Powerful and versatile as it is, Python lacks a few key capabilities out of the box. For one, there is no native mechanism for compiling a Python program into a standalone executable package. To be ...

Python, for all its power and popularity, has long lacked a form of flow control found in other languages—a way to take a value and match it elegantly against one of a number of possible conditions.

Software engineers have long told their bosses and clients that they can have software "fast, cheap, or right," as long as they pick any two of those factors. Getting all three? Forget about it! But ...