This is Python Bytes, Python headlines and news deliver directly to your earbuds: episode 11, recorded on January 30th, 2017.

#1 (Brian) pipenv - Pipfile, pip, and virtualenv


announcement from Kenneth Reitz
reddit thread
Features

Automatically finds your project home, recursively, by looking for a Pipfile.
Automatically generates a Pipfile, if one doesn't exist.
Automatically generates a Pipfile.lock, if one doesn't exist.
Automatically creates a virtualenv in a standard location (project/.venv).
Automatically adds packages to a Pipfile when they are installed.
Automatically removes packages from a Pipfile when they are un-installed.
Also automatically updates pip.



#2 (Michael): Django 2.0 is dropping support for legacy Python


Django changing docs to default to Python 3
The next release, Django 1.11, will be a long-term support release, and the one after that, Django 2.0, will no longer support Python 2.


#3 (Brian) attrs


Hynek Schlawack
pypi: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/attrs
readthedocs: https://attrs.readthedocs.io/en/stable/overview.html
I know this has been around for a while. But I’ve just stumbled across it while reading a blog post about requests, which was good, but we’ve covered requests a lot lately, so I’m gonna skip that article today.
pip install attrs, with an s, even though you import without the s
Does all of the grunt work of writing dunder functions for you so you can write classes with a small amount of code that behave like classes and objects should. Especially if you come from a C++ background, this makes writing classes more intuitive.


#4 (Michael): Go faster Python


This blog post gives an introduction to some techniques for benchmarking, profiling and optimising Python code.
If you have a Python program that’s running slowly, what are your options?

Benchmarking and profiling
Our intuition is often wrong
Benchmarking: %time, %timeit, timeit
Function profiling: %prun, cProfile
Line profiling: %lprun, line_profiler (requires line_profiler)
Cython



#5 (Brian): Getting Python 3 into distributions


Not an article but a couple of pleas.
Many OS distributions, including Red Hat, ship with Python 2.7.
Many developers don’t have the authority to install Python 3.x for projects.
Two pleas:

distributions: ship with both if you have to, but let 3.6 be an option for people.
companies: install Python 3.6 and let some projects use that

We can’t just encourage users to switch to Python 3 if it’s not their choice.


#6 (Michael) Home Assistant


Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3.

Track and control all devices at home and automate control
Installation in less than a minute.
Observe: Track the state of all the devices in your home, so you don't have to.
Control: All your devices from a single, mobile-friendly, interface.
Automate: Setup advanced rules to control devices and bring your home alive.
have the lights turn on when the sun sets and you are home?
have the lights turn on when anyone comes home and it is dark?
dim the lights when you start watching a movie on your Chromecast?
receive a message when the lights turn on while you are not at home?

Demo: https://home-assistant.io/demo/
aiohttp: Asynchronous HTTP Client/Server