Managing Python Dependencies Transcripts
Chapter: Finding Quality Python Packages
Lecture: How Third-Party Packages Can Help You

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0:01 Let's talk about how third party packages can help you become a more productive and more effective Python coder.
0:07 What I absolutely love about Python is the fact that it has a super rich third party package ecosystem.
0:15 When I check PyPi, close to 100 thousand packages which is freely available for anyone to install through pip.
0:23 And all of these modules and libraries combined cover a wide range of topics and scenarios. Because of this rich third party library ecosystem
0:36 it's fairly likely that whatever scenario you encounter, there might just be a free Python library that you could use
0:44 that will make your job so much easier. Imagine you're working on a Python project, and now the need arises to download files over http
0:54 or to talk to some kind of web service in your application. Now of course you could go in and write this functionality from scratch,
1:01 but maybe just maybe, there is a third party package that could help you with this. And if you found the perfect third party package,
1:10 you could save a lot of time, you wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel, and write this stuff from scratch, and you could deliver the whole project
1:17 so much faster. Where do you find those great Python packages? And this is a very common question, and the common challenge
1:26 for every Python developer, leaving the safe haven of the Python standard library. So given a problem that you want to solve in your program,
1:34 how can you identify and where can you find a package that could help you with that? Then of course the next question is
1:43 what actually makes a quality Python package, how can you tell if you have multiple options available,
1:49 which one is better, which one is going to have less of a maintenance burden and which one is the safer choice in the long run.
1:55 Unfortunately, I'll have to share some bad news with you first. There isn't really a shortcut to finding the perfect Python package,
2:04 because there is so many packages you can choose from, it will always take some research and some elbow grease
2:09 to find the perfect package or the perfect library given the situation that you are in. However, this is totally worth it, this is a perfect way
2:18 for you to really scale your productivity and take it to the next level.
2:23 If you can develop the skills to find and identify quality third party packages, and you can start leveraging those in your own programs,
2:30 your productivity will shoot through the roof. Because you will be able to avoid having to reinvent the wheel all the time,
2:37 and you will be able to build your applications using these freely available building blocks and that will make you much faster,
2:44 much more effective and much more productive as a Python developer.


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