I recently started reading the pym book suggested by folks at #dgplug. Since I have been programming in Python since an year and a half, I could go through the basics fairly quick. Here are the topics I covered:

• Variable and Datatypes
• Operators
• Conditionals
• Loops
• Python Datastructures
• Strings
• Functions

However, file handling is something I have rarely used till now. This blog talks about the it and some of the great takeaways.

Opening a file

A file can be opened in three modes: ### Read: Opens the file in read-only mode. The file cannot be edited or added content to. The syntax for the same is :

>>> f = open('requirements.txt' , 'r')

### Write: Opens the file in write, you can make desired changes to the file. The syntax for the same is:

>>> f = open('requirements.txt' , 'r')

### Append: Opens file in append mode. You can append further content, but cannot change or modify past content. The syntax for the same is:

>>> f = open('requirements.txt' , 'a')

Reading a file

When a file is openened in read mode, the file pointer is at the beginning of the file. There are different functions for reading the file:

read()

It reads the entire file at once. The file pointer traverses the entire file on calling this function. Therefore, calling this function again will have no effect, since the file pointer is already at EOF. Syntax for the same is:

>>> f.read()
'selenium >= 3.141.0\npython-telegram-bot >= 11.1.0\ndatetime >= 4.3\nargparse >= 1.4.0\nwebdriver-manager >= 1.7\nplaysound >= 1.2.2'

readline()

This function moves the file pointer to the beginning of the next line hence outputting one line at a time. Syntax for readline() function is :

>>> f.readline()
'selenium >= 3.141.0\n'
>>> f.readline()
'python-telegram-bot >= 11.1.0\n'

readlines()

Reads all the lines in a file and returens a list.

>>> f.readlines()
['selenium >= 3.141.0\n', 'python-telegram-bot >= 11.1.0\n', 'datetime >= 4.3\n', 'argparse >= 1.4.0\n', 'webdriver-manager >= 1.7\n', 'playsound >= 1.2.2']

Now, we should always close a file we opened when not in use. Not closing it increases memory usage and degrades the quality of code. Python offers nice functionality to take care of file closing by itself:

with keyword

`with keyword can be used as follows:

>>> with open('requirements.txt' , 'r') as f:
...     f.read()
... 
'selenium >= 3.141.0\npython-telegram-bot >= 11.1.0\ndatetime >= 4.3\nargparse >= 1.4.0\nwebdriver-manager >= 1.7\nplaysound >= 1.2.2'

Writing into a file

The .write() function can be easily used to write into a file. This will place the file pointer to the beginning and over-write the file completely. Here's how that works:

>>> f = open('requirements.txt' , 'w')
>>> f.write('tgbot\n')
6

The return value '6' denotes the number of characters written into the file

Hope you enjoyed reading the blog, :)

I recently started interacting on #dgplug channel using my matrix ID and I’m also attending the dgplug summer training, in-turn learning a lot of new stuff. As all of us(dgplug summer trainees) were learning about mailing list etiquette and FOSS, we were suggested by mbuf (Shakthi Kannan) to go ahead and read his book ‘i want 2 do project. tell me wat 2 do.’ to get better insights for FOSS, mailing etiquette, how FOSS works etc.

The book then showed up at my door after a couple of days. This book presents valuable insights on open-source software and the equally important communication side related to it, which a newbie wouldn’t pay much attention to in the beginning.

The book starts with Mailing list etiquette and explains it in detail – it explains the importance of trimmed, ‘interleaved, bottom-posting’, not writing HTML mails, no overquoting , really well. It also made me realize how important adding additional details are. When I delved in further, I learnt about the tools that can be used for effective communication(mailing lists, IRC, SMS, Voice Calls) and when to use the right tool, with right people at the right time.

Next up, I learnt about the details for starting in open-source software development, how to effectively read README.md/important docs to proceed with the code-base. Then, in chapter-5, the whole process of creating a patch and e-mailing it is explained. A few days back I too had to merge a mailed patch to my repository so I could very well relate to the process of generating a patch via Version Control System(VCS) Tool and submit the patch via mail.

As I read further, I came across one of the most important take away from the book – Bug Triaging. It’s nothing but, reproducing the same bug from the mail/description and work upon it. It thus, also means that the mail/description should contain as much detail as possible for the debugging to be smooth.

The last three chapters focus on reading /writing, presentation and sustenance and have nice pointers to follow. The chapter-9 on presentation made me look back at the mistakes that I made while delivering talks at past meetups. I took a note of all the points that I missed so that I can deliver my next talk as perfectly as I can, 🙂

That’s about it. Thank you Shakthi Kannan , for this amazing book! Here's my photo with the book: