How to tell if implementing your Python code is a good idea

This is part of a special series about the Zen of Python focusing on the 17th and 18th principles: hard vs. easy.
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A language does not exist in the abstract. Every single language feature has to be implemented in code. It is easy to promise some features, but the implementation can get hairy. Hairy implementation means more potential for bugs, and, even worse, a maintenance burden for the ages.

The Zen of Python has answers for this conundrum.

If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.

The most important thing about programming languages is predictability. Sometimes we explain the semantics of a certain construct in terms of abstract programming models, which do not correspond exactly to the implementation. However, the best of all explanations just explains the implementation.

If the implementation is hard to explain, it means the avenue is impossible.

If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.

Just because something is easy does not mean it is worthwhile. However, once it is explained, it is much easier to judge whether it is a good idea.

This is why the second half of this principle intentionally equivocates: nothing is certain to be a good idea, but it always allows people to have that discussion.

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Moshe sitting down, head slightly to the side. His t-shirt has Guardians of the Galaxy silhoutes against a background of sound visualization bars.
Moshe has been involved in the Linux community since 1998, helping in Linux "installation parties". He has been programming Python since 1999, and has contributed to the core Python interpreter. Moshe has been a DevOps/SRE since before those terms existed, caring deeply about software reliability, build reproducibility and other such things.

2 Comments

Implementing your project or your enterprise needs in Python is the best idea! Because Python is one of the powerful source codes in the world which gives maximum security compare with other latest technologies! It's light weight, and easy to implement!

I like python

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