Recap and Summary - Module 4

00:00 Great, now you know all the steps necessary to find and pick a great Python library. Let’s do a quick recap. So in step 1, we talked about how to find candidate packages, how to search them on various websites and sources.

00:15 Then in step 2, we check package popularity, to get a feel for how popular this library is in the Python community and how many people are using it. In step 3, we check out the project homepage as another important quality indicator.

00:27 In step 4, we had a look at the project README, step 5 answered the question whether or not the project is actively maintained, then after that, in step 6, we spot check the source code to get a good feel for the code quality of this library.

00:41 And all the way at the end, in step 7, we took that narrowed down list of candidate libraries and tried them out, to get a good feel for what their strengths and weaknesses are.

00:51 Again, this whole process works like a funnel, so you start with a pool of candidate packages, and then successively refine that list by excluding packages that you don’t like or that can’t actually get the job done.

01:05 So this is a process of narrowing it down until it becomes very easy to make the final decision. Being able to find and pick great Python libraries for use in your own projects is a super helpful skill.

01:16 Now this is already a very useful skill if you’re building software for yourself, but if you’re working with a team and you have to justify these dependency decisions, then you can use the same process and the same criteria to explain your decision to your team, your manager or whoever is interested and basically write a little report on all of the options that you’ve tried out.

01:37 And after going through all of these research steps this report is going to be pretty bullet proof. Congratulations, you just completed the finding quality Python packages module in this course!

01:49 Here is what you’ve learned: First, we discussed how third party packages can help you become a more effective and more productive Python coder. Next, you learned how to find popular packages on curated lists.

02:02 And third, you learned a whole workflow for selecting great quality packages and a set of rules of thumb for making the right decision. Let’s end this module with a quick summary.

02:15 Python has a super rich third-party library ecosystem and using it effectively is the key to becoming more productive as a developer. Now while it is great that you have so many third-party packages available, using a third-party package in your own programs, always has a maintenance cost, and this is something you should be very mindful of, the solution here is to stick to high quality packages in order to keep those maintenance costs under control.