Python Bytes

By Michael Kennedy and Brian Okken

Python Bytes is a weekly podcast hosted by Michael Kennedy and Brian Okken. The show is a short discussion on the headlines and noteworthy news in the Python, developer, and data science space.... more

4.7

210210 ratings

Download on the App Store

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play

FAQs about Python Bytes:

How many episodes does Python Bytes have?

The podcast currently has 633 episodes available.

Python Bytes episodes:

April 14, 2025#428 How old is your Python?
Topics covered in this episode:
How to Write a Git Commit Message
Caddy Web Server
Some new PEPs approved
juv
Extras
Joke
Watch on YouTube
About the show
Sponsored by Posit Connect: pythonbytes.fm/connect
Connect with the hosts
Michael: @[email protected] / @mkennedy.codes (bsky)
Brian: @[email protected] / @brianokken.bsky.social
Show: @[email protected] / @pythonbytes.fm (bsky)
Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Monday at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too.
Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it.
Brian #1: How to Write a Git Commit Message
Chris Beams
7 rules of a great commit message
Separate subject from body with a blank line
Limit the subject line to 50 characters
Capitalize the subject line
Do not end the subject line with a period
Use the imperative mood in the subject line
Wrap the body at 72 characters
Use the body to explain what and why vs. how
Article also includes
Why a good commit message matters
Discussion about each of the 7 rules
Cool hat tips to other articles on the subject
“Keep in mind: This has all been said before.”
Each word is a different link.
Michael #2: Caddy Web Server
via Fredrik Mellström
Like a more modern NGINX
Caddy automatically obtains and renews TLS certificates for all your sites.
Caddy's native configuration is a JSON document.
Even localhost and internal IPs are served with TLS using the intermediate of a fully-automated, self-managed CA that is automatically installed into most local trust stores.
Configure multiple Caddy instances with the same storage, and they will automatically coordinate certificate management as a fleet.
Production-grade static file server.
Brian #3: Some new PEPs approved
PEP 770 – Improving measurability of Python packages with Software Bill-of-Materials
Accepted for packaging
Author: Seth Larson, Sponsor Brett Cannon
“This PEP proposes using SBOM documents included in Python packages as a means to improve automated software measurability for Python packages.”
PEP 750 – Template Strings
Accepted for Python 3.14
Author: Jim Baker, Guido van Rossum, Paul Everitt, Kaudai Aono, Lysandros Nikolaou, Dave Peck
“Templates provide developers with access to the string and its interpolated values before they are combined. This brings native flexible string processing to the Python language and enables safety checks, web templating, domain-specific languages, and more.”
Michael #4: juv
A toolkit for reproducible Jupyter notebooks, powered by uv.
Create, manage, and run Jupyter notebooks with their dependencies
Pin dependencies with PEP 723 - inline script metadata
Launch ephemeral sessions for multiple front ends (e.g., JupyterLab, Notebook, NbClassic)
Powered by uv for fast dependency management
Use uvx to run jupyterlab with ephemeral virtual environments and tracked dependencies.
Extras
Brian:
Status of Python versions
new-ish format
Use this all the time. Can’t remember if we’ve covered the new format yet.
See also Python endoflife.date
Same dates, very visible encouragement to move on to Python 3.13 if you haven’t already.
Michael:
Python 3.13.3 is out.
.git-blame-ignore-revs follow up
Joke: BGPT (thanks Doug Farrell)
...more
31min
April 07, 2025#427 Rise of the Python Lord
Topics covered in this episode:
Git Town solves the problem that using the Git CLI correctly
PEP 751 – A file format to record Python dependencies for installation reproducibility
git-who and watchgha
Share Python Scripts Like a Pro: uv and PEP 723 for Easy Deployment
Extras
Joke
Watch on YouTube
About the show
Sponsored by Posit Package Manager: pythonbytes.fm/ppm
Connect with the hosts
Michael: @[email protected] / @mkennedy.codes (bsky)
Brian: @[email protected] / @brianokken.bsky.social
Show: @[email protected] / @pythonbytes.fm (bsky)
Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Monday at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too.
Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it.
Michael #1: Git Town solves the problem that using the Git CLI correctly
Git Town is a reusable implementation of Git workflows for common usage scenarios like contributing to a centralized code repository on platforms like GitHub, GitLab, or Gitea.
Think of Git Town as your Bash scripts for Git, but fully engineered with rock-solid support for many use cases, edge cases, and error conditions.
