendous Python resources available online, but wanted to capture another perspective to help teammates level up their skills.

The book ("Intuitive Python: Productive Development for Projects that Last") went through a beta release this spring, and was officially released this month.

It's available (including a few free sections) here: https://pragprog.com/titles/dmpython/intuitive-python/

In case anyone is thinking of becoming an author with the The Pragmatic Bookshelf, I'd be happy to share my thoughts about the publishing experience there (spoiler: I had a positive experience).

I'm proud to have released this book, and excited to share it here.

Thanks!

-David