Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!news.redatomik.org!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed2.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!newsgate.cistron.nl!newsgate.news.xs4all.nl!post.news.xs4all.nl!not-for-mail Return-Path: X-Original-To: python-list@python.org Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org X-Spam-Status: OK 0.004 X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 0.99; '*S*': 0.00; 'python.': 0.02; 'subject:Python': 0.06; 'json': 0.07; 'list?': 0.07; 'practice,': 0.07; 'arguments': 0.09; 'lawrence': 0.09; 'parsed': 0.09; 'python': 0.11; 'nonetheless': 0.16; 'readable': 0.16; 'runtime.': 0.16; 'worst': 0.16; 'appropriate': 0.16; 'language': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.18; 'wed,': 0.18; 'feb': 0.22; 'example': 0.22; 'tests': 0.22; "shouldn't": 0.24; 'url:02': 0.24; 'header:In- Reply-To:1': 0.27; 'xml': 0.29; "doesn't": 0.30; 'message- id:@mail.gmail.com': 0.30; '25,': 0.31; 'checked': 0.32; 'problem': 0.35; 'something': 0.35; 'but': 0.35; 'received:google.com': 0.35; 'there': 0.35; 'url:org': 0.36; 'should': 0.36; 'easily': 0.37; 'somebody': 0.38; 'to:addr:python- list': 0.38; 'pm,': 0.38; "couldn't": 0.39; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.39; "you've": 0.63; 'such': 0.63; 'due': 0.66; 'invalid': 0.68; 'url:18': 0.68; 'url:2011': 0.75; 'power': 0.76; '*simple*': 0.84; '2015': 0.84; 'subject:Practices': 0.84 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id:subject:to :content-type; bh=ymlz5Lm7vg0HxaQCBhgXpGBFDlRphqXo/mVOjs3h6Hg=; b=QIDDAPN/WG2TrYNBgxukwRs56GljGD8QpckZdOW/hlNPItRQqzIQduokdy5B4znuU0 FtDfIZuLHp+iCorNo4FltphaxDboTu08JeUmFKwp+xXRglt7oYDHEvdsGmNzClmAaY3T mh5dRvgOlQZyGKGnBDnKObNTRau9mHtLNp9MevMB1Lz5kkYqvUOnURP8sACk+aSW25XA 66agcjaHqUDtFgRW0bW//mUncLzWMrzQ2DdvaqI/go6SiSm5G8fDIcIznc2LqZ91yTFw 6/6lbDgfjY3KopLAMdXl/Wjv2w7lqPxcJg2tGEulW5w7ddIhbA/2kHF29TMXQnlb0+oO 0mrg== X-Received: by 10.68.194.38 with SMTP id ht6mr11692644pbc.36.1424926387126; Wed, 25 Feb 2015 20:53:07 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: References: From: Ian Kelly Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2015 21:52:26 -0700 Subject: Re: Python Worst Practices To: Python Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.15 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Message-ID: Lines: 18 NNTP-Posting-Host: 2001:888:2000:d::a6 X-Trace: 1424926390 news.xs4all.nl 2873 [2001:888:2000:d::a6]:60278 X-Complaints-To: abuse@xs4all.nl Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:86473 On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 1:45 PM, Mark Lawrence wrote: > http://www.slideshare.net/pydanny/python-worst-practices > > Any that should be added to this list? Any that be removed as not that bad? Using XML for configuration is a good example of a worst practice, but using Python instead isn't best practice. There are good arguments that a configuration language shouldn't be Turing-complete. See for instance this blog post: http://taint.org/2011/02/18/001527a.html The problem with XML is just that it's not very human-readable; it doesn't need all the extra power of Python. This may be something that's hard to appreciate until you've actually experienced an outage because somebody checked in a configuration change that parsed and passed tests but nonetheless was invalid due to configuration that couldn't be evaluated until runtime. A better choice for configuration would be something that is both easily readable and *simple* such as JSON or YAML, or an appropriate DSL.