Test & Code

Taking notes well can help to listen better, remember things, show respect, be more accountable, free up mind space to solve problems.

This episode discusses

• the benefits of writing things down
• preparing for a meeting
• taking notes in meetings
• reviewing notes for action items, todo items, things to follow up on, etc.
• taking notes to allow for better focus
• writing well structured emails
• writing blog posts and books

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com

In this episode we're talking about importing part of a package into another part of the same package.

We'll look at: `from . import module` and `from .module import something`

and also:  `import package` to access the external API from with the package.

Why would we use `import package` if `from . import api` would work fine?

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com

We've got some code we want to test, and some tests.
The tests need to be able to import the code under test, or at least the API to it, in order to run tests against it.
How do we do that? How do we set things up so that our tests can import our code?

In this episode, we discuss two options:

• Installing the code under test as a pip installable package with `pip install -e /path/to/local/package`.
• Using the pythonpath pytest setting.

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com

PyCon US is just around the corner.  I've asked Rob Ludwick to come on the show to discuss how to get the most out of your PyCon experience. There's a lot to do. A lot of activities to juggle, including actual juggling, which is where we start the conversation.

Even if you never get a chance to go to PyCon, I hope this interview helps you get a feel for the welcoming aspect of the Python community.

I recorded this interview as an episode for one of my other podcasts, Python People. But I think it's got some great pre-conference advice, so I'm sharing it here on Python Test as well.

We talk about: 
- Juggling at PyCon
- How to get the most out of PyCon
    - Watching talks
    - Hallway track
    - Open spaces
    - Lightening talks
    - Expo hall / vendor space
    - Poster sessions
    - Job fair
    - A welcoming community
    - Tutorials 
    - Sprints
    - But mostly about the people of Python and PyCon.

"Python enables smart people to work faster" - Rob Ludwick

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com

I'm starting a SaaS project using Django, and there are tons of decisions right out of the gate.
To help me navigate these decisions, I've brought on Cory Zue.   
Cory is the creator of SaaS Pegasus, and has tons of experience with Django.

Some of the topics discussed:

• Building Django applications
• SaaS Pegasus
• placecard.me
• What boilerplate projects are
• Django cookiecutter
• Cookiecutter
• Which database to use, probably PostgreSQL
• Authentication choises, probably Allauth
• Docker, Docker for development, Docker for deployment
• Deployment targets / hosting services. Render, Heroku, Fly.io, for PaaS options.
• Front end frameworks. Bootstrap, Tailwind, DaisyUI, TailwindUI
• HTMX vs React vs straight Django templates
• Rockets
• Font Awesome
• and of course, SaaS Pegasus

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com

Nicole is a software engineer and writer, and recently wrote about the trade-offs we make when deciding which tests to write and how much testing is enough.

We talk about:

• Balancing schedule vs testing
• How much testing is the right about of testing
• Should code coverage be measured and tracked
• Good refactoring can reduce code coverage
• Is it worth testing error conditions?
• Are rare error codes ok to just monitor?
• API drift and autospec
• Mitigating risk
• Deciding what to test and what not to test
• Focus testing on key money-making features 
• If there's a bug in this part of the code, how much business impact is there?
• Performance testing needs to approximately match real world workloads
• Cost of a service breaking vs the cost of creating, maintaining, and running tests
• Keeping test suites quick to minimize getting distracted

Links:

• Too much of a good thing: the trade-off we make with tests 
• Load testing is hard, and the tools are... not great. But why?
• Yet Another Rust Resource (YARR!)
• Goodhart's law - "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure"

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com

If you've ever thought about starting a podcast or a SaaS project, you'll want to listen to this episode.
 
Justin is one of the people who motivated me to get started podcasting.
He's also running a successful SaaS company, transistor.fm, which hosts this podcast.

Topics:

• Podcasting
• Building new SaaS (software as a service) products
• Balancing work, side hustle, and family
• Great places to snowboard in British Columbia

BTW. This episode was recorded last summer before I switched to transistor.fm.
I'm now on Transistor for most of a year now, and I love it.

Links from the show:

• Transistor.fm - excellent podcast hosting, Justin is a co-founder
• How to start a podcast in 2024
• Podcasts from Justin
  • Build your SaaS - current
  • Build & Launch - an older one, but great
  • MegaMaker - from 2021 / 2022

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com

Charlie Marsh and team are using Rust to make Python tooling faster.

• Ruff can take the place of Flake8, isort, and Black, and so much more.
• uv can take the place of pip, pip-tools, and virtualenv
• Astral is Charlie's venture backed company, and what they have with `ruff` and `uv` is just the start.

Since uv is the newest tool, there's quite a bit of the discussion diving into uv.

Links:

• ruff
• Astral
• uv

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com

Software engineers that move into leadership roles have a struggle between learning leadership skills, maintaining technical skills, and learning new leadership and technical skills. 
Matt Makai went from individual contributor to developer relations to leadership in devrel. 
We discuss how to stay technical, as well as dive into some results of his studies in how companies use developer relationship channels.

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com

If you haven't tried running automated tests, especially with pytest,  in VS Code recently, you should take another look.
The Python for VS Code interface for testing, especially for pytest, has changed recently. 
On this episode we discuss the change with the software engineer working on the pytest changes, Eleanor Boyd, and the product manager, Courtney Webster. 

Links from the episode:

• Blog post announcing the rewrite  
• Code repo for questions, comments, issues etc

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com