A phrase that I hear a lot is “Python is easy to learn, but hard to master”. In a way that’s true: Python is easy to learn because its high level of abstraction allows you to focus on the business logic of what you’re trying to do instead of the lower-level implementation details. At the same time, Python’s abstractions aren’t magical: Its versatile data model allows you to hook into almost every part of the language to implement objects that behave just as Python’s built-in objects do, enabling you to create similarly high-leveled interfaces for your own objects. That’s where the “hard to master” comes in: There is so much to learn that you’re never done learning. In this talk, I want to entice you to look beyond Python’s high-level interface into the wonderful landscape of its data model. I’ll do that by explaining one of Python’s most “magical” features: The automatic insertion of self into methods. Often, to beginners, the insertion of the instance as the first argument to methods is explained as something that Python just does for you: “Don’t worry about it, it just happens!”. More intermediate Python programmers typically get so used to self that they hardly notice it anymore in their function signatures, let alone wonder about what’s powering it. To explain this bit of Python magic, I’ll give you an informal introduction to something called descriptors. To be sure, this talk isn’t going to be an in-depth discussion of the finer details of the descriptor protocol. Rather, it’s aimed at advanced beginners and intermediate Python developers who are eager to get an idea of what lies beneath the surface of Python. With this talk, I hope to pique your curiosity about the more advanced features of the Python programming language, and hopefully give you a glimpse of the things that you can do with it.
About Sebastiaan Zeeff
Sebastiaan is a Software Engineer for the Ordina Pythoneers and a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation. As a Python enthusiast, he loves discussing the inner workings of the language and coaching others to become better developers. In 2021, Sebastiaan gave talks at various conferences, including PyCon, EuroPython, and FOSDEM. He is also active in the Python community, as owner of Python Discord, as open-source contributor, and as a Python educator.
