Python Monthly 💻🐍

21st issue! If you missed the previous ones, you can read all the previous issues of my monthly Python newsletter here.

If it’s your first time here… (otherwise, skip this part)

Being a Python developer is a fantastic career option. Python is now the most popular language with lots of growing job demand (especially in the fields of Web, Data Science and Machine Learning). You have many job opportunities, you can work around the world, and you get to solve hard problems.

One thing that is hard, however, is staying up to date with the constantly evolving ecosystem. You want to be a top-performing python developer, coder, programmer, software developer, but you don’t have time to select from hundreds of articles, videos and podcasts each day.

This is the best Python newsletter for you if you want to keep up to date with the industry and keep your skills sharp, without wasting your valuable time.

I curate and share the most important articles, news, resources, podcasts and videos of the month.

Think Tim Ferriss and the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) meeting the Python world. What’s the 20% that will get you 80% of the results?

Let's dive in. Here's what you missed in August 2021 as a Python Developer…

Migrating to Python 3 🚂

A long read, but a lot of insights in this one. Launchpad migrated (slowly) from Python 2 to Python 3, and they finally completed the process. Make sure you check out the "lessons learned" section in this article for the juicy bits.

Python 3.10 RC 🛠

This release, 3.10.0rc1, is the penultimate release preview. Entering the release candidate phase, only reviewed code changes which are clear bug fixes are allowed between this release candidate and the final release. The second candidate and the last planned release preview is currently planned for 2021-09-06 while the official release is planned for 2021-10-04. 3.10 is coming soon!

25 Pandas 🐼

25 Pandas functions that you didn't know existed. Pandas is so vast and deep that it enables you to execute virtually any tabular manipulation you can think of. It's impossible to memorize all of them and sometimes things can be overlooked. This article will remind you of 25 often "forgotten" functions.

How To Fix A Mess 🧹

So you made a release on PyPI and there's a mistake (we've all been there.. and if you haven't you will the first time you release a package on PyPI). It can be as big as the whole release is bad, to just a spelling mistake in the README. Luckily there are things you can do to deal with various scenarios. Read here for what you should do to fix a mess-up.

Weekend Project Idea 🎏

Python Maps! In this project you will use this library and create a local map of your area into a pice of art. Send me, @andreineagoie a tweet with your finished project! Winner gets a secret prize ;).

git switch and git restore 🚏

In version 2.23 of git, two new commands have been introduced to replace the old git checkout (it is still available, but people new to git should start with these new ones preferably). As you would expect, they basically each implement one of the two behaviors of git checkout, and splitting git checkout in two. Read all about it here.

Idioms maaaaannnn ✌️

No idea what idioms are? Think of it as short snippets of useful things. Check out this massive list of programming idioms. Check out the specific Python idioms!

News Around the World 🗺

• Vue.js is Wikimedia (that Wikipedia) Foundation's official choice for adoption as future JavaScript framework for use with MediaWiki.

• This is why online privacy is important. Afghans scramble to delete digital history, evade biometrics.

Big Tech News 🏢

• Apple got in REAAAALLLY hot water this past month by announcing something that had good intentions but could open the door to dire consequences on privacy. A must read.

• Twitter announced the first ever algorithmic bias bounty challenge. Finding bias in machine learning (ML) models is difficult, and sometimes, companies find out about unintended ethical harms once they’ve already reached the public. Twitter is trying to change that with this new challenge. Good timing since we recently released a Bug Bounty and Web Security course here on ZTM!

• Square acquired Afterpay for a measly 29 billion dollars...everyone is getting in on the micro-lender game.

• Intel will start building Qualcomm chips and it laid out a roadmap to expand its new foundry business to catch rivals such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and Samsung by 2025.

• TikTok overtakes Facebook as world's most downloaded app.

Completely useless to your career but still great 🙃

• Start drawing.

• The very first 2 hours of MTV.

• Astronomy Photographer of the Year shortlist... just WOW.

• Procedurally generated fish drawings because drawing fish by hand is lame.

• Why Your Windows Hard Drive Uses The Letter C:

Best Resource of the Month 🥽

DevOps, SRE, and Platform Engineering. These hot new titles have become more and more commonplace in our industry. There is one problem though. Nobody actually knows what they all mean (or at least 99% of people), and many people want to learn "DevOps" without actually knowing what knowledge that even requires. Now you can pretend to be smarter than everybody else by actually knowing the definition and differences between these 3 things.

Even if this may not be directly related to this newsletter's industry, it's something you will encounter in your career so I recommend you read this one!

Trick of the Month 🎩

• Want a faster browser? Maybe it's your plugins...

• Just a reminder from last month's newsletter... this now exists.

See you next month everyone!

By the way, I teach people how to code and get hired in the most efficient way possible as the Lead Instructor of Zero To Mastery Academy. You can see a few of my courses below or see all ZTM courses here.