Python Bytes: Python 3.6, Async IO, and Dev Tools

Episode Overview

This episode marks the final release of the year, covering essential Python development news and best practices for the community.

Custom Exception Classes: Learn how to improve code readability and error handling by creating domain-specific exceptions.
Kite AI: A look at a promising new artificial intelligence tool that acts as a mentor for developers, offering smart autocompletion and contextual documentation.
Tidy Data in Python: Implementing the principles of Tidy Data (based on Hadley Wickham's work) using the Pandas library for more efficient analysis.
Python 3.6 Improvements: A breakdown of the upcoming features in 3.6, which includes a record number of PEPs and updates to virtual environments with python -m venv replacing pyvenv.
Coverage.py Updates: Ned Batchelder discusses new features for tracking which specific tests cover which lines of code.
Asynchronous Programming: A deep dive into AsyncIO, including the aiohttp library and how to handle parallel web requests effectively.

"It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission."

This episode emphasizes the shift towards modern Python 3 idioms and improved developer tooling to streamline workflows.