If your NumPy-based code is too slow, you can sometimes use Numba to speed it up. Numba is a compiled language that uses the same syntax as Python, and it compiles at runtime, so it’s very easy to write. And because it re-implements a large part of the NumPy APIs, it can also easily be used with existing NumPy-based code. However, Numba’s NumPy support can be a trap: it can lead you to missing huge optimization opportunities by sticking to […]

In this tutorial, you’ll use Python’s turtle module to build a Space Invaders clone. The game Space Invaders doesn’t need any introduction. The original game was released in 1978 and is one of the most recognized video games of all time. It undeniably defined its own video game genre. In this tutorial, you’ll create a basic clone of this game. The turtle module you’ll use to build the game is part of Python’s standard library, and it enables you to […]

If you’re curious about web development, then you’ve likely encountered the abbreviation MVC, which stands for Model-View-Controller. You may know that it’s a common design pattern that’s fundamental to many Python web frameworks and even desktop applications. But what exactly does it mean? If you’ve had a hard time wrapping your head around the concept, then keep on reading. In this tutorial, you’ll: Approach understanding the MVC pattern through a Lego-based analogy Learn what models, views, and controllers are conceptually […]

If you have some experience using Python for data analysis, chances are you’ve produced some data plots to explain your analysis to other people. Most likely you’ll have used a library such as Matplotlib to produce these. If you want to take your statistical visualizations to the next level, you should master the Python seaborn library to produce impressive statistical analysis plots that will display your data. Before you start, you should familiarize yourself with the Jupyter Notebook data analysis […]

As February takes a rare leap forward with an extra day this year, the Python community followed suit! Python versions 3.12 and 3.11 receive a security fix, and CPython source distributions now document the software supply chain to allow for a more effective vulnerability detection. Another Rust-based tool makes its way into the Python ecosystem, promising exciting improvements to the existing package management system. Looking ahead, the reveal of the PyCon US 2024 schedule gives us a glimpse into the […]

You’ve likely interacted with large language models (LLMs), like the ones behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and experienced their remarkable ability to answer questions, summarize documents, write code, and much more. While LLMs are remarkable by themselves, with a little programming knowledge, you can leverage libraries like LangChain to create your own LLM-powered chatbots that can do just about anything. In an enterprise setting, one of the most popular ways to create an LLM-powered chatbot is through retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). When you […]

Python has something called wildcard imports, which look like from module import *. This type of import allows you to quickly get all the objects from a module into your namespace. However, using this import on a package can be confusing because it’s not clear what you want to import: subpackages, modules, objects? Python has the __all__ variable to work around this issue. The __all__ variable is a list of strings where each string represents the name of a variable, […]