tools or techniques to help avoid mistakes in python/django

Question

What tools or techniques can help avoid bugs, especially silly mistakes such as typos, coding in Python and Django?

I know unit-testing every line of code is the "proper" way, but are there any shortcuts?

I know of pylint, but unfortunately it doesn't check Django ORM named parameters, where a typo can go unnoticed. Is there any tool that can handle this kind of bugs?

A colleague thought of an idea to gather smart statistics on tokens (for example about named parameters to functions...), and when a once-in-a-code-base token is encountered it is warned as possible typo. Do you know of any tool that does something similar?

shortcuts to skip proper unit-testing... sigh. this is the sign of the times. — joaquin, Nov 13 '11 at 11:02

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:29

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Sorry I don't know if I understand you correctly,

But I think a good IDE has automatic code validation and some of them also work with Django. For example, there is a good python plugin for Eclipse called PYDEV. There is also a good IDE based on Eclipse/Pydev called Aptana Studio that you can try (it also has good support for editing HTML/JS/CSS).

This Question is also a very good comparison of all the Python IDE's.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:29

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answered Nov 13 '11 at 10:36

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Alternatively, Pycharm has pretty decent Django support if you set it up correctly. – Thomas Orozco Nov 13 '11 at 11:18
I agree on PyCharm - it's not FOSS, but it is really good. I've found it far nicer than pydev. – Gareth Latty Nov 13 '11 at 11:23
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Look at this post too for some good suggestions: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/35470/are-there-any-static-analysis-tools-for-python – Adam Morris Nov 13 '11 at 12:00

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 13 '11 at 11:16

pyflakes is a static analyser that will find undeclared variables (e.g. typos) and the like. plenty of editors have plugins that run pyflakes on the fly or on save. This is not a substitute for unit tests, but it can save a few unnecessary save-reload-run cycles

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 16 '11 at 13:07

Thank you for your answers, I'll check these tools.

I wanted to share with you other ideas (none python/django specific):

Assert conditions in code - but remove from production code.
Run periodic checks on the data (eg. sending email to dev when found unexpected state) - in case a bug slips by it may be detected faster, before more data is corrupt (but alas after some of it is already corrupt).
Make a single bottom-line test (perhaps simulating user input), that covers most of the program. It may catch exceptions and asserts and is may be easier to maintain than many tests.

tools or techniques to help avoid mistakes in python/django

3 Answers3