Topic: Software Development

Here are my writings on how to build better software, how to test, and some specific tips for Python.

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  Using Scikit-learn Pipelines with Pandas Dataframes
  Pandas and scikit-learn are two important libraries for building machine learning models. Here is how to get them to work together.
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  Making Custom Markdown for Github Pages
  I love Markdown, I take all my notes in it and write my blog in it. But sometimes you want to create new syntax; read on to find out how!
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  Python Patterns: Map and Filter
  For loops are great, but I am a big fan of replacing them with simple functions. Python provides a couple of building blocks.
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  My Terribly Clever(ly Terrible) Code
  When I was young and naive I tried to write very clever code. Here is one of the worst examples.
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  Using Travis Build Stages to Test Multiple Python Versions and Publish to Pypi
  Often when building packages, we want to test against multiple versions of the language, and then build the package once. I will show you how to accomplish this using Travis Stages.
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  Python Patterns: @total_ordering
  Your classes can make use of the rich Python comparison operators just like the built-in classes. Here I'll show you how to do it while minimizing boilerplate.
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  Python Patterns: Enum
  Things often come in sets of specific items, like states, Pokémon, or playing cards. Python has an elegant way of representing them using enum.
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  Python Patterns: Named Tuples
  Sometimes I need to store an ordered dataset, but reference specific members from it. Named tuples in Python provide a clean way to do this!
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  Python Patterns: max Instead of if
  I often have to loop over a set of objects to find the one with the greatest score. You can use an if statement and a placeholder, but there are more elegant ways!
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  Software Testing for Data Science
  Much of data science involves writing code; for data cleaning, parsing, and modeling. Software tests can ensure that your code does what you think it does!
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  Eldar: A Bright, High-contrast Color Scheme for Vim
  Check out Eldar, my custom Vim color scheme based on elflord. It is a bright, high-contrast theme that looks great in the terminal or GUI!
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  Jupyter Notebooks: Not for Development
  Jupyter Notebooks are great for a lot of things; development of code is not one of them.