Intro A typical compiler does the following steps: Parsing: the source text is converted to an abstract syntax tree (AST). Resolution of references to other modules (C postpones this step till ...

an obscure case that is extremely unlikely to happen--in fact I'm not sure it is even possible to occur Not having untested behaviors in code can be very important. If a piece of code is run e.g. 50 ...

Operators are just functions under funny names, with some special syntax around. In many languages, as varied as C++ and Python, you can redefine operators by overriding special methods of your class....

Yes it does. If you're in doubt, take APL, or J, or Brainfuck, or even plain and simple Lisp or Forth, and try to understand any not entirely trivial program on it. Then compare to e.g. Python. Then ...

Nested loops are fine as long as they describe the correct algorithm. Nested loops have performance considerations (see @Travis-Pesetto's answer), but sometimes it's exactly the correct algorithm, e....

A few points that my practice proved useful: Keep all logging code in your production code. Have an ability to enable more/less detailed logging in production, preferably per subsystem and without ...

Read about static site generators. These allow you to create a site in a programmatic manner (using templates, data, etc), and not by hand-crafting HTML. The result is a set of static HTML and CSS ...

Compared to languages like Perl, Python has a limited number of control constructs: only if and no unless, only for that iterates over sequences and no foreach or C-style for, only while that ...

A few points in addition to what was already said: Python is dynamic. Creation of a class is an executable statement, as is import of a module; it can be made conditional. A class can be altered ...

A trivial example: when the instance passed can legitimately be null and you want to incorporate the (non-trivial) handling of this into the method.

If one object is enough, creating an object every time is a waste, and here your boss may be right. The problem is proper access to that object. A factory-like method with proper visibility which ...

You already have a branch on which your every feature branch depends, and which keeps changing. It's called master. The typical way for a feature branch to stay in sync with master is to stay on top ...

1. Make your code easy to understand Code is read much more often than written. Make your code maintainer's task easier (it as well may be yourself next year). I don't know about any hard rules, but ...

Identify the code that looks dead (static analysis, etc). Add a log message for every invocation of the allegedly dead code. It's easy with functions / methods; with static members like constants it's ...

Copy-pasted and then edited test cases are often fine. Tests should have as few external dependencies as possible, and be as straightforward as possible. Test cases tend to change with time, and ...

Remember the G. K. Chesterton's fence: do not take down a fence obstructing a road until you understand why it was built. You can find the author(s) of the code and the comments in question, and ...

Stop reading books. Go write code using the time now free from reading. Practice. Ponder. Face real problems in real code you write. Then you'll have enough questions that advanced books can answer. ...

I'd say that Fortran, even of pre-C times, abstracts the programmer from hardware details too much. No pointer support. If you want to pass large amounts of data between subroutines, you use a COMMON ...

Regex can parse any regular language, and cannot parse fancy things like recursive grammars. But CSV seems to be pretty regular, so parseable with a regex. Let's work from definition: allowed are ...

I imagine that backwards compatibility with perfectly standard code is a more important reason. If you add a keyword that might have been used as a legitimate identifier in previous code, you create ...

Console applications predate GUI applications, and these take command-line parameters for very long time (at least from CP/M time, which preceded MS-DOS, which preceded Windows, which preceded Windows ...

Just my 2¢. 100% reliable self-destruction is impossible. There will always be a sophisticated way to crack your protection. What you can do is to make using or cracking an expired trial more ...

The point of having static typing is the ability to prove statically that your program is correct with regard of types (note: not completely correct in all senses). If you have a static type system ...

While there can be exactly one max value in a collection, there can be more than item representing that value. E.g {1, 9, 2, 9, 0} has max value of 9, represented by both elements [1] and [3]. Note ...

Grep the entire code base for the name of the method. Find out how public it is, how many configs mention it, etc. Rename the method mercilessly (a good IDE can do this), grep again, manually update ...

I'll try to hint on the answer. This is not an answer, only an introductory illustration. @jk's answer points to the real thing, zippers. Imagine you have an immutable tree structure. You want to ...

This is an ages-old problem. The only working solution is to make your executable crucially depend on a piece of hardware the user does not control. This is usually either a networked server you ...

Don't forget Javascript. It has OO features that are not your usual OO features. It is well-suited for higher-order functions and closures, and you routinely use these. It allows for many functional ...

Immediately show some feedback: change the visual state of the button, display an animated throbber. If the app logic allows, disable the button once it has been pressed, enable it back when the ...

I think mixins can be good, but I also think pylint is right in this case. Disclaimer: opinion-based stuff follows. A good class, mixins included, has one clear responsibility. Ideally, a mixin ...