David Beazley

Free-range computer scientist living in Evanston, Illinois. Former academic. I teach computer science courses, but you'll probably find me yapping on about bikes, dogs, and other random stuff here. I wrote the Python Cookbook, 3rd Ed (O'Reilly) and Python Distilled (Addison-Wesley). Teaching CSCI 1730, Design and Implementation of Programming Languages at Brown.edu in Fall 2023 and 2024!

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Last Notes

2024-11-17 18:06:33

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@nprofile…tvcj Yeah, love it! I need to do that at 4am or something.

2024-11-17 18:02:51

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@nprofile…lf26 @nprofile…vdsn Whoa. Grumpy is an understatement reading that!
I have my own thoughts about Python's development, but mostly my thinking has shifted towards higher level problem solving. I want to get better at that without getting too worked up about low-level feature creep.

2024-11-17 16:42:04

Just realized I've been playing trombone for about seven years now (I restarted when my kids started to play in grade school). Seven years is same time I spent in graduate school so that puts a weird kind of perspective on it.
In an escalating world of AI hell, I must admit that trombone is a nice escape. If it's going to sound good, it's all on you.

2024-11-09 14:38:00

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I should turn this into a programming assignment of some sort.

2024-11-09 14:35:23

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@npub1y0c…vdjw That's what I'm wondering too. And the no parking 2am-5am. Could I overnight my van in this spot every day except Sunday?

2024-11-09 14:09:33

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Almost forgot: 6) a nearby movie theater.

2024-11-09 14:04:06

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I actually really love this sign because it's having work with at least five conflicting interests. 1) limited parking space 2) a busy business district 3) a church 4) a commuter rail station into Chicago 5) a city-wide overnight parking ban.
My wife and I usually refer to it as the barely legal parking spot. Most people see the sign, freak out, and and steer clear.

2024-11-09 13:02:04

A busy Friday night in the business district and everyone is circling around looking for parking. Meanwhile, I confidently pull into my usual, almost always empty spot, thinking that reading the finer details of programming language specifications might actually be useful in the real world. (Note: I park here a lot and never get ticketed).
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/453/112/168/157/239/original/ce5b3ce040bf465e.png

2024-10-17 13:32:13

I'm starting to think that I'm coming full-circle back to the start on many of my projects.
For example, I created the Curio project to explore async/await. Conclusion: Just use threads.
I created the PLY/SLY parser generators to make parsers. Conclusion: Just write a parser by hand.
Honestly, I'm finding a lot of "fancy" stuff isn't really needed when you get down to it.
(of course, your mileage might vary).

2024-09-04 11:39:09

One school of thought says no one will ever be able to create a new programming language because no AI will have been trained on it.
However, another school of thought might be that you should only code using a new programming language because no AI will have been trained on it.

2024-08-30 13:32:48

Maybe Java isn't that bad...

2024-08-28 14:05:53

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@npub1llk…ztah You'll get to own the bugs though. Win!

2024-08-17 11:15:23

I wonder if my personal Python coding has devolved into a kind of "loose typing." I generally use type-hints to improve readability. However, I don't really fret too much about the fine details nor am I concerned about tools. Sometimes I'll just use a string. Or maybe just write out "tuple" without being overly specific about it. Or, I'll just leave no hint if the name seems descriptive enough. I generally try to avoid any use of "import typing". Madness lies within.

2024-08-14 13:05:34

Was going through some old photos and came across this from 2019. Uh, presented without context....
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/960/503/087/576/807/original/143728235b01491e.png

2024-08-12 01:29:32

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@npub18z7…z82x I suppose the game could have different levels of difficulty depending on the language being used.

2024-08-11 23:49:02

Thought: That John Lennon song really should have had a refrain "imagine there's no packages."

2024-08-10 15:13:37

Has data science gone away yet?

2024-08-08 12:27:59

Thought: Tim Walz probably avoids system Python.

2024-07-18 22:43:02

New blog post! How to put everything in __init__.py. https://github.com/dabeaz/blog/blob/main/2024/one-file.md
I'm blaming @npub1ch0…7gec for this...

2024-07-17 15:43:38

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@npub1ch0…7gec Why stop there? "__init__ all the things!!!"

2024-07-11 01:57:06

SICP is just such an amazing book. I love teaching it every time. Getting ready for day 4 tomorrow.,

2024-07-10 11:00:35

I look around and see a lot of former classmates now working as vice presidents, full professors, and so forth. I then look at myself--basically futzing around with code, riding bikes, and playing in band. Basically living in some kind of perpetual 8th grade. I sometimes wonder... did I make the right call? I have no freaking idea.

