Paul Ganssle @pganssle@qoto.org
Programmer working at Google. Python core developer and general FOSS contributor. I also post some parenting content.
Joined Nov 2019
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Latest post is a big one: "Why you shouldn't invoke setup.py directly"
A lot of people don't know about this because we haven't been great about getting the word out. This blog post is in part an attempt to remedy this.
Please help spread the word!
https://blog.ganssle.io/articles/2021/10/setup-py-deprecated.html
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From the archives of my blog but still very relevant: "pytz: The Fastest Footgun in the West", about why you probably shouldn't be using pytz:
https://blog.ganssle.io/articles/2018/03/pytz-fastest-footgun.html
*Words mean what people think they mean and there is no objective true definition here, but one definition has historical weight to it and feels more official as the definition doesn't originate from basically a mistake.
Periodic reminder that you should probably not use the words "bemused" or "quizzical" in your writing unless you don't care to distinguish been these two conditions.
The reason: "bemused" sounds like it means what "quizzical" actually* means and "quizzical" sounds like it means what "bemused" actually means.
Enough people know the dictionary definitions of these words that you can't confidently know if they are trying to mean the thing each word sounds like it means or the dictionary definition, and it's not usually the kind of thing you can work out from context, so best to use words that aren't halfway through a semantic shift 😉
Oh hey, I did this! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47341747
`fromisoformat` was my first contribution to CPython and I'm still very proud of it.
Paul Ganssle
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We strongly oppose the Unified Attestation initiative and call for app developers supporting privacy, security and freedom on mobile to avoid it. Companies selling phones should not be deciding which operating systems people are allowed to use for apps.
Paul Ganssle
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"dear customer, please don't forget to pay for your Services."
"but I have a direct debit set up to pay for my Services on the 30th of each month."
"yes but there was no 30th day in February."
TellMe: exactly whose problem is it that there's no work around in place for this yearly occurrence? Because it doesn't seem like it should be mine.
Also interesting is that it is just Spain / Latin America, though everyone I talk to seems to think that Chilean Spanish is only barely mutually intelligible with the rest of the world, and Argentina/Uruguay seem pretty far out of distribution as well, but that all gets lumped together with "Latin American" Spanish.
Mind you my wife basically always needs subtitles for UK shows (not sure why I'm better at understanding them, it might be because I watched a lot of British shows in college), but that is just to parse the words. We generally wouldn't want a *translation*.
Man the split between European and Latin American Spanish media is so weird from an anglophone perspective. I watched a show from Spain last night that had Latin American subtitles. It was the equivalent of there being US subtitles on a British show that translated "flat" to "apartment" and "bollocks" to "damn".
@brass75 This has been a more general phenomenon for me as well. First time on the manager side doing the hiring had me realizing how much I stumbled into getting my own job. First time making a project budget, doing performance review calibrations as a manager, all of it gives you a ton of insight about how to engage with these processes.
If you have had trouble getting talks accepted at conferences, this is a good "behind the scenes" look at how talks are selected at PyCon US from @brass75: https://brassnet.biz/blog/picking-talks-for-pycon-us.html
I will say that serving on a program committee *one time* was actually really valuable for understanding what makes a good proposal.
> Bola de Dragón Z (also known as Dragon Ball Z) is the European Spanish dub of ドラゴンボールZ. This dub was based on three dubs: the Galician dub (also from Spain, although it was a translation derived from the French dub); the English translated scripts by Toei; and the French dub.
Apparently the first 103 episodes of Dragon Ball Z in the European Spanish dub were a translation of the Galician dub, which was a translation of the French translation of the original Japanese.
Paul Ganssle
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We're hiring an Infrastructure Engineer at the PSF. The role is full-time, remote and US-based. Come join our lovely, small and mighty team!
https://pythonsoftwarefoundation.applytojob.com/apply/DNzZlBUqFn/Infrastructure-Engineer
Link to "my podcast" goes to a YouTube channel instead of an RSS feed.
Paul Ganssle
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Coming soon to Python 3.15: frozendict
The Steering Council has just accepted @vstinner and @dongheena's PEP 814 "Add frozendict built-in type".
https://discuss.python.org/t/pep-814-add-frozendict-built-in-type/104854/121
Paul Ganssle
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Setuptools deprecated pkg_resources in docs for ~two years, then with a DeprecationWarning for ~two years, then a UserWarning for ~one year.
2021-04: Deprecate in docs (v56.0.0)
https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/commit/8fe85c22cee7fde5e6af571b30f864bad156a010
2023-03: Officially deprecate with DeprecationWarning (v67.5.0)
https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/pull/3843
2025-05: Promote to UserWarning with earliest removal deadline of 2025-11-30 (v80.9.0)
https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/pull/5014
2026-02: Remove (v82.0.0)
https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/pull/5007
Paul Ganssle
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Some news, I’ll be departing the PSF as a staff member at the end of this week.
You can read a more formal announcement over at https://pyfound.blogspot.com/2026/01/ee-departing-the-psf-staff.html, but I wanted to share on socials as well.
It has been an incredible… nearly 8 years serving as the Director of Infrastructure for the Python Software Foundation, but it is time for me to do something new.
Major Tom: "Tell my wife I love her very much."
Ground Control: "She knows."
Major Tom: "Wait, is that what she said? My last words to her are that I love her very much and her last words are 'I know'? Wow, Diane, just... wow. You know what? I'm changing my mind. Tell my wife I wish I had married her sister."
Paul Ganssle
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Ever wondered how to parametrize exception testing in PyTest?
Try this:
https://borutzki.github.io/2026/01/15/how-to-parametrize-exception-testing-in-pytest.html
#DailyPythonista #python #programming #Pytest #TDD #unittest
P.S. This isn't some clever satirical subpost obliquely referring to something in the news or something I'm just weird. 🐍⚕️
Snake bites can be extra dangerous when they happen far from medical care. But what if we could make that a thing of the past?
Today I am launching an ambitious campaign to provide emergency medicine education for all snakes so that if you are bitten by a snake you know emergency care is only seconds away.
Programmer working at Google. Python core developer and general FOSS contributor. I also post some parenting content.
Joined Nov 2019
