Python Engineering Insights and 3.7 Performance News

Episode Overview

This episode of Python Bytes covers a diverse range of topics, from static site generators and internal notifications to recent performance benchmarks for Python 3.7 and the growth of the language on GitHub.

Key Topics Covered

• Pelican Static Sites: A deep dive into creating blogs using Pelican, highlighting tutorials for engineers and the benefits of hosting with GitHub Pages for high-performance, low-cost operations.
• Notifiers API: Introduction to the notifiers library, an abstraction layer that streamlines sending alerts through various services like Slack, Telegram, and Twilio without needing individual API implementations.
• Makefile Automation: Discussion on utilizing Makefiles in Python projects to manage utility tasks like linting, clearing cache, and running tests efficiently.
• GitHub Impact: A retrospective look at the migration of the CPython repository to GitHub, which resulted in a massive surge in unique contributors and repository activity.
• Mental Health in Development: An important discussion inspired by Stephanie Hurlburt regarding the need to stop self-deprecating behavior in tech and being proud of individual contributions.
• Python 3.7 Optimization: A review of Anthony Shaw's findings on speed improvements in Python 3.7, including optimized opcodes for method calls and faster case-insensitive regular expressions.

"No matter how experienced you are, you can find something that will frustrate you and make you feel stupid in tech and programming."

Community & Infrastructure

• Updates from the PyPA regarding the new PyPI beta testing process.
• Reflection on hosting infrastructure with DigitalOcean and their continued support for the Python ecosystem.