2024-07-03 11:23:59

I sometimes feel like I should do more blogging. But, I also feel like whatever I'd write would be but an unseen drop in a vast influencer ocean. So, why even bother? Needless to say, this is not helping...

2024-06-28 22:23:29

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@npub18z7…z82x It's a good workout.

2024-06-28 21:46:02

Welp, survived the week of Crafting Interpreters in Rust. Made it through the first 10 chapters. Learned a ton, but head is definitely fried.

2024-06-23 14:03:05

I suppose I ought to sit down and learn a little Rust before tomorrow's Rust "class" starts. The one I'm leading...

2024-06-21 11:47:46

Idea: Dynamic typing.

2024-06-15 13:10:11

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@npub10aa…fnaa I was there in the 90s. I taught courses in the 90s. I saw a lot of non-computer people build websites using HTML/CGI.

2024-06-15 11:42:22

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I wonder how many modern web frameworks were started by people who first learned HTML and then figured out how to put a CGI guest counter on their site. I'd bet a lot.

2024-06-15 10:37:58

Although I understand the reasons, I feel a bit sad about the removal of `cgi` from Python. The passing of a long-bygone era where anyone could have coded a basic website that would still be working perfectly fine today.

2024-06-08 14:38:17

I don't know if dependency avoidance is the name of a design pattern, but it sounds like it could be.

2024-06-07 01:57:28

Thought: After AI has finished destroying all information on the internet, the owners of all of those Time-Life books are going to be sitting pretty.

2024-06-05 17:08:08

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@npub1ch0…7gec Could it also include a cute dog looking at the board?

2024-05-26 23:54:25

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Did I say that you should do be doing this at work? I did not. I said learning. As in learning something new. Which by definition means you're probably not that good at it yet (because if you were, what's the point?). If you're writing bad code at work, then you're just bad. Maybe you should spend more time learning....

2024-05-26 12:26:14

If you're not writing bad code, you're not learning anything.

2024-05-24 11:49:10

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@npub173u…zmma If you're not having at least a little bit of fun, you're doing it wrong.

2024-05-24 11:43:07

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@npub1llk…ztah Both of us on trombone. Although he's playing bass trombone.

2024-05-24 10:40:41

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So, I managed to get the kid to go to community band rehearsal last night. Afterwards, looking exhausted, he says "we rarely make it through a single song during rehearsal at school." Last night: 11 songs. Playing concert Monday.
Better buckle your seat-belt my friend because I looked at the calendar and we're playing 30 different songs in 5 concerts over the next two months.
Pro tip for kids who want a workout: Community band, not pricey band camp.

2024-05-23 11:22:13

As far as I can tell, the primary use of RAII is to sound smart.

2024-05-21 01:02:37

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@npub1llk…ztah Oh definitely. If you're really ambitious, you can try to build the whole rest of the solo around the bad note ;-).

2024-05-21 00:34:37

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@npub1llk…ztah That's a lot of notes, but that's also a pretty good demo of "repeating yourself" which is a proven technique for playing a convincing blues solo as well.

2024-05-21 00:02:52

Kid: "How do I play a blues solo?"
Me: "Play almost nothing."

2024-05-17 11:50:19

Trying to convince the kid to do summer community band with me. Aside from the big hurdle of "playing with a bunch of olds", I contend that community band is the way to get good.
We'll probably play 20+ songs. Real arrangements. Stuff they'd play in the top HS band. You'd probably only get 1-2 rehearsals per song--tons of sight reading. People are there to play and have fun. So, it's totally chill, not competitive. Get to be out in the community. And it's free. Unlike band camp.

2024-05-04 15:34:22

Current dilemma: Work on code? Or break out the pressure washer and go outside?

2024-04-10 10:58:29

Years ago, I gave a talk about being locked in a vault and having to analyze a bunch of C++ code in a legal case. I used some Python.
One thing I didn't mention in that talk is that I also looked at a lot of "prior art" which mostly consisted of 1970s assembly code. That code, in contrast, was readable and understandable. It had flow charts. It was a small stack of paper when printed.
Anyways, rock on Voyager!

2024-04-03 23:31:05

Relentless pressure from middle school kid about how literally everybody at school is going to skip the entire day Monday to see the eclipse (which is partial here). This whole line of argument is going about as well as one might imagine...

2024-03-30 13:43:55

A novel idea for a future science fiction show and hear me out here.... A two hour arc.

2024-03-29 11:50:52

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@npub106w…cln7 The latter. The only thing missing from that movie were little hands gripping the top of those sand thumping things...

