Readability Counts
This is at the heart of my enthusiasm for Python. This is not in the sense of the elegant of the
syntax Beautiful is Better than Ugly,
though that must help. It is a matter of usefulness and saving time. I’m sure I am not alone when
going back to some of my own code and have to scratch my head to understand it. Of couse that
goes double for someone else’s code. But I really find that the ease of defining functions and
structures, the way modules are imported and the way one approaches coding does help. Then of
course you only write it once, you (and maybe others) read it many times. So time taken for extra
typing or clarity is paid back many fold later. Also, there is no excuse, editors now have code
completion and other tools that save keystrokes, so why have some obscure *i =
Another very important idea here is introspection, where defined objects themselves can be examined for information. When defining a new class or function, it is not unusual to add some useful comment, then putting in tripple quotes turns into help, that is available from the command line or the editor or even a pop up bubble as you type the symbol. So easy, making readable code more usable as well.
Finally, I think the idea that all symbols are explictly named via the dot notation is brilliant. When re-reading source code there is never any doubt what a symbol refers to and, you can find it either in that file or via the file specifically named in an import statement. Also, if in doubt, all objects have either a __file__ or __module__ property, that gives the path to the file/module that contains the definition.