On 07/09/12 08:25, Roy Smith wrote: >> On Tuesday, 30 October 2007 21:24:04 UTC+2, Tim Chase wrote: > >>> - more detailed questions about the std. libraries (such as >>> datetime/email/csv/zipfile/networking/optparse/unittest) > > You need to be careful when you ask questions like this. I would expect > somebody to be aware of those and have a high-level understanding of > what they do, but certainly not remember the details of the exact syntax > and argument order. Even with stuff I use everyday (like unittest and > datetime), I have a browser open to the reference manual most of the > time.
Yeah, the aim isn't to grill them on the minutia, but to get a feeling that they know the basics. The zipfile module offers a ZipFile object for reading/writing zip files with or without compression. The CSV file allows for reading/writing CSV files with definable delimiters and quoting/escaping. Etc. >>> - questions about PDB > > Heh. I would answer that with, "Python Debugger? I've never used it". The ability to know off the top of your head that it's the "Python Debugger" is more than enough :-) That's just first-order ignorance: you know what you don't know and can spend a few minutes reading up on it if you need it. The second[or higher]-order ignorance of not knowing what pdb is (or, if you need more powerful debugging, how to do it) is sign the person hasn't been programming in Python much. >>> Python History: >>> =============== >>> - decorators added in which version? >>> >>> - "batteries included" SQL-capible DB in which version? >>> >>> - the difference between "class Foo" and "class Foo(object)" >>> >>> - questions from "import this" about pythonic code > > With the exception of the question about new-style classes, these are > silly questions. I was around when both decorators and sqlite3 were > added. I couldn't possible tell you when to any precision better than > "2 dot something". I'd even be satisfied if a person just knew that such features weren't there all along and might need to be worked around for older deployments. > As for the zen of python, it's cute, and a piece of python > folklore, but hardly an essential part of being a good python p [Ed: something appears to have gotten truncated there] Yeah, it's more about a person being sufficiently steeped in python to know bits and pieces of the zen, and their ability to recognize/create pythonic code. I've seen enough Java-written-in-Python to know what I don't want :-) -tkc -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list