hello i am writing a tutorial on good coding practice.s

Submitted by twovests in just_post

tip # 1, no magic numbers.

unreadable:

random_bits = [random.randint(0,2) for _ in range(256)]

how can u even read that monstrosity? allow me to elucidate with a clear readable example:

NUMBER_OF_DIGITS_IN_BINARY = 2
NUMBER_OF_BITS_TO_GENERATE = 256

random_bits = [random.randint(0,NUMBER_OF_DIGITS_IN_BINARY) for _ in range(NUMBER_OF_BITS_TO_GENERATE)]
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musou wrote

this is a good tip, one codebase i worked on actually had a whole module just dedicated to constants with beautiful names such as @largest_integer_that_can_be_represented_in_ten_digits_of_base36

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twovests OP wrote

oh, i was actually complaining haha. i find it difficult to understand examples when they use a lot of good practices, like 1. many constant names. 2. referring to code examples in another file, commit, or branch (vs commenting out alternatives), 3. bogging down code with catching errors, etc.

but that constant you provided makes sense, i wouldn't recognize that number.

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musou wrote

oh it's definitely possible to overconstantize too... things like @cents_in_a_dollar constants pop up sometimes when converting a price from integer cents to a display form with 2 decimal places, which i think is a value that is safe to assume most people know

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