surf_notifier.py

from urllib import urlopen
from xml.dom import minidom
import re

REGIONAL_REPORT_FEED = 'http://www.surfline.com/rss/region.cfm?id=2958'
GOOD_WORDS = re.compile(r'good|epic|solid|fun', re.IGNORECASE)
HEIGHTS = re.compile(r'\d+')
GOOD_HEIGHT = 4

def is_of_interest(title):
  location, report = title.split(':', 1)
  return good_qualitative(report) or good_quantitative(report)

def good_qualitative(report):
  return GOOD_WORDS.search(report) is not None

def good_quantitative(report):
  for height in HEIGHTS.findall(report):
    if int(height) >= GOOD_HEIGHT:
      return True
  return False

def send_highlights(highlights):
  # TODO send email or text message
  print highlights

def main():
  titles = []

  doc = minidom.parse(urlopen(REGIONAL_REPORT_FEED))
  for item_node in doc.getElementsByTagName('item'):
    title_node = item_node.getElementsByTagName('title')[0]
    titles.append(title_node.childNodes[0].nodeValue)

  interesting_titles = "\n".join([t for t in titles if is_of_interest(t)])
  
  send_highlights(interesting_titles)

if __name__ == '__main__':
  main()

filter(is_of_interest, titles) <==> [t for t in titles if is_of_interest(t)]

although list comprehensions are quite sexy

They are sexy, since they combine map and filter functionality. But I find multiple calls to map and filter more readable than nested list comprehensions.