Paul Ganssle @pganssle@qoto.org

In #python, "and" / "or" don't return True / False, but the first value that confirms for sure the result of the test:

>>> [] or 0
0
>>> [] and 0
[]
>>> "hello" and 1
1
>>> "hello" or 1
'hello'
>>> "hello" or {}
'hello'
>>> "hello" and {}
{}

This works because...

People who use Beautiful Soup for #Python screenscraping and various data projects:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/beautifulsoup/-w7TDFkaPTg

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/beautifulsoup/aNC2TBR7QHY

On the upcoming sunset of Python 2 support, and of Beautiful Soup's 3.x series (switch to bs4)

#todayILearned that, when searching in Firefox's tab bar, you can prefix your search with `%` to search exclusively in the titles of open tabs.

Maybe everyone else already knew this, but I didn't—and I have the feeling that it will *dramatically* increase the number of open tabs I have at any given time.

#plaintext email etiquette question:

When I'm replying to a thread with multiple participants, is there a standard way to indicate who I am quoting?

For example, in the exchange below, is there a good/standard way to attribute the first quote to Alice and the second to Bob?

> Foo is better

> Bar is better

I agree with Alice that foo is the way to go.

CC: @sir, resident plaintext email expert/evangelist

Great software documentation has these key things (not necessarily split like this):

User's Manual: How to use the software and all its features in enough detail to stand alone for normal use, including basic troubleshooting.
Service Manual: The broad design of the software and how to install, configure, upgrade, and otherwise maintain it, including advanced troubleshooting.
Programmer's Manual: Design details, APIs, and internals needed to modify the software or write code that works with it.

Now that we're all rested from the holidays, time for you all to sign up for some fun activities: https://fosdem.org/2020/news/2019-12-31-call-for-volunteers/ Jokes aside, it would be literally impossible to make FOSDEM happen without all the wonderful people who volunteer, so thank you :) !

No more maintained version of #Python 2

To learn about more about the digital security and privacy, you can start from https://summertraining.readthedocs.io/en/latest/privacy.html and read the next few chapters.