There’s nothing wrong with being Jr. Weve all been there at some point. Everyone starts from the bottom and you have to work your way up. It does help however if you have a hand up to get you going in the right direction. I’ve chosen these 4 topics that were some of the things that I struggled with and wish someone had taught me when I was starting out with python. These are 4 common mistakes Junior Python developers make:
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1 Installing multiple versions of python
This is common mistake that is usually the result of googling a million things about python at once. One tutorial told you to install version 2.7, another told you to do 3.6, and then you hear about python coming out with a later version and install a third. This is a big mistake for beginners because you end up wasting valuable time fixing your environment. Valuable time you could have spent reading useful tutorials like the ones found on this site.
2 Reusing code you don’t understand
Ouch! I think this mistake is one that even intermediate python developer’s will make at times. Copying and Pasting code snippets can save you time in the short term, but in the long run, if you don’t know what your code actually does you’re actually harming your learning efforts. Let me clarify something. It’s not to say that you can’t start by grabbing examples offline as a starting point. It’s perfectly fine to do that. What I’m referring to specifically is when your entire source code becomes a tangled mess of spaghetti code. But it runs, hooray! We’ve all been there, and some of us have had to learn the hard way. My advice, if you’re going to reuse code snippets you find online, a) make sure the author is OK with that b) make sure the code will actually run on its own. Not everything you find on the internet works. c) take a few minutes to actually try to understand what the code you’re about to copy actually does. d) trim it down. You don’t have to reuse every line of code from the example you are copying from. Again, understand what the code is doing.
3 Diving into advanced topics too soon
It’s sometimes tempting to dive into advanced topics, or try to consume a complicated project when you’re starting out. Especially with catchy titles such as, Python powered Drone, or Bitcoin Mining in Python. Tempting I know. The problem with diving into advanced topics too soon, is that you don’t glean the same measure of information you would otherwise if had waited until you had your foothold on the new programming language. There are a lot of subtleties in advances topics that you mean miss if you go into them too soon. Having said that, python is a language that allows you to quickly come up to speed and hit the ground running writing code almost instantly. It’s a loosely typed language, and you can write your first hello world in a matter of minutes. If you’ve had prior programming experience in other languages and understand advanced topics in those languages, then by all means, go ahead. However, if you’re Junior in python and programming as a trade and practice, stay clear for a while until you really feel comfortable with the basics.
4 Ignoring best coding practices
Coding standards and practices exist for a reason. When you’re starting out, it’s hard buy into the fact that you need to make your code look different but in the end, functionality stays the same. It may even seem like a waste of time to you to have your peers review your code, it runs after all! Following best coding practices is something that you understand more as you move up the ladder of experience. There are many benefits to following these conventions and reviewing your own code before you publish it or deliver it to a customer. Just to name a few: 1) Readability. It’s extremely difficult to maintain code that is difficult to follow 2) Scalability. Let’s say your python project is highly favored and a client wants to deploy it live so that 100,000 users can start using it immediately. If you didn’t use the right design pattern, you’re in trouble. 3) Usability. Remember, you may not be the only that’s going to use your script. 4) Testability. Test driven development is becoming the new norm. Making sure your code is unit testable is a key to success. 4) Flexibility & Reusability. It’s a good feeling to see someone fork your open source project on github. Is you’re code reusable? It will be a whole lot more useful if it is
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Conclusion
I hope this article has helped you in some way, and if so, I encourage you to read my Beginner’s Python Tutorial. If you have any questions, or just want to chat, make sure to fill out my contact form.
Python Unleashed 