Keep using Git the way you do now, but with extra commands to create various branch types, keep them in sync, compress, review, and ship them efficiently.
Basic workflow
Commands to create, work on, and ship features.
git town hack - create a new feature branch
git town sync - update the current branch with all ongoing changes
git town switch - switch between branches visually
git town propose - propose to ship a branch
git town ship - deliver a completed feature branch
Additional workflow commands
Commands to deal with edge cases.
git town delete - delete a feature branch
git town rename - rename a branch
git town repo - view the Git repository in the browser
Brian #2: PEP 751 – A file format to record Python dependencies for installation reproducibility
Accepted
From Brett Cannon
“PEP 751 has been accepted!
This means Python now has a lock file standard that can act as an export target for tools that can create some sort of lock file. And for some tools the format can act as their primary lock file format as well instead of some proprietary format.”
File name: pylock.toml or at least something that starts with pylock and ends with .toml
It’s exciting to see the start of a standardized lock file
Michael #3: git-who and watchgha
git-who is a command-line tool for answering that eternal question: Who wrote this code?!
Unlike git blame, which can tell you who wrote a line of code, git-who tells you the people responsible for entire components or subsystems in a codebase.
You can think of git-who sort of like git blame but for file trees rather than individual files.
And watchgha - Live display of current GitHub action runs by Ned Batchelder
Brian #4: Share Python Scripts Like a Pro: uv and PEP 723 for Easy Deployment
Dave Johnson
Nice full tutorial discussing single file Python scripts using uv with external dependencies
Starting with a script with dependencies.
Using uv add --script [HTML_REMOVED] [HTML_REMOVED] to add a /// script block to the top
Using uv run
Adding #!/usr/bin/env -S uv run --script shebang
Even some Windows advice
Extras
Brian:
April 1 pranks done well
BREAKING: Guido van Rossum Returns as Python’s BDFL
including
Brett Cannon noted as “Famous Python Quotationist”
Guido taking credit for “I came for the language but I stayed for the community”
which was from Brett
then Brett’s title of “Famous Python Quotationist” is crossed out.
Barry Warsaw asking Guido about releasing Python 2.8
Barry is the FLUFL, “Friendly Language Uncle For Life “
Mariatta can’t get Guido to respond in chat until she addresses him as “my lord”.
“… becoming one with whitespace.”
“Indentation is Enlightenment”
Upcoming new keyword: maybe
Like “if” but more Pythonic
as in Maybe: print("Python The Documentary - Coming This Summer!")
I’m really hoping there is a documentary
April 1 pranks done poorly
Note: pytest-repeat works fine with Python 3.14, and never had any problems
If you have to explain the joke, maybe it’s not funny.
The explanation
pi, an irrational number, as in it cannot be expressed by a ratio of two integers, starts with 3.14159 and then keeps going, and never repeats.
Python 3.14 is in alpha and people could be testing with it for packages
Test & Code is doing a series on pytest plugins
pytest-repeat is a pytest plugin, and it happened to not have any tests for 3.14 yet.
Now the “joke”.
I pretended that I had tried pytest-repeat with Python 3.14 and it didn’t work.
Test & Code: Python 3.14 won't repeat with pytest-repeat
Thus, Python 3.14 won’t repeat.
Also I mentioned that there was no “rational” explanation.
And pi is an irrational number.
Michael:
pysqlscribe v0.5.0 has the “parse create scripts” feature I suggested!
Markdown follow up
Prettier to format Markdown via Hugo
Been using mdformat on some upcoming projects including the almost done Talk Python in Production book. Command I like is mdformat --number --wrap no ./
uv tool install --with is indeed the pipx inject equivalent, but requires multiple --with's:
pipx inject mdformat mdformat-gfm mdformat-frontmatter mdformat-footnote mdformat-gfm-alerts
uv tool install mdformat --with mdformat-gfm --with mdformat-frontmatter --with mdformat-footnote --with mdformat-gfm-alerts
uv follow up
From James Falcon
As a fellow uv enthusiast, I was still holding out for a use case that uv hasn't solved. However, after last week's episode, you guys finally convinced me to switch over fully, so I figured I'd explain the use case and how I'm working around uv's limitations.
I maintain a python library supported across multiple python versions and occasionally need to deal with bugs specific to a python version. Because of that, I have multiple virtualenvs for one project. E.g., mylib38 (for python 3.8), mylib313 (for python 3.13), etc. I don't want a bunch of .venv directories littering my project dir.
For this, pyenv was fantastic. You could create the venv with pyenv virtualenv 3.13.2 mylib313, then either activate the venv with pyenv activate mylib313 and create a .python-version file containing mylib313 so I never had to manually activate the env I want to use by default on that project.
