Stupid Python Tricks

This is (or will be) a consolidated repository of all the stupid Python tricks I have written (and can still find).

A stupid python trick is usually an experiment with an advanced language feature; ostensibly to learn how it works, but usually in order to abuse that feature to write something truly horrible.

I used to be a Perl programmer.

fizz_buzz_abomination

This one got out of hand. It is an attempt to write Fizz Buzz, using as many language features as possible. It uses a bunch of functional techniques, a strategy pattern implementation, and dynamically named closures (I was especially proud of that).

It is PEP-8 compliant.

one_line_regex

A friend of mine used to complain that he couldn't run a regex as part of an if statement's expression if he wanted to use the returned groups (you can in Perl using implicit variables).

I worked out how to modify the caller's scope to dynamically add a variable containing the result of the pattern match. Mission accomplished.

Ish

Ish is a stupid library that allows you to test if a variable is tru-ish or false-ish.

It exports a single variable called ish, which can be subtracted from True or False to create a TrueIsh or FalseIsh object. This can be compared with the value to see if it either:

1. Evaluates to True
2. Is a string containing the English, French, German, Danish, Dutch, Afrikaans, Swedish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Irish, Esperanto or Arabic for either Yes or No (or a handful of slang words with the same meaning).

If it is a string containing none of these known words, it raises a ValueError

if 'Yup' == True-ish:
    print 'True-ish!'

marge_simpson

I wanted to see if I could create an emoticon that was valid Python syntax. It turns out I could! OOO[:-P]

clever_path_ob

Subclass str, add a bunch of interesting properties and methods, and voila, easy path management, if a little bit too much voodoo.

Note: I'm not 100% sure I wrote this. Some of it doesn't seem like my style. It's possible I came up with inspiration from looking at someone else's code.

decorator_experiments

Contains an 'everlasting cache' (which is not very useful), and a (crazy) decorator-based dependency calling mechanism. Warning, may cause seizures!

stupid_metaclass_tricks

Only one trick! A metaclass that automatically replaces get_ and set_ methods with properties that call the methods. Too much magic, but a neat trick, I think.