Dan said:
May I respectfully disagree?
No, I'm afraid that you may only disrespectfully disagree with me. I
will not tolerate politeness. Why? Uh, my .sig quote justifies rudeness!
Yes, that's it![1]
The Zen applies to all aspects of software
(and other things, too, but they're off topic here), from human readable
reports and requirements and documentation, to GUI's, to test cases, to
code, to database schemta, as well as the development methodology and
practices themselves.
Sure, and I can find programming advice in the Old Testament, too, if I
try hard enough[2]. But that doesn't change the fact that the "Essential
Development Practices" (e.g. "Use a source control system") are in a
different category than the Zen of Python (e.g. "Namespaces are one
honking great idea -- let's do more of those!"). Hence Michael Hoffman's
very good question about how he might embody that particular bit of Zen:
it's just not applicable to the things he's doing because it's a design
principle for Python the language, not about development (or even
design!) in general.
Of course other pieces of the Zen are more generally applicable
("Readability counts.") as a "development practice," but that's
something of an accident. Usually, they're about design, sometimes
specifically about the design of Python the language.
Sometimes you have to look at the Zen sideways, so that "implementation"
appears to be replaced by the particular aspect or aspects (or the
software, or just software, as a whole, for the true Masters out there)
you happen to be working on at the time, but such is the nature of Zen.
That's a bit too much navel-gazing for me. With enough effort, you make
anything a symbol of anything else. But that doesn't get any code written.
[1]
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/72f205c9b6709163
[2] Proverbs 28:14 JPS "Happy is the man that feareth alway; but he that
hardeneth his heart shall fall into evil." Obviously an exhortation to
not ignore raised exceptions with "except: pass".
--
Robert Kern
(e-mail address removed)
"In the fields of hell where the grass grows high
Are the graves of dreams allowed to die."
-- Richard Harter