uv doesn't have a great solution for this use case, but I switched to a workflow that works well enough for me:
Define my own central location for venvs. For me that's ~/v
Create venvs with something like uv venv --python 3.13 ~/v/mylib313
Add a simple function to my bashrc:
`workon() { source ~/v/$1/bin/activate } \ so now I can run \workon mylib313orworkon mylib38when I need to work in a specific environment. uv's.python-version` support works much differently than pyenv's, and that lack of support is my biggest frustration with this approach, but I am willing to live without it.
Do you Firefox but not Zen? You can now make pure Firefox more like Zen’s / Arc’s layout.
Joke: So here it will stay
See the follow up thread too!
Also: Guido as Lord Python via Nick Muoh
...more
37min
March 31, 2025#426 Committing to Formatted Markdown
Topics covered in this episode:
mdformat
pre-commit-uv
PEP 758 and 781
Serie: rich git commit graph in your terminal, like magic
Extras
Joke
Watch on YouTube
About the show
Sponsored by Posit Connect Cloud: pythonbytes.fm/connect-cloud
Connect with the hosts
Michael: @[email protected] / @mkennedy.codes (bsky)
Brian: @[email protected] / @brianokken.bsky.social
Show: @[email protected] / @pythonbytes.fm (bsky)
Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Monday at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too.
Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it.
Brian #1: mdformat
Suggested by Matthias Schöttle
Last episode Michael covered blacken-docs, and I mentioned it’d be nice to have an autoformatter for text markdown.
Matthias delivered with suggesting mdformat
“Mdformat is an opinionated Markdown formatter that can be used to enforce a consistent style in Markdown files.”
A python project that can be run on the command line.
Uses a style guide I mostly agree with.
I’m not a huge fan of numbered list items all being “1.”, but that can be turned off with --number, so I’m happy.
Converts underlined headings to #, ##, etc. headings.
Lots of other sane conventions.
The numbering thing is also sane, I just think it also makes the raw markdown hard to read.
Has a plugin system to format code blocks
Michael #2: pre-commit-uv
via Ben Falk
Use uv to create virtual environments and install packages for pre-commit.
Brian #3: PEP 758 and 781
PEP 758 – Allow except and except* expressions without parentheses
accepted
PEP 781 – Make TYPE_CHECKING a built-in constant
draft status
Also, PEP Index by Category kinda rocks
Michael #4: Serie: rich git commit graph in your terminal, like magic
While some users prefer to use Git via CLI, they often rely on a GUI or feature-rich TUI to view commit logs.
Others may find git log --graph sufficient.
Goals
Provide a rich git log --graph experience in the terminal.
Offer commit graph-centric browsing of Git repositories.
Extras
Michael:
Sunsetting Search? (Startpage)
Ruff in or out?
Joke: Wishing for wishes
...more
30min
March 24, 2025#425 If You Were a Klingon Programmer
Topics covered in this episode:
Why aren't you using uv?
Python Developer Tooling Handbook
Calling all doc writers: blacken-docs
Reinventing notebooks as reusable Python programs
Extras
Joke
Watch on YouTube
About the show
Brought to you by Posit Connect: pythonbytes.fm/connect.
Connect with the hosts
Michael: @[email protected] / @mkennedy.codes (bsky)
Brian: @[email protected] / @brianokken.bsky.social
Show: @[email protected] / @pythonbytes.fm (bsky)
Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Monday at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too.
Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it.
Michael #1: Why aren't you using uv?
Fun conversation on X by Armin Ronacher.
Interesting quotes from the thread
I get it replaces pip/pyenv, but should I also use it instead of the built in 'python -m venv .venv'?
But I need python installed to make python programs?
Because it places the venv in the project folder and I can't run executables from there due to corporate policy. Many such cases. No idea why astral doesn't address this with more urgency.
Sounds like a bad corporate policy :)
i’m too lazy to switch from pyenv and pip
trust issues, what if they do a bait and switch …
Because everyone said that about poetry and I'm not sure I'm really ready to get hurt again.
Masochism
Many times I tried a lot of similar tools and always come back to pip and pip-tools. Them are just work, why should I spend my time for something "cool" that will bring more problems?
I tried this week but I was expecting a "uv install requests" instead of "uv add". Switched back to pipenv.
we partially use it. will transition when Dependabot support is available.
I’ll leave it with → Jared Scheel: Seeing a whole lotta Stockholm Syndrome in the replies to this question.
Brian #2: Python Developer Tooling Handbook
