Coding Computing Coach

🚨 Python Testing Series 🚨 Employ testing to gamify your coding. Learn how to test code using pytest. Build a Cash Dispenser project in Test Driven style. Ongoing series of posts, see README at: github.com/CodingComputin…

Thank you Windows Update for pushing me to try Linux.

@emollick @karpathy rightly says that while learning, the primary feeling should be that of effort. He said it for YouTube content, but the point still stands. Taking shortcuts is suboptimal for learning.

More evidence, from a large-scale study in China, that using AI hurts learning if it undermines mental effort. When homework time drops due to AI use, so do test scores. Across studies, a theme: AI tutoring in support of classes is good, using AI to "help" with homework is bad.

@bendee983 @karpathy rightly says that while learning, the primary feeling should be that of effort. He said it for YouTube content, but the point still stands. Taking shortcuts is suboptimal for learning.

One of the effects of AI that is not discussed enough is the threat of cognitive laziness. I'm seeing it happen in real time. Everything is being reduced to an LLM prompt. People stop thinking and learning as they relegate everything to AI. First, you review the AI's response with skepticism. Eventually, a lot of people become overwhelmed with AI fatigue and just accept whatever the LLM generates, whether it is an article, an email, a software module. I see it every day in my inbox, in arXiv papers that have clear signs of AI output, in code that is awfully written. People start trusting the AI for everything and stop thinking. It remains to be seen what the long-term effect of this laziness will be. But it surely won't make us smarter.

@svpino Tiling systems are awesome. Mousing delays us without we realizing.

It's been 30 days since I started using Linux. I've been a Mac user for 17 years. I decided to try Omarchy full-time for 90 days. Today marks the first 30 days, and here is a short summary: The good: • Omarchy is the best distro I've tried • I love Hyprland and its tiling system • You can change anything in the OS • Every config is in a text file somewhere • Claude Code is really good at configuring the OS for you • The Framework 13 Pro is a really amazing laptop The bad: • There are still a lot of bugs in Omarchy • Audio and Bluetooth are not a solved problem • Many pro apps do not have Linux versions • There aren't drivers for some devices I use • Easy to screw up things and brick your laptop • The Framework 13 Pro is not a Mac At this point, I'm fully accustomed to the Omarchy shortcuts. I feel I can fly; this is so much faster than using a mouse. There are many paper cuts that make me miss my Mac. Things I've always taken for granted that aren't here: AirDrop (sorry, but LocalSend isn't the same) and Continuity are probably the biggest ones. If you have a Mac, you know that everyone will release software that runs on it. This is nice. With Linux, you are always hoping there's a version for you or somebody else builds an alternative. 60 more days to go.

@PythonPr Answer: D Solution: The python does different things for different kinds of operators. a is a string, '9'. b is an int, 4. In python, string-int multiplication is defined as repepetition of the string, int number of times. So, '9' * 4 gives 4 repetetions of 9, ie, "9999".

Python Quiz : What is the Output?

@PythonDvz Answer: A. list Solution: The square brackets at the start and end indicate that the object is a list. A list is a collection that can hold objects of any other data type, like int, str, float, etc.

🤔🚀 Comment your answers below! 👇

@PythonPr Answer: 125 Solution: a looks like a number, but it's not! The quotes around it make it a string - a sequence of characters. But, int(a) converts it from string to an integer, so b is now the int 123. You can do arithmetic operations on it. Printing b+2 prints 123+2, ie, 125.

Python Quiz: what is the Output?

@PythonPr Answer: A Solution: x.insert(2, 0) modifies x. It inserts the item 0 at index 2. What happens to the current items at index 2 and beyond in x? They get shifted to the right. So, x gets modified to [5, 6, 0, 7, 8] that's what is printed, hence Option A is correct.

Python Quiz: What is the Output?

@PythonDvz Strings in python are immutable. That means, once a string object is created, it cannot be modified. Here we are creating the string and trying to make a change to it. But that gives an error because strings aren't mutable.

Find The Mistake

@PythonPr Answer: 17 Solution: x is 2 and y is 3. z is assigned the expression x**y + y**x ie 3**2 + 2**3 There are 2 operations here: ** that denotes exponentiation, and + for addition. ** has higher precedence, so it's performed first. 3**2 is 9 2**3 is 8 9+8 is 17, that's printed.

Python Quiz: What is the Output?

@driscollis 1 and 2 on the regular!

7 Python tips that will level up your code 🐍 1. Use f-strings instead of .format() or % for string formatting - cleaner and faster 2. List comprehensions are more Pythonic than for loops for creating lists 3. Use enumerate() instead of range(len()) when you need both index and value 4. Context managers (with statements) automatically handle resource cleanup 5. Default dict values with .get() to avoid KeyError exceptions 6. Use pathlib instead of os.path for file operations - more readable and cross-platform 7. Generator expressions save memory for large datasets compared to list comprehensions Which tip do you use most often?

@PythonDvz NameError. We are trying to access x, but we have never defined what x is. Since python doesn't know what x is, it puts up an error. Specifically a NameError.

Comment your answer!

@kmcnam1 Not surprising to see people saying this. Especially when there are AI-integrated fridges.

Ugh... dear god...

@RealBenjizo Answer: B Solution: The function is the tricky part, let's zoom in on that. The function call passes the argument d to modify_dict. But modify_dict doesn't "modify" d. Rather, it gives the name d to something else (dictionary with grandma). And, that changed d is just a +

Python Question What is the output of this code and why?

@RealBenjizo local variable. And then we return d. But that returned value is never saved. So, the d in the main program remains unchanged.