Cover of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Python

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Python

Best Practices for Development

by Kenneth Reitz, Tanya Schlusser · first published 2016

28mentions
26recommended by
28HN commenters
2012–2023first – last mentioned

93% recommend4% neutral4% critical

Why HN recommends it

Practical tour of the Python toolchain and best practices: virtual environments, project structure, PEP8 style, packaging, and web, database and CLI areas. Suits beginners and non-Python specialists setting up.

Summarised by Claude from recommending comments

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Mentions per year

50 2007: 0 mentions2008: 0 mentions2009: 0 mentions2010: 0 mentions2011: 0 mentions2012: 2 mentions2013: 4 mentions2014: 2 mentions2015: 1 mention2016: 1 mention2017: 2 mentions2018: 4 mentions2019: 0 mentions2020: 4 mentions2021: 2 mentions2022: 5 mentions2023: 1 mention2024: 0 mentions2025: 0 mentions2026: 0 mentions200720172026

What Hacker News says

  • aaronjgreenberg · Jul 16, 2015 · Recommends

    Jumping on the Kenneth Reitz train, you might check out The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python: http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/ He recommends the following Python projects for reading: * Howdoi (https://github.com/gleitz/howdoi) * Flask (https://github.com/mitsuhiko/flask) * Werkzeug (https://github.com/mitsuhiko/werkzeug) * Requests (https://github.com/kennethreitz/requests) * Tablib (htt

    on “Ask HN: Good Python codebases to read?” ↗
  • btbytes · Jul 7, 2012 · Recommends

    I suggest that you open up the doc source on github so that you can attract contributions from people while still maintaining editorial control. A good example is: python-guide.org -- http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/index.html

    on “PHP: The Right Way” ↗
  • fdsvnsmvas · Sep 10, 2018 · Recommends

    Thanks everyone, the comments are much appreciated. Here's a list of books and other media resources recommended so far in the thread: Robert C. Martin, Clean code: https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsma... Vaughn Vernon, various: https://vaughnvernon.co/?page_id=168 Steve McConnell, Code Complete: https://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Cons... 2 Clean c

    on “Ask HN: How to transition from academic programming to software engineering?” ↗
  • scheveningen · Mar 20, 2018 · Recommends

    Have you tried 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python'? It strives to be exactly this -- a guide on installation, configuration, and usage of the Python runtime and development toolchain. http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/

    on “At full speed with Python: a book for self-learners” ↗
  • currymj · Sep 9, 2018 · Recommends

    I have made the jump from writing academic code to working on a product where actual software engineering was encouraged. Although I did jump back to academia pretty quickly. Hitchhiker's Guide to Python is a very good book (freely available online, or get a copy from O'Reilly); some of it may be obvious but some might not be. It is true IMO that making your code testable will also make it better designed.…

    on “Ask HN: How to transition from academic programming to software engineering?” ↗
  • Jugurtha · May 28, 2020 · Recommends

    Has your current Python development setup failed you yet? Are Python versions preventing you from producing useful software? Are you looking to explore and experiment with setups, or is shipping useful software what counts? "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python"[^1] does a tour of the tools that would be very useful. Virtual environments, testing, frameworks, etc. [^1]: https://docs.python-guide.org

    on “Ask HN: Simple but modern Python dev set-up?” ↗
  • wlamason · Feb 11, 2021 · Recommends

    I'm not a python developer by trade, but here are some of the resources I have found helpful. The links below are in the order I would read them if I was starting again. Hitchhiker's Guide to Python - https://docs.python-guide.org/ * Setting up virtual environments * Structuring projects * Code style (PEP8) * Popular libraries for various use cases (i.e. Django/Flask for web applications) se

    on “WTF Python: Exploring and understanding Python through surprising snippets” ↗
  • cjohnson318 · Mar 10, 2022 · Recommends

    There's the Hitchhiker's Guide to Python which has a lot of advice and covers best practices and/or projects over a number of big areas like web frameworks, databases, command line tools, etc.: https://docs.python-guide.org/

    on “Python built-ins worth learning (2019)” ↗
  • easonchan42 · Apr 6, 2012 · Recommends

    Requests: HTTP for Humans Lovely code and good documentation https://github.com/kennethreitz/requests Also checkout the Hitchhiker's Guide to Python http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/index.html

    on “Where is excellent Python code?” ↗
  • simon_weber · Mar 26, 2013 · Recommends

    I like http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest enough to point it out specifically (it's linked far down the page). Combined with PEP8, it's a fantastic stylistic resource.

    on “Getting started with Python: Tips, Tools and Resources” ↗
  • rxdazn · Jul 6, 2013 · Recommends

    Kenneth Reitz's python-guide definitely is a great resource for project structures, workflows etc. http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/

    on “Ask HN: Intermediate Python learning resources?” ↗
  • jdc · Aug 9, 2013 · Recommends

    I've found "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python" quite helpful: http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest And if you're a Windows user wanting to use Python modules that are partly implemented in C, I recommend downloading them in binary form: http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs

    on “Ask HN: Python resources?” ↗
  • mnazim · Oct 22, 2013 · Recommends

    If you are planning to enter Django world, it's always good to know Python well. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python![1] explains a number of Python related things which beginners(in my experience and opinion) generally either tend to overlook. You do not need to read it all at once. Chapters can almost be read independently and in no particular order. Secondly, go through Python Ecosystem - An Int

    on “How to Tango with Django: A Python Django Tutorial” ↗
  • Walkman · Jul 4, 2014 · Recommends

    Why not add these to the Python Guide [1]? When I'm learning/reading about something, I like big, comprehensive resources, especially if they cover the same topic, instead of hunting for small websites like this... [1]: http://docs.python-guide.org

    on “Easy-Python: Libraries and Resources” ↗
  • danso · Dec 13, 2014 · Recommends

    I'm relatively new to Python so I don't have anything that I've closely studied...mostly things I've bookmarked that have been submitted to HN. The attractiveness of Python to me is the huge scientific programming community behind it, plus its human-friendly syntax...if R was more readable by me, I'd prefer to work with just one language. So in terms of Python resources: - The classic NLTK book:

    on “Introduction to Data Analysis in R” ↗

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