Agenda: Python (2026-11-11 - 2026-11-13)

Labgrid/pytest Course Project?

A homogenous team does not want to walk through endless stupid exercises, so lets try to define a (semi) realistic project that we can use to get our fingers dirty, and add dynamicity to the course.

For example (this is what I was able to bring home from our meeting on 2026-10-21),

• Export test cases from Jira/Zephyr (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0WXAHC4cIo)

• Parse exported, convert to (interpret with?) pytest

• Fixtures: acquiring resources in Labgrid

• Labgrid “strategy”? (Labgrid Tutorial #4 - Write Your Own Strategy)

Day 1

Basics

This is everything that’s in Python: The Language Fundamentals. Chances are that boring basics will be covered quickly and we can move on to more interesting topics. Nonetheless we don’t let anyone get through without knowing what (im)mutability is, for example, or what a variable is, and where the types are.

• Python Installation

• Blahblah

• Hello World

• Running Python Programs

• Syntax etc.

• Commandline Arguments (sys.argv)

• Variables

• Datatypes

• Compound Datatypes

• Boolean

• The if Statement

• while Loops

• Sequential Datatypes

• Indexing and Slicing

• for Loops

• The range Function

• References, (Im)mutability

• Functions

• More About Strings

• String Formatting

• Miscellaneous String Methods

• More About Lists

• More About Dictionaries

• More About Sets

• File I/O

• Function Objects

• Comprehensions (List, Dictionary, Set)

File I/O (CSV And JSON), pytest, Virtual Environments

Exercise Time

There is no course material covering CSV and JSON (it’s really so simple). There is a reason why these topics have been requested though, so lets see how we can use the knowledge from the “Basics” section and bring our course project further.

This is likely going to be something like parsing CSV and JSON formats - which is always nasty (because boring) and error prone. Lets enter test driven development, and see what pytest can do for us (using Labgrid with pytest is a separate topic - no Labgrid yet in sight).

• pytest Introduction, By Example (mention The unittest Module, only to say pytest is much better)

• Python Package Index

• Virtual Environments

Day 2

Object Oriented Programming, Exception Handling

Covering the basics of OO. This is what people need most, if only to structure code readably.

From Object Oriented Programming:

• Classes And Dictionaries

• Constructor

• Methods

• Properties

• Exception Handling

Exercise Time

• Use our test-driven-development skills to transform the code from yesterday into OO.

• If applicable, we could write some nice commandline frontends to, for example, interactively export Jira/Zephyr test cases. (Use Click to parse args, and not argparse)

Note

More OO Topics

There’s more in Object Oriented Programming. Lets ignore this for a while, and watch out for opportunities to cover it too.

• str() And repr()

• collections.namedtuple

• Inheritance

• Operator Overloading

• Abstract Base Classes (abc), And Duck Typing

Modules And Packages

Not knowing better, we have put all code in one flat directory. Tests, code/classes, and commandline programs. Restructure the mess, talking about project structure, making recommendations.

• Modules and Packages

Logging

Introduce logging into our growing application, covering parse errors, network errors, and all such external nastities.

Note

TODO Create material about the Python logging package

Decorators (The @ In A Fixture)

Answering the question “What’s the @ when I write a pytest fixture?”, lets go over something surprisingly simple.

• Positional and Keyword Arguments

• Closures

• Decorators

Generators (“Yield” Fixtures)

In pytest, one can comfortably cut a fixture “function” in two halves - the setup and the teardown part - by calling yield in the middle. Technically, the “function” has become a generator. There are more uses for yield than cutting a function in two - lets cover generators in detail.

• Iterating Intelligently: Generators, and the Iterator Protocol

Day 3

Project Time

Exercise Time

Time to approach Labgrid together with pytest?

Context Managers

Although resource management is easier than in other languages, it is easy enough to mess it up. Clarify the ominous with statement, and see what is under the hood (spoiler: yield cuts again).

• Context Managers: The with Statement

Into The Wild

Lets leave room on day 3 to …

• Try out things. We just went into Labgrid coding; there might well be opportunities to spend more course time.

• Cover yet-uncovered material