Tim Hopper
“This is not a book about programming Python. Instead, the goal of this book is to help you understand the ecosystem of tools used to make Python development easier and more productive”
Covers tools related to packaging, linting, formatting, and managing dependencies.
Michael #3: Calling all doc writers: blacken-docs
Run black on python code blocks in documentation files
You can also install blacken-docs as a pre-commit hook.
It supports Markdown, reStructuredText, and LaTex files.
Additionally, you can run it on Python files to reformat Markdown and reStructuredText within docstrings.
Brian #4: Reinventing notebooks as reusable Python programs
marimo allows you to store notebooks as plaintext Python files
properties
Git-friendly: small code change => small diff
easy for both humans and computers to read
importable as a Python module, without executing notebook cells
executable as a Python script
editable with a text editor
Also, … testing with pytest
“Because marimo notebooks are just Python files, they are interoperable with other tools for Python — including pytest. “
“Testing cells. Any cell named as test_* is automatically discoverable and testable by pytest. The same goes for any cell that contains only test_ functions and Test classes.”
“Importantly, because cells are wrapped in functions, running pytest test_notebook.py doesn’t execute the entire notebook — just its tests.”
Extras
Brian:
PyConUS announces Refund Policy for International Attendees
New format now live for The Complete pytest Course Bundle and component courses
Each course now available separately also
pytest Primary Power is 13 lessons, 3.9 hours
Using pytest with Projects, 10 lessons, 3.4 hours
pytest Booster Rockets, 6 lessons, 1.3 hours of content
New format is easier to navigate
Better for people who like different speeds. I’m usually a 1.25x-1.5x speed person.
Now also with Congratulations! lessons (with fireworks) and printable certificates.
Michael:
PyCon Taiwan is currently calling for proposals
HN trends follow up via Shinjitsu
I'm sure some other Hacker News reader has already given you the feedback, but in the unlikely case that they haven't, You read those headlines in this segment exactly wrong.
“Ask HN: Who is hiring?" is a monthly post that asks employers to post
about jobs they have available
“Ask HN: Who wants to be hired?” is a monthly topic where they ask
people who are looking for jobs to post about themselves in the hope
that their skillset it is a good match (and not an LLM generated resume)
So unfortunately your rosy analysis might need a less rosy
interpretation.
Joke:
Top 12 things likely to be overheard if you had a Klingon Programmer
From Holgi on Mastodon
...more
38min
March 17, 2025#424 We Will Test in Production
Topics covered in this episode:
The weird quirk with rounding in Python
Python interpreter adds tail calls
Remove punctuation from a string with translate and maketrans
Extra, extra, extra
Extras
Joke
Watch on YouTube
About the show
Sponsored by us! Support our work through:
Our courses at Talk Python Training
The Complete pytest Course
Patreon Supporters
Connect with the hosts
Michael: @[email protected] / @mkennedy.codes (bsky)
Brian: @[email protected] / @brianokken.bsky.social
Show: @[email protected] / @pythonbytes.fm (bsky)
Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Monday at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too.
Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it.
Brian #1: The weird quirk with rounding in Python
Tom Nijhof-Verheesb
With numbers ending in .5, Python always rounds to an even number.
round(0.5) → 0
round(1.5) → 2
etc
This follows IEEE 754
You can use decimal if you need a different behavior.
Michael #2: Python interpreter adds tail calls
Ken Jin, a member of the project, has merged a new set of changes that have been benchmarked as improving performance by 10% for some architectures.
"Speedup is roughly equal to 2 minor CPython releases worth of improvements. For example, CPython 3.12 roughly sped up by 5%.”
Brian #3: Remove punctuation from a string with translate and maketrans
Rodrigo
“Don't use the method replace to remove punctuation from a Python string. Instead, use the method translate.”
Michael #4: Extra, extra, extra
Animation v Coding, hello world to transformers
TypeScript rewritten in Go
Firefox lies
PyCon’s Startup Row
Python in Production Book
Extras
Joke: Startrek Testing
...more
28min
March 10, 2025#423 Traveling the Python Universe
Topics covered in this episode:
pysqlscribe
A map of Python
Rust, C++, and Python trends in jobs on Hacker News (February 2025)
The features of Python's help() function
Extras
Joke
Watch on YouTube
About the show
Sponsored by us! Support our work through:
Our courses at Talk Python Training
The Complete pytest Course
Patreon Supporters
Connect with the hosts
Michael: @[email protected] / @mkennedy.codes (bsky)
