Make the common case simple, let the exceptional case be exceptional.
• Trust Python's exception system• Write code that works as both script and library• Explicit is better than implicit• Errors should never pass silently unless explicitly silenced• Fail fast in one-shot scripts, continue gracefully in long-running services• Use stdlib over regex when stdlib provides the functionality• Check existing project code for API usage before guessing method names
Prefer APIs that fail loudly over ones that silently do nothing. When a library provides both a checked and an unchecked removal/access, use the checked form: verify the precondition first (e.g. Index() before RemoveAt(), find() before erase()), so that a violated assumption aborts immediately at the call site rather than producing silent corruption downstream. Write your own assert or early-return guard for every assumption that “should never happen” — if it ever does, you want to know exactly where.