Test & Code – Details, episodes & analysis

Taking notes well can help to listen better, remember things, show respect, be more accountable, free up mind space to solve problems.

This episode discusses

• the benefits of writing things down
• preparing for a meeting
• taking notes in meetings
• reviewing notes for action items, todo items, things to follow up on, etc.
• taking notes to allow for better focus
• writing well structured emails
• writing blog posts and books

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com

In this episode we're talking about importing part of a package into another part of the same package.

We'll look at: `from . import module` and `from .module import something`

and also:  `import package` to access the external API from with the package.

Why would we use `import package` if `from . import api` would work fine?

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com

If a test fails in a test suite, I'm going to want to re-run the test. I may even want to re-run a test, or a subset of the suite, a bunch of times.  
There are a few pytest plugins that help with this:

• pytest-repeat
• pytest-rerunfailures
• pytest-flakefinder
• pytest-instafail

We talk about each of these in this episode.

 Learn pytest

• pytest is the number one test framework for Python.
• Learn the basics super fast with Hello, pytest!
• Then later you can become a pytest expert with The Complete pytest Course
• Both courses are at courses.pythontest.com

A great resume is key to landing a great software job.
There's no surprise there.
But so many people make mistakes on their resume that can very easily be fixed.

Randall Kanna is on the show today to help us understand how to improve our resumes, and in turn, help us have better careers.

Special Guest: Randall Kanna.

Sponsored By:

• PyCharm Professional: Try PyCharm Pro for 4 months and learn how PyCharm will save you time. Promo Code: TESTANDCODE22

Links:

• The Standout Developer — link includes discount

Len Wanger works on industrial 3D printers. And I was pleased to find out that
there's a bunch of Python in those printers as well.

In this episode we talk about:

• 3D printers
• What are the different types of 3D printers?
• Where are 3D printed industrial parts being used?
• Why use one type of additive manufacturing over another?
• Python in 3D printing hardware.
• What are Finite State Machines, FSMs?
• Benefits of FSMs for testing, logging, and breaking a complex behavior into small testable parts.
• Benefits of simulation in writing and testing software to control hardware.

Special Guest: Len Wanger.

Sponsored By:

• CircleCI: Continuous integration and deployment with faster performance, complete control, and unparalleled flexibility.
• Datadog: Modern monitoring & security. See inside any stack, any app, at any scale, anywhere. Visit testandcode.com/datadog to get started.

Links:

• pystate — Python package for co-routine base state machines
• Impossible Objects — Composite 3D Printing
• Finite-state machine, FSM

FastAPI is a modern, fast (high-performance), web framework for building APIs with Python based on standard Python type hints.
Typer is a library for building CLI applications, also based on Python type hints.
Type hints and many other details are intended to make it easier to develop, test, and debug applications using FastAPI and Typer.

The person behind FastAPI and Typer is Sebastián Ramírez.

Sebastián is on the show today, and we discuss:

• FastAPI
• Rest APIs
• Swagger UI
• Future features of FastAPI
• Starlette
• Typer
• Click
• Testing with Typer and Click
• Typer autocompletion
• Typer CLI

Special Guest: Sebastián Ramírez.

Sponsored By:

• PyCharm Professional: Try PyCharm Pro for 4 months and learn how PyCharm will save you time. Promo Code: TESTANDCODE22

Links:

• Explosion
• FastAPI
• Typer
• OpenAPI Specification
• JSON Schema
• OAuth 2.0
• Starlette
• pydantic
• Swagger UI — REST API Documentation Tool
• Testing - Typer
• Click
• Testing Click Applications
• CLI Option autocompletion - Typer
• Typer CLI - completion for small scripts

There's stuff going on in Python packaging and pyproject.toml.

Brett and I talk about some upcoming work on Python packaging, such as:

• editable installs
• the need for standardization
• configuration of other tools in pyproject.toml

And then get off on tangents and talk about:

• why it's good to have packages like pip, toml, setuptools, wheel, etc not part of the standard library
• should we remove some stuff from the standard library
• the standard library using unittest for testing the standard library
  • why not hypothesis
  • I didn't bring up "why not pytest?" but you know I was thinking it.
• why CPython and not C++Python
• and more

Special Guest: Brett Cannon.

Sponsored By:

• CircleCI: Continuous integration and deployment with faster performance, complete control, and unparalleled flexibility.
• Datadog: Modern monitoring & security. See inside any stack, any app, at any scale, anywhere. Visit testandcode.com/datadog to get started.