Brian: @[email protected] / @brianokken.bsky.social
Show: @[email protected] / @pythonbytes.fm (bsky)
Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Monday at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too.
Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it.
Michael #1: pysqlscribe
A Python library intended to make building SQL queries in your code a bit easier.
A Query object can be constructed using the QueryRegistry's get_builder featuring a dialect (e.g; "mysql", "postgres", "oracle").
Brian #2: A map of Python
Cool visualization of dependencies in PyPI packages
Even cooler visualization (linked from main article)
Michael #3: Rust, C++, and Python trends in jobs on Hacker News (February 2025)
Interesting supply and demand comparisons from at least on source.
Brian #4: The features of Python's help() function
Trey Hunner
Don’t forget how useful and cool help() is.
Extras
Michael:
Granian works with FastAPI again
Joke: Computer engineer vs. Geologist
...more
27min
March 03, 2025#422 You need 4 spaces
Topics covered in this episode:
My 2025 uv-based Python Project Layout for Production Apps
aiolimiter
A peek into a possible future of Python in the browser
Reloadium
Extras
Joke
Watch on YouTube
About the show
Sponsored by us! Support our work through:
Our courses at Talk Python Training
The Complete pytest Course
Patreon Supporters
Connect with the hosts
Michael: @[email protected] / @mkennedy.codes (bsky)
Brian: @[email protected] / @brianokken.bsky.social
Show: @[email protected] / @pythonbytes.fm (bsky)
Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Monday at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too.
Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it.
Brian #1: My 2025 uv-based Python Project Layout for Production Apps
Hynek Schlawack
Discusses uv, a simple pyproject.toml, a simple project layout, and uv.lock as the modern way to ditch requirements.txt files
This is the starting video in a series, but it’s already very worthwhile
Michael #2: aiolimiter
An efficient implementation of a rate limiter for asyncio.
This project implements the Leaky bucket algorithm, giving you precise control over the rate a code section can be entered.
Brian #3: A peek into a possible future of Python in the browser
a.k.a “Secret SPy Stuff”
Łukasz Langa
A peek at SPy, a new language for Python on the web.
Michael #4: Reloadium
Hot Reloading and Profiling for Python
If you are a PyCharm user please check out Reloadium plugin
See also: github.com/mikeckennedy/server-hot-reload
Extras
Brian:
Making an alternate version of The Complete pytest Course
Michael:
Book: Zero Day: A Jeff Aiken Novel
Warp terminal on Windows is out.
PyCon Ed Summit announced.
Joke: py programmer walks into a bar
...more
33min
February 24, 2025#421 22 years old
Topics covered in this episode:
httpdbg
PyPI Now Supports iOS and Android Wheels for Mobile Python Development
Arcade Game Platform goes 3.0
PEP 765 – Disallow return/break/continue that exit a finally block
Extras
Joke
Watch on YouTube
About the show
Sponsored by us! Support our work through:
Our courses at Talk Python Training
The Complete pytest Course
Patreon Supporters
Connect with the hosts
Michael: @[email protected] / @mkennedy.codes (bsky)
Brian: @[email protected] / @brianokken.bsky.social
Show: @[email protected] / @pythonbytes.fm (bsky)
Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Monday at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too.
Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it.
Michael #1: httpdbg
A tool for Python developers to easily debug the HTTP(S) client requests in a Python program.
To use it, execute your program using the pyhttpdbg command instead of python and that's it. Open a browser to http://localhost:4909 to view the requests
Brian #2: PyPI Now Supports iOS and Android Wheels for Mobile Python Development
Sara Gooding
“the Python Packaging Index (PyPI) has officially begun accepting and distributing pre-compiled binary packages, known as "wheels," for both iOS and Android platforms. “
Next up, “cibuildwheel Updates Are in Progress to Simplify iOS and Android Wheel Creation”
Michael #3: Arcade Game Platform goes 3.0
via Maic Siemering
This is our first major release since 2022.
It keeps the beginner-friendly API while adding power and efficiency.
Arcade now supports both standard OpenGL and ShaderToy (www.shadertoy.com) a-shaders through a compatibility layer.
Since 3.0 is a major release, the full list of changes is over in
github.com/pythonarcade/arcade/blob/development/CHANGELOG.md
Brian #4: PEP 765 – Disallow return/break/continue that exit a finally block
Accepted for Python 3.14
I wouldn’t have thought to do this anyway, but it’s weird, so don’t.
Will become a SyntaxWarning catchable by running with -We
Extras
Brian:
Correction: Niki Tonsky was originator of “Pride Versioning”. Thanks Nikita
Correction: Scheme is actually awesome. Brian is just a curmudgeon
