Going Beyond the Basic Stuff With Python and Al Sweigart

The Real Python Podcast

You probably have heard of the bestselling Python book, “Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.” What are the next steps after starting to dabble in the Python basics? Maybe you’ve completed some tutorials, created a few scripts, and automated repetitive tasks in your life. This week on the show, we have author Al Sweigart to talk about his new book, “Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python: Best Practices for Writing Clean Code.”

We discuss several topics covered in his new book, including using the command line, setting environment variables, formatting code, naming, and starting with version control. We talk about learning Python by creating games and highlight a couple of Python myths. I also ask Al about his earlier books, and about his idea of creating a curriculum around conference talks.

Course Spotlight: Unicode in Python: Working With Character Encodings

In this course, you’ll get a Python-centric introduction to character encodings and Unicode. Handling character encodings and numbering systems can at times seem painful and complicated, but this guide is here to help with easy-to-follow Python examples.

Topics:

• 00:00:00 – Introduction
• 00:01:35 – Early access release of the new book
• 00:03:20 – Other books Al has written
• 00:09:54 – Automate the Boring Stuff as an advice book
• 00:15:29 – Books about writing Python with games
• 00:17:36 – Making a book less intimidating
• 00:19:10 – Helping readers through random things a programmer needs to learn
• 00:23:09 – Environment variables and the command line
• 00:28:05 – Naming
• 00:34:59 – Code formatting
• 00:36:45 – Why do you enjoy teaching Python concepts with games?
• 00:42:54 – Video Course Spotlight
• 00:44:15 – Minimal amount you should know about Git
• 00:47:08 – Jargon and being clear about terminology
• 00:50:13 – Al’s first book diving into Object-Oriented Programming
• 00:59:57 – Python myths covered in the book
• 01:09:08 – What is something you thought you knew about Python, but were wrong about it?
• 01:13:12 – What is something you are excited about in the world of Python?
• 01:18:55 – What do you want to learn next?
• 01:22:08 – Creating an curriculum from conference talks
• 01:26:42 – Thanks and goodbye

Show Links:

• Al Sweigart - Website
• Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python
• Automate the Boring Stuff with Python
• Invent with Python
• Xkcd comic “Real Programmers”
• Resources to learn git
• Fluent Python by Luciano Ramalho
• Ozymandias: Wikipedia article
• Ned Batchelder - Facts and Myths: PyCon 2015
• Al Sweigart -The Amazing Mutable, Immutable Tuple: PyCascades 2019
• BeeWare - Write once. Deploy everywhere.
• What Professional Games Use Pygame?
• Codename Mallow -Written in PyGame
• Unity of Command - Written in PyGame
• A Curriculum for Python Packaging: Al Sweigart’s Blog

Level up your Python skills with our expert-led courses:

• Mastering Python's Built-in time Module
• Introduction to Git and GitHub for Python
• Unicode in Python: Working With Character Encodings

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