Evolution of Modern Python

Keynote, 2021-01-30

Alexander Hultnér, BelPy Online 2021

hultner.se/

Alexander Hultnér

Founder of Hultnér Technologies

@ahultner

contact@hultner.se

hultner.se

slides.com/hultner

linkedin.com/in/hultner

hultner.se/

Introduction

Focus forward on Modern Python's (3) evolution, not the transition from Python 2

Timeline

• Python 3 release, December 3, 2008

• Python 2.7 release, June 2009

• Python 2 EoL, January 1, 2020

hultner.se/

Where it all started

2015-2016

Heliospectra

• LED Grow Lights
• Smart control systems for commercial greenhouses
• Even worked with ESA (European Space Agency) in the Eden-ISS project
  Anyone seen "The Martian"?

hultner.se/

hultner.se/

Where it all started

Next generation control systems

Old software

• Desktop app in Python 2 aimed towards researchers.

New system

• Adapted for commercial greenhouses.
• Requires industrial scale, in-facility hardware, remote control, third party integration.

So can we use Modern Python, i.e. Python 3?

hultner.se/

Where it all started

Next generation control systems

New system

• Modular architecture
• Inter-process communication
  enables multiple versions, and languages
• Python 3.4, and then 3.5
• Python 2 was never needed

hultner.se/

Python 3.4

Release Date: March 17, 2014

Significant features

• PEP 435, a standardized "enum" module
• PEP 3156, a new "asyncio" module, a new framework for asynchronous I/O
• PEP 428, a "pathlib" module providing object-oriented filesystem paths

hultner.se/

Python 3.5

Release Date: Sept. 13, 2015

Significant features

• PEP 448, additional unpacking generalizations,
  Splat operators: *[…], **{…}

• PEP 492, coroutines with async and await syntax
• PEP 484, the typing module, a new standard for type annotations
• PEP 441, improved Python zip application support

hultner.se/

Time to level up!

2017–2018

• Prototyping new application
  Great opportunity to utilise new features
  • f-strings
  • type-annotations
  • dataclasses
• Weekend project
  • dataclasses with run-time type-checker and JSON parsing/formatting
• GothPy
• PyCon SE

hultner.se/

Python 3.6

hultner.se/

Release Date: Dec. 23, 2016

Significant features

• PEP 498, Literal String Formatting, f-strings
• PEP 468, Preserving Keyword Argument Order
• PEP 530, Asynchronous Comprehensions

• Ordered dicts (de-facto standard)

• dataclasses ("backport" via pip install)

• math.tau = 2π 😉

Python 3.7

hultner.se/

Release Date: June 27, 2018

Significant features

• Ordered dicts (official standard)
• PEP 557, Data Classes (built-in)
• Two-way iso format for date-times
• Significant speedups 

A new dawn

hultner.se/

2019-present

Reincorporated my business
Hultnér Technologies AB

• Python 3.8 Walrus Operator ":=" article
  • More popular than I'd ever imagined
  • Ranks 1-2 on Google for "walrus operator"
  • Passed 100 000 views some time back
  • Featured by medium curators, newsletters,
    Python Bytes Podcast, various news sites, etc.
• Property Based Testing, Foss-North & PyCon SE

A new dawn

hultner.se/

2020, covid hits

Some good things

• Python 2 EoL, hence this talk
• Remote conferences increase accessibility, I've been able to talk at conferences every month.
  (But I still miss the social aspect)
• Python 3.9 is out
• Lots of interesting things in the Python world like Schemathesis and Pyston2
• Less time commuting => more time to experiment

Schemathesis

hultner.se/

A better way to handle API testing

• Uses OpenAPI to automatically generate tests
• Easy to use!
• Based on randomised, property based testing
• EuroPython Talk on YouTube
• GitHub Repo, Docs
• Test more with less!

Papero.io

hultner.se/

About experimenting more, with Magnus Junghard

• Backend in Python 3.8 & 3.9
• Async I/O, FastAPI Starlette, async task workers
• Type annotations everywhere, mypy
  • Automatically generated TypeScript API interfaces based on backend types & schemas
  • Pydantic runtime type-checking
• Randomised, property based testing
• Deliver better results faster!

Papero.io

hultner.se/

About experimenting more, with Magnus Junghard

Okay, so what is Papero.io?

Python 3.8

hultner.se/

Release Date: Oct. 14, 2019

First release with Steering Council

Significant features

• PEP 572, Assignment expressions, "Walrus operator"
• PEP 570, Positional-only arguments
• Stabilize

Python 3.9

hultner.se/

Release Date: Oct. 5, 2020

Significant features

• PEP 602, Stable annual releases
• PEP 584, Union Operators in dict
  • Merge dicts with a|b, instead of {**a, **b}
• PEP 585, Type Hinting Generics In Standard Collections
  • Use "list" instead of "typing.List", etc
• PEP 617, New PEG parser for CPython

What does the future hold?

hultner.se/

Near Future

• Python 3.10
  • PEP 634 - Structural Pattern Matching: Specification
• MyPy constantly evolving
  • New type checkers popping up
• Community is growing at an ever increasing pace!

Questions

Contact me if you have any further

questions.

Want to learn more?

Available for training, workshops and freelance consulting.
 

Papero.io/beta

Previous talks on YouTube

@ahultner

contact@hultner.se

​

github.com/hultner

github.com/hultner-technologies/evolution-of-modern-python​

hultner.se

slides.com/hultner

linkedin.com/in/ hultner

Links

hultner.se/