Also: pytest-rerunfailures is good for exposing flaky tests
And apparently me being wrong was a great to get at least one person to blog more.
Cheers Filip Łajszczak
Michael:
Tea pot follow up
While you're right that some software actually had this implemented, Python does not. It's not an officially accepted HTTP status code, it was proposed in a 'joke' RFC. I guess Python - even though its name comes from the funny TV series Monty Python - is not so funny. httpx, your (or at least -my-) favorite HTTP module for python, does have the I_AM_A_TEAPOT constant.
By the way, there are some HTTP status codes that changed their names in RFC 9110, for instance, http.HTTPStatus.UNPROCESSABLE_CONTENT (422, previously UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY)
Pride follow up fosstodon.org/@kytta/114034442981727301
Time to upgrade your mini?
Joke: How old is she?
...more
23min
February 17, 2025#420 90% Done in 50% of the Available Time
Topics covered in this episode:
PEP 772 – Packaging governance process
Official Django MongoDB Backend Now Available in Public Preview
Developer Philosophy
Python 3.13.2 released
Extras
Joke
Watch on YouTube
About the show
Sponsored by us! Support our work through:
Our courses at Talk Python Training
The Complete pytest Course
Patreon Supporters
Connect with the hosts
Michael: @[email protected] / @mkennedy.codes (bsky)
Brian: @[email protected] / @brianokken.bsky.social
Show: @[email protected] / @pythonbytes.fm (bsky)
Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Monday at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too.
Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it.
Brian #1: PEP 772 – Packaging governance process
draft, created 21-Jan, by Barry Warsaw, Deb Nicholson, Pradyun Gedam
“As Python packaging has matured, several interrelated problems with the current way of managing the technical development, decision making and processes have become apparent.”
“This PEP proposes a Python Packaging Council with broad authority over packaging standards, tools, and implementations. Like the Python Steering Council, the Packaging Council seeks to exercise this authority as rarely as possible; instead, they use this power to establish standard processes.”
PEP discusses
PyPA, Packaging-WG, Interoperability Standards, Python Steering Council, and Expectations of an elected Packaging Council
A specification with
Composition: 5 people
Mandate, Responsibilities, Delegations, Process, Terms, etc.
Michael #2: Official Django MongoDB Backend Now Available in Public Preview
Over the last few years, Django developers have increasingly used MongoDB, presenting an opportunity for an official MongoDB-built Python package to make integrating both technologies as painless as possible.
Features
The ability to use Django models with confidence. Developers can use Django models to represent MongoDB documents, with support for Django forms, validations, and authentication.
Django admin support. The package allows users to fire up the Django admin page as they normally would, with full support for migrations and database schema history.
Native connecting from settings.py. Just as with any other database provider, developers can customize the database engine in settings.py to get MongoDB up and running.
MongoDB-specific querying optimizations. Field lookups have been replaced with aggregation calls (aggregation stages and aggregate operators), JOIN operations are represented through $lookup, and it’s possible to build indexes right from Python.
Limited advanced functionality. While still in development, the package already has support for time series, projections, and XOR operations.
Aggregation pipeline support. Raw querying allows aggregation pipeline operators. Since aggregation is a superset of what traditional MongoDB Query API methods provide, it gives developers more functionality.
Brian #3: Developer Philosophy
by qntm
Intended as “advice for junior developers about personal dev philosophy”, I think these are just great tips to keep in mind.
The items
Avoid, at all costs, arriving at a scenario where the ground-up rewrite starts to look attractive
This is less about “don’t do rewrites”, but about noticing the warning signs ahead of time.
Aim to be 90% done in 50% of the available time
Great quote: “The first 90% of the job takes 90% of the time. The last 10% of the job takes the other 90% of the time.”
Automate good practices
Think about pathological data
“Nobody cares about the golden path. Edge cases are our entire job.”
Brian’s note: But also think about the happy path. Documenting and testing what you think of as the happy path is a testing start and helps others understand your idea of how things are supposed to work.
There’s usually a simpler way to write it
Write code to be testable
It is insufficient for code to be provably correct; it should be obviously, visibly, trivially correct
