Professional Documents
Culture Documents
John Hunt
Advanced Guide
to Python 3
Programming
Second Edition
Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science
Series Editor
Ian Mackie, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Advisory Editors
Samson Abramsky , Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford,
Oxford, UK
Chris Hankin , Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London,
UK
Mike Hinchey , Lero – The Irish Software Research Centre, University of
Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Dexter C. Kozen, Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, Ithaca,
NY, USA
Andrew Pitts , Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of
Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Hanne Riis Nielson , Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer
Science, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Steven S. Skiena, Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University,
Stony Brook, NY, USA
Iain Stewart , Department of Computer Science, Durham University, Durham,
UK
Joseph Migga Kizza, College of Engineering and Computer Science, The
University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN, USA
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John Hunt
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The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
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For Denise, my wife, my soulmate, my best
friend.
Preface to the Second Edition
This second edition represents a significant expansion of the material in the first
edition, as well as an update of that book from Python 3.7 to 3.12.
This book includes whole new sections on advanced language features, Reactive
Programming in Python and data analysts. New chapters on working with Tkinter,
on event handling with Tkinter and a simple drawing application using Tkinter have
been added. A new chapter on performance monitoring and profiling has also been
added. A chapter on pip and conda is included at the end of the book.
In all there are 18 completely new chapters that take you far further on your Python
journey. Enjoy the book and I hope you find it useful.
vii
Preface to the First Edition
You can of course just read this book; however following the examples in this book
will ensure that you get as much as possible out of the content. For this you will need
a computer.
Python is a cross-platform programming language, and as such you can use Python
on a Windows PC, a Linux box, an Apple Mac, etc. So you are not tied to a particular
type of operating system; you can use whatever you have available.
However you will need to install some software on that computer. At a minimum
you will need Python. The focus of this book is Python 3 so that is the version that
is assumed for all examples and exercises. As Python is available for a wide range
ix
x Preface to the First Edition
of platforms from Windows, to Mac OS and Linux, you will need to ensure that you
download the version for your operating system.
Python can be downloaded from the main Python website which can be found at
http://www.python.org/.
You will also need some form of editor to write your programs. There are numerous
generic programming editors available for different operating systems with VIM on
Linux, Notepad++ on Windows and Sublime Text on windows and Macs being
popular choices.
However, using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) editor such as
PyCharm, Visual Studio Code or Spyder can make writing and running your programs
much easier.
However, this book does not assume any particular editor, IDE or environment
(other than Python 3 itself).
Conventions
Throughout this book you will find a number of conventions used for text styles.
These text styles distinguish between different kinds of information. Code words,
variable and Python values, used within the main body of the text, are shown using
a Courier font. A block of Python code is set out as shown here:
Preface to the First Edition xi
Note that keywords and points of interest are shown in bold font.
Any command line or user input is shown in standard font as shown below, for
example:
Hello, world
Enter your name: John
Hello John
The examples used in this book (along with sample solutions for the exercises at the
end of most chapters) are available in a GitHub repository. GitHub provides a web
interface to Git, as well as a server environment hosting Git.
Git is a version control system typically used to manage source code files (such
as those used to create systems in programming languages such as Python but also
Java, C#, C++ and Scala). Systems such as Git are very useful for collaborative
development as they allow multiple people to work on an implementation and to
merge their work together. They also provide a useful historical view of the code
(which also allows developers to roll back changes if modifications prove to be
unsuitable).
The GitHub repository for this book can be found at:
• https://github.com/johnehunt/advancedpython3_2nd
If you already have Git installed on your computer, then you can clone (obtain a
copy of) the repository locally using:
git clone https://github.com/johnehunt/advancedpyth
on3_2nd.git
If you do not have Git, then you can obtain a zip file of the examples using
https://github.com/johnehunt/advancedpython3_2nd/arc
hive/refs/heads/main.zip
xii Preface to the First Edition
You can of course install Git yourself if you wish. To do this, see https://git-scm.
com/downloads. Versions of the Git client for Mac OS, Windows and Linux/Unix
are available here.
However, many IDEs such as PyCharm come with Git support and so offer another
approach to obtaining a Git repository.
For more information on Git see http://git-scm.com/doc. This Git guide
provides a very good primer and is highly recommended.
Acknowledgement I would like to thank Phoebe Hunt for creating the pixel images used for the
Starship Meteors game in Chap. 22.
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Useful Python Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
xiii
xiv Contents
Part IV Testing
23 Introduction to Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
23.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
23.2 Types of Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
23.3 What Should Be Tested? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
23.4 Types of Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
23.4.1 Unit Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
23.4.2 Integration Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
23.4.3 System Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
23.4.4 Installation/Upgrade Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
23.4.5 Smoke Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
23.5 Automating Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
23.6 Test-Driven Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
23.6.1 The TDD Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
23.6.2 Test Complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
23.6.3 Refactoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
23.7 Design for Testability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
23.7.1 Testability Rules of Thumb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
23.8 Online Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
23.9 Book Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
xx Contents
4.—A ORDEM
Por ora, não. O povo inteiro pronunciava os votos cada dia mais
formaes de uma abstenção decidida. Deixal-os, os politicos, fazer
systemas e revoluções, cartas, juntas, programmas, côrtes, leis;
deixal-os comer e engordar e devorarem-se: elles cançarão!
