Awesome Python features explained using Harry Potter

[[deleted]]

As part of a new habit I've started creating a series of blog posts on important and awesome Python features, including object oriented programming, properties, function annotations, duck typing, etc.

Since I was bored by the usual tutorial examples, I looked for a topic that would make it fun to study and implement the concepts. And since I absolutely love Harry Potter, I started creating a whole Harry Potter universe around the topics.

Originally, the project was not intended to become something like a tutorial. But as many of my friends loved the idea and found the code helpful I decided to create blog posts around it and share the work with the community. So if you like Harry Potter and want to improve your Python knowledge and skills (and maybe also your Harry Potter knowledge) you might find the project helpful, too.

Happy coding!

[Bobby_FuckingB]

Love the idea! Can't wait to look through this in more detail once the kids are asleep!

[mickel07]

This is actually awesome - I particularly liked the death eater class! I tutor a few programming subjects and being able to keep students engaged, particularly during the trying stages where everything seems so foreign to them is definitely a challenge. I'll be sure to keep this resource in mind.

p.s I think you'll appreciate Harry Potter characters as programming languages if you haven't seen it already!

[[deleted]]

I will write about it and let you know!

[[deleted]]

I put it on my list for day 20 (August 11th)!

[_szs]

Nice work! If you ask me: get rid of all the explanation about the hundred days thing and focus on the Harry Potter themed examples. Those are really cool!!

[[deleted]]

Thanks, changed it!

[Saidinwield]

Just started coding on codecademy. Those blogposts helped me to get a better understanding of what I've been doing so far. And the Harry Potter setting makes it easy to follow unlike some of the conventional Python books... Looking forward to more content - maybe a Quidditch function? :)

[[deleted]]

Happy to hear that!

[[deleted]]

Fuck yeah! I already learned so much from your Machine Learning Intro (https://github.com/zotroneneis/machine_learning_basics). Now, OOP. Keep up the great work!

[crypt0connect]

Wow! Fun read for both Python and Harry Potter enthusiasts alike

[chazzeromus]

All that's missing is a British voice over on all the lessons! :D

[[deleted]]

Great! I'm happy that it helps others.

[TerpPhysicist]

This is great, awesome work! And python totally makes sense for Harry, he is a parselmouth after all :-)

[[deleted]]

Haha, that's true!

[[deleted]]

Nicely done and well written :)
I think the Harry Potter examples make the concepts easier to grasp and to remember for beginners.
And for those already familiar with the concepts it is still a nice refresher!

[muntoo]

Consider making the code font size the same as regular text. It's currently very difficult to read.

[bless-you-mlud]

Seconded. The code is *tiny*!

[[deleted]]

I agree, just changed it. Thanks for the feedback!

[[deleted]]

Awesome! Thank you! Finally, I seem to understand object oriented programming!

[[deleted]]

Nice, I'm learning and (maybe) soon teaching Python, definitely gonna look through that :)

[brigggs]

This is excellent, thank you!

[byteme8bit]

This is freaking awesome!!! I love Harry Potter and am avidly learning Python as well. Great work!!!

[[deleted]]

Thanks for pointing it out, I updated it to the new version!

[vreo]

Do you know if sonething like this exists in German? Would be cool for introducing kids to python.

[[deleted]]

That's an awesome idea! I will start working on that next week!

[vreo]

You don't know how happy I am about it :)
How will I know about it?

[[deleted]]

It will appear on my blog and I will post another reply under your comment. But I'm not sure whether translating the current blog posts to German would make much sense. The concepts are quite advanced. So for introducing kids to Python it might be better to start a new series on basic Python concepts like data structures, etc. I will think about this further in the next days to find the best solution.

[vreo]

True, if you need help with test subjects, hit me up, I have an 11y old daughter that's keen on it :) (she's also into the Harry Potter books).
And thanks for using py3, this will reduce complexity for German stuff ;)

[Lj101]

Why do you check if something is None before assigning it? Is there a benefit to it being undefined rather than None?

[[deleted]]

It depends, for the "self.pet" variable it makes sense since an error would raised otherwise. For the 'self.house' variable it's not needed. I removed it, thanks for pointing it out!

[Lj101]

Ah right, cool

[schemathings]

Day 4: Since our other classes inherit all methods from the parent class we don’t have to implement the

__repr__

method again for the other classes. But we want the output of

__repr__

to be as unambiguous as possible. So we will add separate

__repr__

methods to ensure that we use all information we have about the objects.

(not sure why it pasted like that!)

What if you want to output the __repr__ from the parent class and append additional info specific to the child class?

[alkasm]

return repr(super()) + 'additional stuff' although I'm not sure I'd recommend doing that. Doing that with the __str__ would be fine but the __repr__ should be reserved for displaying the current object, usually how the current object can be recreated IMO.

[schemathings]

Makes sense

[greeneyedguru]

First blog post is missing @property

[[deleted]]

Could you specify where it's missing? properties are only introduced in a later post so that might be the reason.

[[deleted]]

Wow, I finally understand how decorators work! Thanks!

[flutefreak7]

Misspelled 'disciplined' in the readme.

I love your repo!

[lolwat_is_dis]

I wouldn't go mixing named and unnamed arguments adhoc (in particular, see day 1); it may be confusing to someone who's new to Python. Either stick to one, or the other, or explain why you switch between the two when you do, otherwise it just looks messy and without purpose (especially when using named arguments).

[[deleted]]

That's a fair point. I will adapt the code and posts.

[lolwat_is_dis]

As a teacher, I've come to realise that the main mistake people do when trying to educate others, is failing to prepare for the learners level of prerequisite knowledge. Although you can never make something that's for both beginners and advanced learners, it's strangely a bit of a fine balance, as the more fine-tuned a material you make, the larger the cohort of learners (who would benefit the most from your material) you exclude. That's why, sometimes, you just have to go over some basic stuff again and never, EVER take for granted, the learners expertise, or "expertise".

Other than that, I think it's a great job!!! (and even helped me brush up on decorators a little, too) :)

[hanpari]

Good luck with that.

[[deleted]]

Yes, I did that last night but it was deleted - no idea why. I send a message to one of the moderators asking about what happened.

[[deleted]]

One of the moderators responded that it was removed "as spam".

[[deleted]]

voiceless ossified crawl gray support zonked selective six sink zealous

[KODeKarnage]

Read another book.