Brian’s note: Even if it’s obviously, visibly, trivially correct, it will still break. So test it anyway.
Michael #4: Python 3.13.2 released
Python 3.13’s second maintenance release.
About 250 changes went into this update
Also Python 3.12.9, Python 3.12’s ninth maintenance release already. Just 180 changes for 3.12, but it’s still worth upgrading.
For us, it’s simply rebuilding our Docker base (i.e. —no-cache) with these lines:
RUN curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache uv venv --python 3.13 /venv
Extras
Brian:
Still thinking about pytest plugins a lot.
The top pytest plugin list
Has been updated for Feb
Is starting to include things without “pytest” in the name, like Hypothesis and Syrupy.
Eventually I’ll have to add “looking at trove classifiers” as part of the search, but for now, let me know if you’re favorite is missing.
Includes T&C podcast episode links if I’ve covered it on the show.
There’s 2 so far
Michael:
There's a new release of PyScript out. All the details are here: Highlight is new PyGame-CE support. Go play!
PEP 2026 – Calendar versioning for Python rejected. :(
PEP 759 – External Wheel Hosting withdrawn
Joke:
Pride Versioning
...more
28min
February 04, 2025#419 Is your back end popular?
Topics covered in this episode:
content-types package for better MIME types/Content-Type
Wagtail 6.4
Build It Yourself
Build backend popularity over time
Extras
Joke
Watch on YouTube
About the show
Sponsored by us! Support our work through:
Our courses at Talk Python Training
The Complete pytest Course
Patreon Supporters
Connect with the hosts
Michael: @[email protected] / @mkennedy.codes (bsky)
Brian: @[email protected] / @brianokken.bsky.social
Show: @[email protected] / @pythonbytes.fm (bsky)
Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Monday at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too.
Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it.
Michael #1: content-types package for better MIME types/Content-Type
It started with this comment from Raf.
mimetypes — Map filenames to MIME types
It is oddly missing very common types and varies by platform, OS install and other factors (see this function).
Search around and found python-magic. Seems great but
ImportError: failed to find libmagic. Check your installation → brew install libmagic
magic.from_file("testdata/test.pdf") → FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'testdata/test.pdf'
hmm
So I had to create my own. Introducing content-types
A Python library to map file extensions to MIME types.
Unlike other libraries, this one does not try to access the file or parse the bytes of the file or stream. It just looks at the extension.
Better support than mimetypes builtin.
Brian #2: Wagtail 6.4
Release notes
Lots of great updates, but I want to zoom in on background tasks.
6.4 includes django-tasks
which is an available implementation of DEP 0014: Background workers
This proposal is accepted and this thread includes a great talk from DjangoCon Europe 2024
Why is this cool?
Even though django-tasks says it’s “under active development”, as long as you pin the version and test your behavior depending on this, it must be ready to use if wagtail is going for it. Don't you think?
Michael #3: Build It Yourself
from Armin Ronacher, sent in by Rafael Weingartner
An excellent article pushing back on too many dependencies
Maybe the advice of always prefer code reuse isn’t that great after all?
It’s much much easier to solve small little problems these days due to AI.
Take Postmark as an example.
“It's time to have a new perspective: we should give kudos to engineers who write a small function themselves instead of hooking in a transitive web of crates. We should be suspicious of big crate graphs. Celebrated are the minimal dependencies, the humble function that just quietly does the job, the code that doesn't need to be touched for years because it was done right once.” - Armin
Brian #4: Build backend popularity over time
Bastian Venthur
This is just for projects using pyproject.toml
Apparently he did this last year as well, so we can see some trends.
Results
setuptools: ~50% (last year ~50%)
poetry: ~30% (last year ~33%)
hatchling: (percent not listed, but looks like 12-15%), (last year 10%)
flit: ~5% (last year ~10%)
other: (above flit now)
Analysis:
setuptools continues to grow in absolute numbers and maintain it’s percentage.
poetry declining
hatchling growing
flit declining
Brian commentary
This is not surprising to me. I generally use hatchling for more control, and setuptools for simple projects. I think we might end up with mostly setuptools and hatchling in a couple years.
Extras
Brian:
Test & Code Archive is now all episodes on one page
Old method was 30 episodes per page
For something completely different
NameGrapher - popularity of US names
No wonder I don’t meet a lot of kids named Brian
Michael is #16 (#1 in 1950s - 1990s)
Brian is #317 (#8 in 1970s)
Joke: The long path to rejection.
...more
31min

