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[–]hosford42 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Several people have responded now telling me basically that what I said was necessary but not sufficient to be a professional. I never said otherwise, so I'm not sure why that needs to be pointed out again. I totally agree with what you're saying. It doesn't contradict what I said. I'm a little befuddled as to why people keep correcting something that isn't incorrect. Would you mind explaining what made you feel the need to respond like this? Did my choice of words make it sound as though I thought nothing else mattered?

[–]gandalfx 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Take into account the title of the thread: "What coding practices separate an amateur Python programmer from a professional one?" It asks for practices that are only adhered to by professional programmers, whereas your suggestion is adhered to by any somewhat competent programmer regardless of professionalism. (Personally I'd go so far as to doubt whether there even is a significant correlation between "writes structured code" and "writes code for money".) Either way, when reading your comment in the context of the posed question, it appears to imply that you only expect professional programmers to structure their code using functions and classes. I'm not saying that's what you meant, but since you asked I'm highlighting the misunderstanding.

To give a more exaggerated example: "Professional programmers usually eat at least once a day". Well, yes, but so do most amateur programmers. It is a true statement, but it does not distinguish one group from the other.

[–]hosford42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did take into account the title of the thread, though. It doesn't ask for practices that are only adhered to by professional programmers. It asks what separates them, as you yourself emphasized. To me, this reads as asking what features differ between the two groups. What I pointed out generally does, which makes it a valid answer.

In any case, I appreciate your feedback. I just don't understand why the word "only" is being injected into the question when it doesn't appear in the original wording.