2024-03-29 11:23:00

Whereas seeing Star Wars as a kid inspired me to see more sci-fi movies, I think I'll be fine if I never see another sci-fi film again after watching Dune 2. Coupled with the trailers for upcoming attractions at the start, maybe it'd be fine to never watch another movie again actually.

2024-03-19 22:52:00

Apparently The Bear is filming just a few blocks away. I suppose I ought to get around to watching that at some point.

2024-03-16 00:27:52

I must say, writing an entire compiler for a language with only one datatype (int) first and then expanding it to have two datatypes afterwards leads to one hell of tricky refactoring problem. Love it. Next week's course ought to be fun.

2024-03-15 13:54:01

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@npub1wna…m6dl Speaking from current experience, the matching on "unused arguments" is hell when you're in the process of refactoring data structures.

2024-03-15 13:35:35

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@npub1rn8…pysf It's not just the types. It's the non-matching pattern that matches.

2024-03-15 13:19:40

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@npub1wna…m6dl I don't think `case Point(x)` should match at all.

2024-03-15 13:02:22

"The team sent a command, called a “poke,” to Voyager 1 on March 1 to get the flight data system to run different software sequences in case some type of glitch was causing the issue."
As child coder of the 80s, I'd just like to raise a toast and say "Fuckin' A!"

2024-03-15 12:56:13

Current annoyance:
>>> @dataclass
... class Point:
... x : int
... y : int
...
>>> p = Point("two", "three")
>>> match p:
... case Point(x):
... print("Yep:", x)
...
Yep: two
>>>
Actually, there are multiple annoyances.

2024-03-13 15:25:10

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@npub14ux…jx88 I know I'd include chapter 5 from "A Voyage to Laputa, etc." in Gulliver's Travels.

2024-03-13 13:36:44

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@npub14yq…96kt `abstractmethod` is definitely a portent to be sure.

2024-03-13 09:35:01

I think `import enum` has replaced `range()` as my biggest clue that all of the code nearby is going to be terrible.

2024-03-10 02:27:29

Someone asked me the other day about what I do to keep up with tech. My honest reply was "I don't do anything." Definitely think I've fallen into the Knuth mode of trying to "get to the bottom of things rather than staying on top of things." And I'm nowhere near the bottom. Gotta keep digging.

2024-03-04 14:39:26

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Also, whether I should just start out going full crazy or slowly reveal the crazy over the course of a few days.

2024-03-04 14:30:04

Ah. Another week of Raft awaits. I suppose the only question is what kind of crazy approach will I use to implement it THIS time?

2024-03-01 20:19:06

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@npub1nkv…muy8 @npub15x0…9dqj @npub1txc…ajj9 (cleans eyeglasses). Oh, "clicks."

2024-03-01 16:36:03

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@npub1txc…ajj9 You should post a reaction video to your own video and see which one gets more views. Sort of "meta" ;-).

2024-03-01 16:19:43

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@npub1txc…ajj9 Eh. Bloody hell. I'd be kind of pissed TBH.

2024-03-01 16:09:46

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@npub1txc…ajj9 To be honest, I wouldn't know if someone was stealing my YouTube content or not (I'm not even sure how I would check). If there's theft on my end, it would almost certainly be from widespread book piracy of which I suspect there is a lot.
I feel like producing anything on a schedule is a trap. I simply can't do that. Hell, it burned me out even when I only had to produce 4 short written articles a year.
In any event. Ugh.

2024-03-01 15:55:31

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@npub1txc…ajj9 Summarize it?!? Wait, conference talks ripped off? What? I must be living under a rock...

2024-03-01 15:33:25

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@npub1txc…ajj9 What do you mean "ripped off"? They just took the video wholesale? Did they edit it in any way? Any credit given back to you?

2024-02-25 03:19:11

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@npub18z7…z82x I'm flat-out refusing to spend my limited brain cells and remaining time on this fine planet trying to unravel the 400+ pages of typing PEPs. Have fun with all of that. Nope.

2024-02-25 02:27:42

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@npub18z7…z82x That's what I'm saying basically. Having seen types elsewhere makes me hate bolted on types even more.

2024-02-25 01:26:44

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@npub18z7…z82x Seeing types elsewhere (Haskell, OCaml, etc.) makes me hate it even more than I already did.

2024-02-24 23:47:14

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@npub18z7…z82x Can't even see bleak from here.

2024-02-24 18:49:01

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@npub18z7…z82x Every use of "import typing" is a code smell.

