Although I’ve been a big fan of Apple’s Macbook Air and Macbook Pro, I’ve recently made the switch to a Dell XPS laptop with Windows on it.

I initially planned to wipe the Dell hard drive to install Linux, but since the beast has a 2 TB SSD disk, I changed my mind, created a dual boot setup, and kept Windows.

Read on to see how I came to embrace Windows after years of Linux and MacOS use!

Originally published on Python Land: Run Linux On Windows With WSL.

The new Microsoft?

Now that I had Windows at my disposal again, I started…

Support for Python 2 stopped at the beginning of 2020. All development for Python 2 has ceased, meaning there will be no security updates. Many package maintainers have migrated to Python 3, although some still support Python 2.

Python 3.0 was released on December 3, 2008. So yeah, you’d think we’ve all had plenty of time to migrate. If you still haven’t, you should make it a top priority right now.

I know upgrading can be hard, and it might not be worth it. If, however, there’s any chance the codebase needs to be extended or maintained in the future…

This advice is useful for both beginning and seasoned software developers. Some jokes are intertwined here, too, so you might want to put down that coffee mug.

1. One Bad Programmer Can Easily Create Two Full-Time Jobs A Year

This is a scenario that happens a lot. There’s a problem that needs to be fixed, like right now! Some consultant is hired, does the job in a few days, and leaves. Everybody is happy.

Then, a couple of months later, someone needs to maintain that piece of the system. Only to find out it’s a big, undocumented mess. The consultant has done a sloppy job, has another job by now, and is…

Python is easy to learn. However, it has some aspects that are harder to understand, like the world of classes and objects. In this article you will learn:

• That in Python everything is an object
• How to create your own classes and objects
• What inheritance is and how you can use it to your advantage

By demystifying Python objects, your understanding of the language will increase considerably!

Objects

Objects play a central role in Python. Let’s take a look under the hood to increase your understanding of the subject.

Under the Hood

You probably know the built-in len function. It returns the length of…

If you’re a writer and love Python as much as we do, consider publishing your stories on Python Land.

These are the biggest advantages:

• We have a 1.2K+, dedicated reader base that is growing by the day.
• We have a high standard regarding the quality of your article. So for, all our articles get chosen for ‘further distribution’.
• We will give suggestions, edit, and help out (but there’s a limit to our time, obviously)
• We publish very quickly (if the quality is there), no use in waiting around!

You can get in touch through the contact form on our website. Please provide the following info:

• Any existing work you’d like to show us
• A link to your Medium profile page

Hi! I’m Erik van Baaren, the owner and author of many of the articles and tutorials on:

• The Medium publication called “Python Land”
• The website python.land

Additionally, I often write for other publications, like “Better Programming.”

I’ve been working as a professional software developer for 25 years and hold a Master of Science degree in computer science. My favorite language of choice: Python!

I started writing professionally in 2019, right here on Medium, and have since done so. I love writing and strive to share knowledge in a clear, concise, and understandable way. …

I see lots of people handling exceptions the wrong way. Perhaps this applies to you too; does the following situation sound familiar?

You’re writing some code, but you know that the library you’re using might raise an exception. You don’t remember which one, exactly. At this point, it’s tempting to use so-called catch-all blocks and get on with the fun stuff.

The worst way to do it

The worst you can do is create a try-except block that catches anything. By this, I mean something like:

Looks familiar? These catch-all blocks are bad because:

1. You have no idea what exceptions might be raised (more on…

In programming, there are many lessons to be learned from experience. I had to learn the following nine lessons the hard way!

1. The Cheapest, Fastest, and Most Reliable Components Are Those That Aren’t There

This was once said by Gordon Bell. The lesson to draw here is that you should keep a system or piece of software as simple as you possibly can. Reduce complexity to reduce the number of bugs.

A well-known software principle called KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid), originating from the US Navy, basically says the same thing:

Most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore, simplicity should be a key goal in…