'Hidden Features of Python'

[Kurt Smith]

On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 11:48 AM, Joe Strout <joe at strout.net> wrote:
> On Oct 17, 2008, at 10:35 AM, coldpizza wrote:
>
>> If you are using and IDE, such as Eclipse, PyScripter, etc, then CTR
>> +click on 'this' should do the trick.
>> In ipython you can do 'import this' and then type 'this??' Or if you
>> are *not* lazy, you could try locating the file in the Python tree.
>
> Oh!  They're actually talking about a module literally called 'this'!  I
> thought that was just a placeholder, like "foo".
>
> Interesting (and useful).
>
> As for examining the source though, it seems like it could be shortened up
> quite a bit now -- in fact all the source except the assignment to s could
> be replaced with the one-liner
>
>  print s.encode('rot13')

Methinks you miss the point -- read the Zen, and apply its principles
to the "this" module.  I think they managed to break pretty much all
of them, probably to illustrate a point, all in good fun.  Tim Peters
rocks!

For more fun with the Zen, see this thread:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-bugs-list/2008-July/055857.html

Best,

Kurt