Links:

• episode 52: pyproject.toml : the future of Python packaging - Brett Cannon
• Python Packaging Authority
• PEP 517 -- A build-system independent format for source trees
• PEP 518 -- Specifying Minimum Build System Requirements for Python Projects
• What the heck is pyproject.toml?
• Flit
• Poetry
• enscons
• toml
• setuptools
• distutils
• pip
• HTTPX

Code Coverage or Test Coverage is a way to measure what lines of code and branches in your code that are utilized during testing.
Coverage tools are an important part of software engineering.

But there's also lots of different opinions about using it.

• Should you try for 100% coverage?
• What code can and should you exclude?
• What about targets?
  

I've been asked many times what I think about code coverage or test coverage.
This episode is a train of thought brain dump on what I think about code coverage.

We'll talk about:

• how I use code coverage to help me write source code
• line coverage and branch coverage
• behavior coverage
• using tests to ask and answer questions about the system under test
• how to target coverage just to the code you care about
• excluding code
• good reasons and bad reasons to exclude code

And also the Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule, and the law of diminishing returns and how that applies (or doesn't) to test coverage.

Sponsored By:

• PyCharm Professional: Try PyCharm Pro for 4 months and learn how PyCharm will save you time. Promo Code: TESTANDCODE22

Links:

• Coverage.py
• pytest-cov

The Python extension for VS Code is most downloaded extension for VS Code.
Brett Cannon is the manager for the distributed development team of the Python extension for VS Code.

In this episode, Brett and I discuss the Python extension and VS Code, including:

• pytest support
• virtual environment support
• how settings work, including user and workspace settings
• multi root projects
• testing Python in VS Code
• debugging and pydevd
• jump to cursor feature
• upcoming features

Special Guest: Brett Cannon.

Sponsored By:

• PyBites Code Challenges: Get some expert help in setting your career strategy in Python.
• ConfigCat.com: Release features faster with less risk with ConfigCat feature flags. Promo Code: TESTANDCODE

Links:

• Brett Cannon on Changelog
• John Wick
• Ballerina
• Frank Willison Award
• Python extension for VS Code
• episode 117 : How IDEs can make software testing easier - Paul Everitt
• User and Workspace Settings
• virtual environments
• Testing Python in VS Code
• pydevd
• Jump to Cursor in Feb VS Code Python blog

pytest plugins are an amazing way to supercharge your test suites, leveraging great solutions from people solving test problems all over the world. In this episode Michael and I discuss 15 favorite plugins that you should know about.

We also discuss fixtures and plugins and other testing tools that work great with pytest

• tox
• GitHub Actions
• Coverage.py
• Selenium + splinter with pytest-splinter
• Hypothesis

And then our list of pytest plugins:

1. pytest-sugar
2. pytest-cov
3. pytest-stress
4. pytest-repeat
5. pytest-instafail
6. pytest-metadata
7. pytest-randomly
8. pytest-xdist
9. pytest-flake8
10. pytest-timeout
11. pytest-spec
12. pytest-picked
13. pytest-freezegun
14. pytest-check
15. fluentcheck

That last one isn't a plugin, but we also talked about pytest-splinter at the beginning. So I think it still counts as 15.

Special Guest: Michael Kennedy.

Sponsored By:

• PyCharm Professional: Try PyCharm Pro for 4 months and learn how PyCharm will save you time. Promo Code: TESTANDCODE22

Links:

• pytest-sugar — changes the default look and feel of pyptest (e.g. progressbar, show tests that fail instantly)
• pytest-cov — run coverage.py from pytest
• pytest-stress — allows you to loop tests for a user defined amount of time.
• pytest-repeat — for repeating test execution
• pytest-instafail — shows failures and errors instantly instead of waiting until the end of test session.
• pytest-metadata — for accessing test session metadata
• pytest-randomly — randomly order tests and control random.seed
• pytest-xdist — distributed testing
• pytest-flake8 — pytest plugin to run flake8
• pytest-timeout — terminate tests after a certain timeout
• pytest-spec — display test execution output like a specification
• pytest-picked — run the tests related to the changed files (according to Git)
• pytest-freezegun — easily freeze time
• pytest-check — allows multiple failures per test
• fluentcheck — fluent assertions
• episode 104 — Top 28 pytest plugins with Anthony Sottile
• Python Testing with pytest — The easiest way to get up to speed with pytest fast. There's also a chapter dedicated to plugins that also teaches you how to write and test your own plugins.
• tox
• GitHub Actions
• Coverage.py
• pytest-splinter — provides a set of fixtures to use splinter for browser testing
• splinter — makes it easy to write automated tests of web applications
• hypothesis — property-based testing
• Talk Python Episode #267 — This episode is a cross post with Talk Python