Python Tip #141 (of 365): Don't use bare "except" clauses 🧵 Instead of this: try: ... except: ... Do this: try: ... except Exception: ... Or this: try: ... except BaseException: ... #Python #DailyPythonTip

There are some good takes in here.

🗺️ May 21, 2026 5/5 countries in 5/13 guesses 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/ Surprised myself today with some of those

The guidelines for using AI tools when contributing to CPython has just been updated. Must read whether you're an existing or aspiring contributor. tl;dr: you're still responsible for what you submit. Tell everybody you know! devguide.python.org/getting-star... #Python

Python Tip #140 (of 365): Embrace EAFP (it's Easier to Ask Forgiveness than Permission) in Python 🧵 This is in contrast to Look Before You Leap, which we DO use, but a bit less often than in many other languages. We use EAFP more often in Python partly due to duck typing. #Python #DailyPythonTip

🗺️ May 20, 2026 5/5 countries in 8/13 guesses 🟩🟩🟩🟨🟧 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/

Python Tip #139 (of 365): Use "assert" statements for yourself but exceptions for your users 🧵 And "users" INCLUDES other Python programmers who are using your code function/class/etc. #Python #DailyPythonTip

🗺️ May 19, 2026 5/5 countries in 5/13 guesses 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 #Whereabouts First time getting 5 greens in the daily I think 🟢

Python Tip #138 (of 365): Use try-except to see whether a particular import exists 🧵 Need to see whether a specific library (or object within a lib) is available? You can attempt an import and catch an ImportError to fallback to the "apparently it's not available" path. #Python #DailyPythonTip

🗺️ May 18, 2026 5/5 countries in 9/13 guesses 🟩🟧🟨🟩🟨 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/

Python Tip #137 (of 365): You can SORT OF slice non-sequences 🧵 Iterables that aren't sequences (like iterators) don't support Python's slicing syntax, but you can accomplish something similar with itertools.islice or collections.deque. #Python #DailyPythonTip

🗺️ May 17, 2026 5/5 countries in 6/13 guesses 🟩🟩🟩🟨🟩 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/

🗺️ May 16, 2026 5/5 countries in 8/13 guesses 🟩🟨🟩🟨🟨 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/

Python Tip #136 (of 365): Wrap iterators in iterators. Have a file object? That's an iterator. Process it lazily with a looping helper. Wrap it in a generator expression. Wrapping iterators in iterators can visually chunk code while keeping it fast. #Python #DailyPythonTip

Python Tip #135 (of 365): Embrace the infinite 🧵 Remember that infinite iterables are possible in Python. itertools.count() is like an infinite range(). itertools.repeat() and itertools.cycle() are like infinite self-concatenation. #Python #DailyPythonTip

🗺️ May 15, 2026 5/5 countries in 6/13 guesses 🟩🟨🟩🟩🟩 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/

Who wants to play a card game (Cabo, I'll teach you) in the Westin lobby in about ~20 minutes? #PyConUS

Python Tip #134 (of 365): Use looping helpers 🧵 Python's "for" loops are simple: they loop over an iterable one item at a time. That's all they can do. Because our "for" loops are so simple and iterable-centric, looping helpers are a VERY big deal in Python. #Python #DailyPythonTip

Whereabouts Daily 🗺️ May 14, 2026 5/5 countries in 12/13 guesses 🟩🟨🟪🟨🟨 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/ I'm glad I decided not to decrease the allowable guesses...

Python Tip #133 (of 365): Beware of containment checks on iterators. Membership checks will consume iterator items and can completely exhaust them. "item in g" loops over g, consuming items until a match is found. If you loop again, you'll start from where you left off. #Python #DailyPythonTip

#PyConUS #Whereabouts

Traveling to your first #PyConUS today? I have a blog post for you (that's also available in audio form at the top of the page): trey.io/first-pycon The audio version is ~35 minutes long, but if you're in a hurry, it's quite understandable at 1.5x speed. You can also download the audio file.

🗺️ May 13, 2026 5/5 countries in 6/13 guesses 🟩🟩🟨🟩🟩 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/

Python Tip #132 (of 365): Know your iterator concepts. 🧵 Items are "consumed" from an iterator as you loop over it. And iterators can be "exhausted" if their items have all been consumed. But not all iterators CAN be exhausted. Infinitely long iterators do exist. #Python #DailyPythonTip

🗺️ May 12, 2026 5/5 countries in 6/13 guesses 🟩🟨🟩🟩🟩 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/

Python Tip #131 (of 365): Know the difference between iterables and iterators 🧵 New Python programmers sometimes say "iterator" when they mean "iterable". These terms are NOT interchangeable. #Python #DailyPythonTip

