Managing Python Dependencies Transcripts
Chapter: Finding Quality Python Packages
Lecture: Recap and Summary
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Great, now you know all the steps necessary to find and pick a great Python library. Let's do a quick recap.
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So in step 1, we talked about how to find candidate packages, how to search them on various websites and sources.
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Then in step 2, we check package popularity, to get a feel for how popular this library is in the Python community and how many people are using it.
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In step 3, we check out the project homepage as another important quality indicator. In step 4, we had a look at the project README,
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step 5 answered the question whether or not the project is actively maintained, then after that, in step 6, we spot check the source code
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to get a good feel for the code quality of this library. And all the way at the end, in step 7, we took that narrow down
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list of candidate libraries and tried them out, to get a good feel for what their strengths and weaknesses are.
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Again, this whole process works like a funnel, so you start with a pool of candidate packages,
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and then successively refine that list by excluding packages that you don't like or that can't actually get the job done.
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So this is a process of narrowing it down until it becomes very easy to make the final decision. Being able to find and pick great Python libraries
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for use in your own projects is a super helpful skill. Now this is already a very useful skill if you're building software for yourself,
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but if you're working with a team and you have to justify these dependency decisions, then you can use the same process and the same criteria
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to explain your decision to your team, your manager or whoever is interested and basically write a little report
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on all of the options that you've tried out. And after going through all of these research steps this report is going to be pretty bullet proof.
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Congratulations, you just completed the finding quality Python packages module in this course. Here is what you've learned.
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First, we discussed how third party packages can help you become a more effective and more productive Python coder.
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Next, you learned how to find popular packages on curated lists. And third, you learned a whole workflow for selecting great quality packages
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and a set of rules of thumb for making the right decision. Let's end this module with a quick summary.
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Python has a super rich third party library ecosystem and using it effectively is the key to becoming more productive as a developer.
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Now while it is great that you have so many third party packages available, using a third party package in your own programs,
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always has a maintenance cost, and this is something you should be very mindful of, the solution here is to stick to high quality packages
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in order to keep those maintenance costs under control.