39 posts tagged with "python"

Not only Shift-Left mantra matters​

The mantra of "Shift Left" has echoed through the halls of software development for years now, and for good reason. The core idea is simple yet powerful: move testing, quality, and security considerations as early as possible in the development lifecycle. It's about catching problems when they're small and cheap to fix, not when they're gargantuan headaches in production. But as a lead engineer who's seen a few projects through the trenches, I've come to realize that "Shift Left" isn't the destination; it's the starting point.

To truly build robust, maintainable, and high-quality software, especially in a dynamic language like Python, we need to embrace a set of development paradigms that not only support but enhance the "Shift Left" philosophy. These aren't just buzzwords; they are methodologies that, when adopted, fundamentally change how we approach writing code for the better.

I'm continuing the paradigms circle. The Shift Left paradigm is well-known in the DevOps and QA communities for its philosophy of catching bugs, security issues, and integration problems early in the development lifecycle. But Shift Left is not the only valuable philosophy out there. In fact, in some contexts, other paradigms can be even more effective.

This article introduces several software development paradigms that complement or enhance Shift Left—and may even be more impactful depending on your context.

Writing tests in Python helps ensure that your code works correctly. In this guide, we'll use two popular testing tools: the built-in unittest module and the third-party library pytest. We'll walk through both using examples related to vegetables and AI model names.

As a senior or Python developer, refining your team's pre-commit setup can drastically improve code quality, consistency, and onboarding speed. Below are key tips and techniques to supercharge your pre-commit experience.

Tools like pre-commit help ensure all checks (type checking, linting, formatting, etc.) are run before code is committed. It integrates easily with Git and runs defined hooks automatically when git commit is executed.

The NoRegionError in Boto3, the AWS SDK for Python, usually occurs when the AWS client or resource is initialized without specifying a region, and no default region is set in your AWS configuration.

By default, the python-barcode library renders human-readable text (usually the encoded number) under the barcode. If you're building a minimal barcode-only label or want to embed the barcode without additional text, you'll need to disable that feature.

Here's how to do it.

Writing clean and correct code is critical for every Python programmer, especially beginners. Tools like flake8 and ruff help catch issues like unused variables, potential bugs, syntax errors, and styling problems early — often before you even run the code.

Writing clean and consistent code is a mark of professionalism, and it also makes collaboration easier. But keeping formatting consistent manually is hard. That’s where Black, the Python code formatter, shines.

Black automatically formats your code according to PEP 8 (Python’s style guide), with minimal configuration and zero fuss. This guide will show you how to install it, use it, and why it's helpful — especially if you're new to Python programming.

Python is known for being dynamic, fast to prototype with, and easy to write. But these same characteristics can introduce bugs that are only caught at runtime.

Static type checking—validating code without running it—helps you catch bugs earlier. This is where Pyright enters the stage.