2024-02-22 21:53:22

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@npub1nkv…muy8 I don't even customize emacs. Yet, this sounds like my VSCode story. It's hard for me to escape the combination of a good terminal plus emacs in the terminal.

2024-02-19 21:27:58

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@npub18z7…z82x If you have a dependency, you gotta really want it...

2024-02-19 21:21:40

Thought: I'd bet a lot of projects would have fewer dependencies if pip was 100x slower. Maybe we should try to do that.

2024-02-14 23:40:32

Does anyone actually write graphics libraries anymore? I mean, for fun or just for learning?

2024-01-05 11:45:40

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@npub19cw…533p Would this show feature any sex?

2023-12-29 15:30:49

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On the whole, I still think Python is a pretty good language for teaching as long as you ignore most of the popular advice concerning Python "best practices."

2023-12-29 13:53:55

Hard to believe, but it's been five years since I stopped teaching Python. Oh, I still use Python in teaching, but courses aren't about that specifically.

2023-12-11 01:55:08

Coming back from my sabbatical to teach my courses starting Monday and naturally I'm sick with something (maybe the flu). Fortunately the course is online, but I'm reminded that without having a substitute, I'm not sure in-person courses are tenable at this point.
Pre-pandemic, I might be inclined to load up on cold-meds and power my way through it. I'm not people would want the instructor showing up sick in any course now (and justifiably so).

2023-11-05 15:17:17

Really wish Python had gradual typing instead of optional typing.

2023-11-04 11:29:15

After more than a decade of on-off numbness issues, decided to go ahead with carpal tunnel surgery. It was pretty freaky. From the time I was wheeled into the operating room to me driving away in my car--under 40 minutes! Yow!
Anyways, I'll report back in a few months. For now, just riding out the pain with some over-the-counter meds. It hurts, but not like a broken rib or anything.

2023-10-31 11:26:58

If you're in callback hell, maybe it's because of something you did.

2023-10-22 12:01:18

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The weird thing is that I'm often responding to responses that they've made to something I've posted. So, they saw something initially at least. Weird.

2023-10-22 11:47:14

Wondering if I should move to a different mastodon instance. I'm had a number of cases where I've responded to someone I know, but then I just never hear back. Makes me wonder if my response even got to them. Is it being blocked somewhere along the way?

2023-10-21 14:48:32

My family thinks that I'm some kind of super-expert at "finding things" (keys, earrings, game cartridges, etc.). Mostly it's just me shining my 1000 lumen bike light around inside the house. "Ah, there it is over in the corner, slightly under the sofa!"

2023-10-21 00:34:35

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@npub1z8k…7jgl @npub1305…k70l I am remote to Brown, but the students are sitting in a traditional classroom.

2023-10-20 17:59:41

I don't know whether week 7 of teaching @npub1305…k70l's Programming Languages course is a good time to admit to having never taken a proper PL course. However, it's a big reason why I jumped at the chance to do it. I've been learning a lot.
Today's profound insight about what types did to the lambda calculus is pretty good example of that I think.

2023-10-16 23:28:00

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@npub1f3n…e887 Interesting. I had also wondered whether there had been some kind of subtle genetic modification of onions over the years. Maybe not.

2023-10-12 11:50:35

IDEs reduce code complexity much in the same way that a highway reduces traffic.

2023-09-24 08:37:01

To bed super early, up crazy early. Maybe a last hurrah of summer cycling? For what it's been, it's been kind of a crappy uninspired summer of riding. Sigh.

2023-09-24 08:21:20

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@npub1nkv…muy8 No, not tests. Types.

2023-09-23 12:22:43

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@npub1pjx…cw4w Oh. Fascinating.

2023-09-23 12:15:13

Current discussion on academic mailing list concerns "DOI Numbers." In the back of my mind: "what the fuck is a DOI number?" Probably one of many reasons why I'm not in academia ;-).

2023-09-22 11:03:16

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@npub14yq…96kt Maybe not so much a profession, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "loafing."

2023-09-22 10:59:56

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@npub19ws…l4g0 The word "strict" appearing anywhere is no guarantee either.

2023-09-20 22:24:12

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Also, you need to be able to solve that problem in like 5 seconds, not 3 minutes. FASTER! FASTER! MUST GO FASTER!

2023-09-20 22:20:05

My kid has finally reached the age where's he's taking a math class that I've actually taught. I'm now his worst nightmare.
"Dude, I would take off all points for the way you just wrote that answer."
"What?"
"Penmanship."
(annoyed stare....)

2023-09-12 10:14:52

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@npub19cw…533p And you don't even get to code "Python" as a Python developer.