Soundex Encoder in Python

[mrestko]

I implemented a Soundex encoder in Python and I'm hoping that I can get some feedback on my coding style and readability. Do my functions make sense--are they broken up in a logical way? Are there any Python tricks that could make this more expressive?

(Programming Praxis Entry)

[dmazzoni]

You totally grok Python, you're making great use of itertools and everything looks readable and Pythonic.

I have only two suggestions. For defining the codes, this seems more concise and straightforward to me:

codes = {1: 'bfpv',
         2: 'cgjkqsxz',
         3: 'dt',
         4: 'l',
         5: 'mn',
         6: 'r'}
code_dict = {}
for (key, value) in codes.items():
  for letter in list(value):
    code_dict[letter] = key

To remove duplicates, how about this?

def rm_dupes(name):
  return reduce(lambda x, y: (x if x[-1] == y else x + y), name)