by Alex Martelli for EuroPython 2011
A completely misguided meme has long been going around: that Python doesn’t have, or need, any Design Patterns. This terrible meme may spring from not realizing what the Gang Of Four state so plainly in their historical “Design Patterns” book: which design patterns are useful DOES depend on the programming language one targets – design is NOT independent of implementation, as the epic-fail “Waterfall” Methodology Pattern would suggest. What patterns apply to a design, depends to some extent on what implementation technologies will be used to realize that design.
If you focus on some “classic DPs” that are basically workarounds for some other language’s lack of garbage collection, or for a clumsy static-typing system, those may indeed be worthless for Python. But many other DPs are perfectly useful and applicable, and Python’s strengths as a language afford riffing on them to develop highly Pythonic, powerful, productive variants.
In this talk, I analyze some of my favorite pattern families – e.g., Template Method and its variants, Dependency Injection and its ilk, Callback and friends – in a highly Pythonic context. Non-pattern Idioms, and Patterns that aren’t really Design Patterns but rather Architecture or Methodology ones, make cameo appearances.
Goals: remove from your system any residue of the pernicious meme about Python not having or needing design patterns. Prereqs: experience designing and developing software; intermediate-level Python knowledge.
