About the show

Sponsored by Compiler Podcast from Red Hat. Connect with the hosts

• Michael: @mkennedy@fosstodon.org
• Brian: @brianokken@fosstodon.org
• Show: @pythonbytes@fosstodon.org
• Special guest, Erin Mullaney: @erinrachel@fosstodon.org

Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Tuesdays at 11am PT. Older video versions available there too.

Brian #1: Use TOML for .env files?

• Brett Cannon
• .env files are used to store default settings that can be overridden by environmental variables.
• Possibly brought on by twelve-factor app design.
• Supported by python-dotenv, which is also used by pydantic, pipenv, and others.
• One issue is that it’s not a defined standard.
  • from python-dotenv docs “The format is not formally specified and still improves over time. That being said, .env files should mostly look like Bash files.”
• Adafruit decided that an upcoming CircuitPython will use TOML as the format for settings.toml files, which are to be used mostly how .env files are being used.
• Brett notices this may fix things for Python for VS Code, and other people as well.
• So… Is this a good idea? I think so.

Michael #2: Pydantic gets serious funding

• via Mark Little (was on episode 285)
• Sequoia backs open source data-validation framework Pydantic to commercialize with cloud services.
• Pydantic Services Inc. emerges from stealth today with $4.7 million in seed funding.
• Pydantic’s new commercial entity will incorporate a swath of new tools and services that are both “powered-by and inspired-by the Pydantic library”
• Pydantic will start with an initial team of six, with the first three engineers based in Montana, Chicago and Berlin.
• “With $4.7 million in the bank, Colvin said that they’re continuing to rewrite parts of Pydantic in Rust, with a view toward making it more efficient via a ten-fold performance improvement.”

Erin #3: JSON Fields for performance (Denormalization)

• David Stokes
• Using JSON fields when you design your databases is a good way to improve database query performance.

Brian #4: f-strings with pandas and Jupyter keyboard shortcuts

• Kevin Markham
• After a couple year break from blogging, friend of the show Kevin Markham has a couple great, short, useful posts.
• How to use Python's f-strings with pandas
  • My favorite bit is the part about using f-strings for dictionary keys
• Fly through Jupyter with keyboard shortcuts 🚀
  • I’m a sucker for a rocket emoji
  • Not an overwhelming list. Just the essentials for even the casual Jupyter user.
  • Examples
    • Esc and Enter for command mode/edit mode
    • a and b for creating a new cell above or below current cell.
    • m and y for changing the cell type to Markdown or code.
    • Shift+m to merge cells
    • so many more
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Michael #5: BioGPT

• “GPT” for biomedical text generation and mining
• As motivation, let’s see what ChatGPT can do with arrow anti-patterns in Python.
• Smaller models and “Large” models
• Used via an API rather than chat style.
• BioGPT has also been integrated into the Hugging Face transformers library too
• Play with it here.

Erin #6: Code Mentorship and Communicating with Newer Devs

• Sheena O’Connell
• Sheena O’Connell gave a talk at DjangoCon about her work at Umuzi, training unemployed young people in underserved communities in Africa and also was on Django Chat Podcast.
• Dmitriy Chukhin
• Caktus Group is trying a new mentorship program for folks who don’t have the necessary training.

Extras:

Michael:

• News is, these are no loner news: Security Researchers Uncover 700+ Malicious Open-Source Packages in npm and PyPI
• Git security vulnerabilities announced, again
• git ignores
  • https://github.com/github/gitignore
  • https://gitignore.io

Erin:

• DjangoCon is in October in Durham, NC this year (Oct 15-20)

Joke:

• Remember your pointers?