Py/Zen of Python

• Zen of Python

  • Nineteen guiding aphorisms for writing Py, by Tim Peters. Recorded as PEP 20 and printed by running import this.

  • Aphorisms

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Beautiful Beats Ugly
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Beautiful Beats Ugly

        • Beautiful is better than ugly.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Explicit Beats Implicit
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Explicit Beats Implicit

        • Explicit is better than implicit.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Simple Beats Complex
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Simple Beats Complex

        • Simple is better than complex.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Complex Beats Complicated
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Complex Beats Complicated

        • Complex is better than complicated.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Flat Beats Nested
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Flat Beats Nested

        • Flat is better than nested.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Sparse Beats Dense
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Sparse Beats Dense

        • Sparse is better than dense.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Readability Counts
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Readability Counts

        • Readability counts.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Special Cases Do Not Break the Rules
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Special Cases Do Not Break the Rules

        • Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
          

        • Although practicality beats purity.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Errors Should Never Pass Silently
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Errors Should Never Pass Silently

        • Errors should never pass silently.
          

        • Unless explicitly silenced.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Refuse to Guess in Ambiguity
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Refuse to Guess in Ambiguity

        • In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/One Obvious Way to Do It
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/One Obvious Way to Do It

        • There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
          

        • Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Now Beats Never
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Now Beats Never

        • Now is better than never.
          

        • Although never is often better than right now.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Hard to Explain Means Bad Idea
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Hard to Explain Means Bad Idea

        • If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
          

        • If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
          

    • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Namespaces Are a Honking Great Idea
      • Py/Zen of Python/Quote/Namespaces Are a Honking Great Idea

        • Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!
          

  • In this garden

    • My/Principle/Explicit is better than Implicit takes its name from the second aphorism.
    • "There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it" is the reason to write links one way — [[double bracket]] — rather than mixing in #tag links. One link syntax also keeps pages portable to Looksyk, which imports [[...]] links but not #tag.