Python Monthly Newsletter 💻🐍

39th 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 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 February 2023 as a Python Developer…

Mindblowing Bug 🤯

A twitter user posted this.

If you have ever used asyncio.create_task you may have created a bug for yourself that is challenging (aka... almost impossible) to reproduce. If it occurs, your code will likely fail in unpredictable ways.

The Heisenbug lurking in your async code.

PyPI Scams Are Growing 👾

Be careful anytime you bring in 3rd party code inside your project. The code found in the malicious packages closely resembled legit offerings and the latest attack on PyPI users shows crooks are only getting better.

Python Pickle 🥒

Because Python has limited parallelism when using threads, using worker processes is a common way to take advantage of multiple CPU cores. The multiprocessing module is built-in to the standard library, so it’s frequently used for this purpose. But while multiple processes let you take advantage of multiple CPUs, moving data between processes can be very slow. And that can reduce some of the performance benefits of using worker processes. Learn the details of this dilemma here.

Functional Python 🦾

Building software from composable parts, the concept of typeclasses, from Haskell, can be simulated in Python using abstract base classes.

This allows classes to be categorized by their capabilities, simply by virtue of inheritance, enabling you to build more generic functions that utilize your object models, without upsetting the type checker.

What does any of that mean? It's a little confusing, but worth the read.

Weekend Project Idea 🧰

GPT in 60 Lines of NumPy.

Mic drop...

Python WASI Support 🏋️‍♀️

Python has support to Wasm Language Runtimes. This article provides an overview of how Python works in WebAssembly environments and provides a step by step guide on how to use it (on the web ;)).

All About That State 💄

The song was wrong. It's not all about the bass. It's all about the State.

All Programming Philosophies Are About State.

Inside Github 🤿

A fun technical read for those that are interested in a look at what went into building the world's largest public code search index. It's impressive, but uses tried and true computer programming principles: The technology behind GitHub’s new code search.

News Around the World 🗺

• How to build a Chrome extension that steals everything. Chrome plugins are a nightmare and you should be careful.

• DOJ Preps Antitrust Suit to Block Adobe’s $20 Billion Figma Deal. Figma may not join Adobe after all...

Big Tech News 🏢

• Twitter is now making you pay for using their API. Probably a good way to get rid of a lot of the spam bots.

• A big fight between Google and Microsoft is happening. Microsoft's big AI announcement means that Bing could replace Google as top search app. Seems unlikely for a number of reason but still worth keeping an eye on this as it's evolving fast.

• Shopify has Shopify Function now and is adding JavaScript right next to Rust as their first-class languages for Shopify Functions.

• AMD Grabs Over 30% CPU Market Share As Intel Continues To Decline.

• The release of iOS and iPadOS 16.4 beta 1 happened, and with it comes support for Web Push and other features for Home Screen web apps (something iPhones have held off on for years).

Completely useless to your career but still great 🙃

Paper computers.

Construct the computer from your childhood or build an entire computer museum at home with these paper models, free to download and share.

Best Resource of the Month 🥽

My Guide To Keeping Up with ChatGPT:

Just to get caught up on all the ChatGPT saga, I recommend you read/watch these 5 resources:

1. ChatGPT Plus
2. Windows added it to Bing search
3. It wasn't perfect but it wasn't as bad as Google's execution
4. Will it steal your job?
5. It won't if you learn to work with it

Trick of the Month 🎩

• Kagi (a search engine) has a new feature that's super cool: Summarize any content on the web - from articles to books - in a jiffy!

• See ChatGPT's response to every question on StackOverflow, even the unanswered ones.

• How to self host in 2023.

Thanks for reading!

See you next month everyone... also share this with your friends... pretty please! ❤️

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 our courses below or see all ZTM courses here.