Whereabouts Daily 🗺️ May 11, 2026 5/5 countries in 7/13 guesses 🟩🟩🟩🟨🟨 #Whereabouts A few of today's felt kind of unfair. Who designed this thing?! whereabouts.earth/daily/

Python Tip #130 (of 365): Only use recursion for trees 🧵 Recursion is most useful for traversing or constructing TREE-LIKE STRUCTURES. For most other problems, iteration is usually more readable. #Python #DailyPythonTip

🗺️ May 10, 2026 5/5 countries in 7/13 guesses 🟨🟩🟩🟨🟩 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/

“This is the situation where you're most likely to see implicit string concatenation used: to break up a long string literal into smaller strings over multiple lines, putting parentheses around them to create an implicit line continuation.” Read more 👉 pym.dev/implicit-str... #Python

Python Tip #129 (of 365): Use None as a sentinel value 🧵 None is great for representing nothingness, but it can also act as a placeholder for "no real value yet". It's common to use None to distinguish "caller didn't pass an argument" from "caller passed a real value". #Python #DailyPythonTip

🗺️ May 9, 2026 5/5 countries in 7/13 guesses 🟩🟩🟩🟧🟩 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/

Python Tip #128 (of 365): Chain method calls for readability's sake 🧵 When an object's methods return the same type of object, prefer to chain calls together instead of juggling extra variables. #Python #DailyPythonTip

🗺️ May 8, 2026 5/5 countries in 10/13 guesses 🟩🟪🟩🟩🟩 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/

Python Tip #127 (of 365): Don't mutate objects passed in to your function, unless callers expect you to 🧵 Mutating an argument will change the original object that was passed in, which is likely to upset callers of your function. #Python #DailyPythonTip

Whereabouts now has a daily country-guessing game. Thanks to the friends & internet acquaintances who've been testing this out over the past week or so. 🗺️ May 7, 2026 5/5 countries in 7/13 guesses 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟧 #Whereabouts whereabouts.earth/daily/

Python Tip #126 (of 365): Prefer to return expressions instead of variables If a variable name would make the meaning of the expression more understandable, ask yourself "does my function name convey the meaning well-enough already?" If not, ask "why not?" #Python #DailyPythonTip

This reminds me of a quote from Hans Rosling: "The world can be both bad and better." The "bad" is what keeps us moving forward, but focusing entirely on the "bad" risks fatalism. The "better" gives us hope. "Despair is not wisdom" is a new quote for my quote box.

Python Tip #125 (of 365): Use function guards 🧵 Will your function need to exit early if a certain condition is met? Could that condition be easily modeled as a precondition at the top of your function? If so, you should use a function guard! #Python #DailyPythonTip

Coming to #PyConUS? Register for my tutorial to learn about generators & iterators with me. See you there!

My blog post on how to have a great first #PyConUS now has an audio version. You might want to download it before you head to the airport or start your drive to @pycon.us. See you at PyCon! 💜 trey.io/first-pycon

“Attribute lookups take a little bit less time with __slots__ because each attribute access doesn't need to do a dictionary key lookup (which requires a small computation under the hood).” Read more 👉 pym.dev/__slots__/ #Python

Python Tip #124 (of 365): Don't be afraid to return early when it simplifies your code 🧵 In the 1960's, "structured programming" promoted "single-entry single-exit" code. The idea that "each function should have only one return statement" evolved from that movement. #Python #DailyPythonTip

“I often pop open a Python REPL to perform a calculation or play around with some code.” Read more 👉 pym.dev/repl-features/ #Python

Python Tip #123 (of 365): When accepting a file as input to your script, also accept piped input instead 🧵 Consider making a filename argument optional and reading sys.stdin if it isn't provided. Or allow for the "-" convention, indicating "read from standard input". #Python #DailyPythonTip

I made it so that once I'm expected to remember the location of a country for over 3 weeks, Whereabouts.Earth will make a confetti explosion where the bits of confetti are made of the flags of the countries I now remember so well! 🎊🇦🇶 I've been having fun making features that bring me joy. 💖

“Sometimes it's useful to distinguish between the normal output of a program, and output that describes something abnormal or additional, like an error.” Read more 👉 pym.dev/standard-err... #Python

Python Tip #122 (of 365): Pass a string to sys.exit to show an error message while exiting 🧵 If you pass a string to sys.exit, the string will be printed to standard error and your program will exit with an exit code that indicates "error". #Python #DailyPythonTip

Instead of this: print("Error: log file is missing", file=sys.stderr) sys.exit(1) You can do this: sys.exit("Error: log file is missing") More on exiting Python: pym.dev/exiting-a-py...

Coming to #PyConUS 2026? Register for my tutorial on lazy looping in Python! youtu.be/Fy2k5hYC4Ew?... You'll need to click "Add to your registration" on your dashboard: us.pycon.org/2026/account...