Já desanimados, tinham cançado Mousinho e Passos; mas havia
gente nova, para uma terceira investida, um terceiro liberalismo: a
Ordem. Mas como póde haver ordem nos factos, se as idéas são
uma desordem? Como conciliar as instituições e as idéas, quando
as primeiras, reconhecendo a aristocracia n’uma segunda camara,
a, theocracia n’uma religião d’Estado obedecem ainda ao
pensamento do primeiro romantismo, ou do tradição historica?
quando o segundo fez recuar essa tradição para o campo vago de
uma poesia, além de insufficiente para dar consistencia ao
organismo social, falsa e artificial, obra de litteratos, paixão de
archeologos e eruditos, inaccessivel ao povo? Como conciliar essas
instituições com o principio da soberania do individuo, já combinado
pela revolução com o da soberania do povo? e com o systema da
concorrencia livre, prejudicado pela revolução, tambem, com o
systema da protecção ás industrias? Essa ordem é um cháos, de
instituições e idéas. Já não ha, é claro, uma Anarchia systematica,
tal como a concebera Mousinho; mas em vez d’ella ha uma mistura
de elementos contradictorios, liberaes, democraticos, romanticos,
d’onde sae a supposta ordem da constituição de 38.
Assim, tambem, já não ha bandidos: os marechaes voltaram e
juraram; mas sob a paz apparente lavram os germens de novas
desordens. A anarchia fôra até 36 um systema. Agora pedia-se
ordem; mas as vida antiga ia continuar contra a vontade dos
homens já saciados, já desejosos de gozar em paz o fructo dos
seus trabalhos. Rodrigo apparecia á frente dos setembristas e
cartistas fusionados para o descanço: Rodrigo sceptico desde o
berço, mas talvez crente em que no scepticismo estivesse a
sabedoria, e por isso na constituição de 38 o porto desejado da vida
liberal.
Não, não podia ser: a confusão dos elementos não podia dar a
ordem nas instituições. Foi a rainha quem fez da Costa Cabral um
instrumento para restaurar a carta (1842), cudilhar Rodrigo e os
ordeiros fusionados, e os romanticos? Talvez fosse; talvez não
fosse: logo o vermos. Mas o facto é que o status quo não era viavel,
apezar das affirmações em contrario dos vencidos.
Palmella com o seu romantismo aristocratico pugnára pela
conservação de uma camara de pares vitalicia, hereditaria; mas a
revolução veiu e destruiu-a. Depois, em 38, o meio-termo creou a
camara dos senadores temporarios, electivos. É verdade que,
extincta ou protestante por miguelista, a antiga aristocracia não
podia preencher os lugares da camara; mas não é menos verdade
que um senado temporario e electivo só é viavel dentro de um
systema de representação de orgãos e classes da sociedade; sendo
uma chimera, um accessorio inutil, uma duplicação van (como agora
mesmo se vê em França), quando procede, como a camara-baixa,
do suffragio popular, directo ou indirecto.
A antiga aristocracia demittira-se, é verdade; mas a liberdade e a
concorrencia tinham creado um poder real e novo, uma plutocracia:
a classe dos burguezes ricos que não podiam deixar o seu poder, os
seus interesses, á mercê dos acasos das eleições; que não
pactuavam com o individualismo, nem com a democracia, querendo
para si o dominio seguro a que de facto lhes dava direito o seu
poder estavel. Derrubadas todas as authoridades em holocausto á
doutrina, só uma não podiam os doutrinarios destruir: o dinheiro. O
dinheiro, pois, creou para si uma doutrina nova, que teve por
defensor Costa-Cabral. Era um quarto, ou quinto liberalismo que
surgia e vencia todos os anteriores.
Guizot e Luiz-Philippe tiveram de fazer em França o mesmo que
D. Maria ii e Cabral fizeram cá. Aos burguezes diziam—enriquecei-
vos! e ás instituições e garantias reformavam-nas no sentido de
crear e consolidar a nova aristocracia dos ricos. Era uma fórma de
Ordem que escapou ás previsões dos romanticos: os seus medos e
coleras tinham-se voltado e consumido contra a democracia! O
inimigo surgia abruptamente d’onde o não esperavam, e bateu-os
com a maxima fortuna. Restaurou-se a carta, sem ser necessario
um tiro: é verdade tambem que da mesma fórma caíra em 10 de
setembro. Os romanticos sinceros, ingenuos, esperando a acção
dos meios moraes, esqueciam a força dos elementos positivos: a
ordem que tinham fundado era uma bola de sabão. Um sopro
desmanchou-a.
E assim devia ser tambem, perante a natureza das doutrinas. Pois
se a unica fonte da authoridade moral e politica era o individuo, pois
se a propriedade era a sagração de uma personalidade soberana,
onde se havia de ir buscar o mandato, senão á vontade da maioria?
como se havia de desconhecer a importancia suprema da riqueza?
Porque protestavam, pois, contra os setembristas, chamando
ignaras ás maiorias? e contra os cabralistas chamando nomes aos
argentarios? Ou o dominio do numero, ou o imperio do dinheiro: eis
ahi onde a liberdade conduzia fatalmente. Onde conduziria, senão á
affirmação de uma authoridade cega do numero ou das forças
brutas, a doutrina que negára a authoridade social em nome da
natureza do individuo?
Falhára a conclusão democratica; mas ia vencer a aristocracia
nova: assim terminavam no absolutismo illustrado os diversos
liberalismos.
NOTAS DE RODAPÉ: