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|access-date=March 26, 2019}}</ref> It is also included as an [[Easter egg (software)|Easter egg]] in the Python [[Interpreter (computing)|interpreter]], where it can be displayed by entering <syntaxhighlight lang="python" inline>import this</syntaxhighlight>.<ref name="hitchhiker"/><ref name="pep20" />{{Efn|The source code for the Zen of Python can be found [https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Lib/this.py on Github].}}
In May 2020, Barry Warsaw (developer of [[GNU Mailman]])
==Principles==
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* Now is better than never.
* Although never is often better than {{em|right}} now.{{efn|In the interpreter easter egg, this is written as "Although never is often better than *right* now." This follows a longstanding convention of [[Plain text|plain-text]] communication — in which common formatting features are often impossible — where [[Emphasis (typography)|emphasis]] is represented with asterisks.}}
* If the [[Implementation|implementation]] is hard to [[Rubber_duck_debugging|explain]], it's a bad idea.
* If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
* [[Namespaces]] are one honking great idea – let's do more of those!
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== Being Pythonic ==
One of the principles, "There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it", can be referenced as the "Pythonic" way.<ref name=":0" /> The official definition of "Pythonic" is:<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Glossary |url=https://docs.python.org/3/glossary.html#term-Pythonic |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=Python Documentation |language=en}}</ref>{{efn|This definition below is directly quoted to preserve its definition. So as is, it is not self-contained valid Python to run without errors.}}
<blockquote>An idea or piece of code which closely follows the most common idioms of the Python language, rather than implementing code using concepts common to other languages. For example, a common idiom in Python is to loop over all elements of an iterable using a <code>for</code> statement. Many other languages don’t have this type of construct, so people unfamiliar with Python sometimes use a numerical counter instead: <syntaxhighlight lang="python">
for i in range(len(food)):
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</syntaxhighlight>
</blockquote>
Code that is difficult to understand or reads like a rough transcription from another programming language is called ''unpythonic''.
== In practice ==
Since the release of the Zen of Python, there has been research done on its effectiveness and actual use among developers. Despite the difference in interpretation between beginners and experienced Python programmers, interviews among 13 Python programmers of varying skill show that the Zen of Python "positively influences the way developers write and talk about code".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Alexandru |first1=Carol V. |last2=Merchante |first2=José J. |last3=Panichella |first3=Sebastiano |last4=Proksch |first4=Sebastian |last5=Gall |first5=Harald C. |last6=Robles |first6=Gregorio |chapter=On the usage of pythonic idioms |date=2018-10-24 |title=Proceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/3276954.3276960 |series=Onward! 2018 |___location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=1–11 |doi=10.1145/3276954.3276960 |isbn=978-1-4503-6031-9 |s2cid=53057358 |oclc=1362712424 |url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/156901/1/paper.pdf |chapter-url-access=registration |archive-url=https://
== See also ==
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[[Category:Programming principles]]
[[Category:Python (programming language)]]
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