FAQs about Python Bytes:

How many episodes does Python Bytes have?

The podcast currently has 633 episodes available.

More shows like Python Bytes

Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman by Scott Hanselman

Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman

379 Listeners

Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers by se-radio@computer.org

Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers

263 Listeners

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source by Changelog Media

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

285 Listeners

Talk Python To Me by Michael Kennedy

Talk Python To Me

585 Listeners

Software Engineering Daily by Software Engineering Daily

Software Engineering Daily

629 Listeners

Test & Code by Brian Okken

Test & Code

72 Listeners

The TWIML AI Podcast (formerly This Week in Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence) by Sam Charrington

The TWIML AI Podcast (formerly This Week in Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence)

425 Listeners

Super Data Science: ML & AI Podcast with Jon Krohn by Jon Krohn

Super Data Science: ML & AI Podcast with Jon Krohn

296 Listeners

Data Engineering Podcast by Tobias Macey

Data Engineering Podcast

140 Listeners

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats by Wes Bos & Scott Tolinski - Full Stack JavaScript Web Developers

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

987 Listeners

DataFramed by DataCamp

DataFramed

267 Listeners

Practical AI by Practical AI LLC

Practical AI

196 Listeners

The Stack Overflow Podcast by The Stack Overflow Podcast

The Stack Overflow Podcast

63 Listeners

The Real Python Podcast by Real Python

The Real Python Podcast

137 Listeners

Oxide and Friends by Oxide Computer Company

Oxide and Friends

47 Listeners