research-article

On the usage of pythonic idioms

Authors:

Carol V. Alexandru,

José J. Merchante,

Sebastiano Panichella,

Sebastian Proksch,

Harald C. Gall,

Gregorio RoblesAuthors Info & Claims

Onward! 2018: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software

Pages 1 - 11

https://doi.org/10.1145/3276954.3276960

Published: 24 October 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Developers discuss software architecture and concrete source code implementations on a regular basis, be it on question-answering sites, online chats, mailing lists or face to face. In many cases, there is more than one way of solving a programming task. Which way is best may be decided based on case-specific circumstances and constraints, but also based on convention. Having strong conventions, and a common vocabulary to express them, simplifies communication and strengthens common understanding of software development problems and their solutions. While many programming ecosystems have a common vocabulary, Python's relationship to conventions and common language is a particularly pronounced. The "Zen of Python", a famous set of high-level coding conventions authored by Tim Peters, states "There should be one, and preferably only one, obvious way to do it". This 'one way to do it' is often referred to as the 'Pythonic' way: the ideal solution to a particular problem. Few other programming languages have coined a unique term to label the quality of craftsmanship gone into a software artifact. In this paper, we explore how Python developers understand the term 'Pythonic' by means of structured interviews, build a catalogue of 'pythonic idioms' gathered from literature, and conjecture on the effects of having a language-specific term for quality code, considering the potential it could hold for other programming languages and ecosystems. We find that while the term means different things to novice versus experienced Python developers, it encompasses not only concrete implementation, but a way of thinking — a culture — in general.

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Cited By

Zhang ZXing ZRen XLu QXu X(2024)Refactoring to Pythonic Idioms: A Hybrid Knowledge-Driven Approach Leveraging Large Language ModelsProceedings of the ACM on Software Engineering10.1145/36437761:FSE(1107-1128)Online publication date: 12-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643776
Dilhara MBellur ABryksin TDig D(2024)Unprecedented Code Change Automation: The Fusion of LLMs and Transformation by ExampleProceedings of the ACM on Software Engineering10.1145/36437551:FSE(631-653)Online publication date: 12-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643755
Erni NAl-Ameen MBirchler CDerakhshanfar PLukasczyk SPanichella S(2024)SBFT Tool Competition 2024 - Python Test Case Generation TrackProceedings of the 17th ACM/IEEE International Workshop on Search-Based and Fuzz Testing10.1145/3643659.3643930(37-40)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2024
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Index Terms

On the usage of pythonic idioms
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Designing software
  2. Software notations and tools
    1. Context specific languages
      1. Scripting languages
    2. General programming languages
      1. Language features
        Patterns
      2. Language types
        Multiparadigm languages

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cover image ACM Conferences

Onward! 2018: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software

October 2018

146 pages

ISBN:9781450360319

DOI:10.1145/3276954

General Chairs:
Elisa Gonzalez Boix
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
,
Richard P. Gabriel
Dream Songs, USA / HPI, Germany

Copyright © 2018 ACM.

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Published: 24 October 2018

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SPLASH '18: Conference on Systems, Programming, Languages, and Applications: Software for Humanity

November 7 - 8, 2018

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Zhang ZXing ZRen XLu QXu X(2024)Refactoring to Pythonic Idioms: A Hybrid Knowledge-Driven Approach Leveraging Large Language ModelsProceedings of the ACM on Software Engineering10.1145/36437761:FSE(1107-1128)Online publication date: 12-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643776
Dilhara MBellur ABryksin TDig D(2024)Unprecedented Code Change Automation: The Fusion of LLMs and Transformation by ExampleProceedings of the ACM on Software Engineering10.1145/36437551:FSE(631-653)Online publication date: 12-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643755
Erni NAl-Ameen MBirchler CDerakhshanfar PLukasczyk SPanichella S(2024)SBFT Tool Competition 2024 - Python Test Case Generation TrackProceedings of the 17th ACM/IEEE International Workshop on Search-Based and Fuzz Testing10.1145/3643659.3643930(37-40)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643659.3643930
Zid CZampetti FAntoniol GDi Penta MRoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey M(2024)A Study on the Pythonic Functional Constructs' UnderstandabilityProceedings of the IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3597503.3639211(1-13)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
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Zhang ZXing ZZhao DLu QXu XZhu LRoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey M(2024)Hard to Read and Understand Pythonic Idioms? DeIdiom and Explain Them in Non-Idiomatic Equivalent CodeProceedings of the IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3597503.3639101(1-12)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
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