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python/hamming/README.md

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+# Hamming
+
+Calculate the Hamming Distance between two DNA strands.
+
+Your body is made up of cells that contain DNA. Those cells regularly
+wear out and need replacing, which they achieve by dividing into
+daughter cells. In fact, the average human body experiences about 10
+quadrillion cell divisions in a lifetime!
+
+When cells divide, their DNA replicates too. Sometimes during this
+process mistakes happen and single pieces of DNA get encoded with the
+incorrect information. If we compare two strands of DNA and count the
+differences between them we can see how many mistakes occurred. This is
+known as the "Hamming Distance".
+
+We read DNA using the letters C,A,G and T. Two strands might look like this:
+
+    GAGCCTACTAACGGGAT
+    CATCGTAATGACGGCCT
+    ^ ^ ^  ^ ^    ^^
+
+They have 7 differences, and therefore the Hamming Distance is 7.
+
+The Hamming Distance is useful for lots of things in science, not just biology,
+so it's a nice phrase to be familiar with :)
+
+# Implementation notes
+
+The Hamming distance is only defined for sequences of equal length, so
+an attempt to calculate it between sequences of different lengths should
+not work. The general handling of this situation (e.g., raising an
+exception vs returning a special value) may differ between languages.
+
+## Exception messages
+
+Sometimes it is necessary to raise an exception. When you do this, you should include a meaningful error message to
+indicate what the source of the error is. This makes your code more readable and helps significantly with debugging. Not
+every exercise will require you to raise an exception, but for those that do, the tests will only pass if you include
+a message.
+
+To raise a message with an exception, just write it as an argument to the exception type. For example, instead of
+`raise Exception`, you should write:
+
+```python
+raise Exception("Meaningful message indicating the source of the error")
+```
+
+## Running the tests
+
+To run the tests, run the appropriate command below ([why they are different](https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/issues/1629#issue-161422224)):
+
+- Python 2.7: `py.test hamming_test.py`
+- Python 3.4+: `pytest hamming_test.py`
+
+Alternatively, you can tell Python to run the pytest module (allowing the same command to be used regardless of Python version):
+`python -m pytest hamming_test.py`
+
+### Common `pytest` options
+
+- `-v` : enable verbose output
+- `-x` : stop running tests on first failure
+- `--ff` : run failures from previous test before running other test cases
+
+For other options, see `python -m pytest -h`
+
+## Submitting Exercises
+
+Note that, when trying to submit an exercise, make sure the solution is in the `$EXERCISM_WORKSPACE/python/hamming` directory.
+
+You can find your Exercism workspace by running `exercism debug` and looking for the line that starts with `Workspace`.
+
+For more detailed information about running tests, code style and linting,
+please see [Running the Tests](http://exercism.io/tracks/python/tests).
+
+## Source
+
+The Calculating Point Mutations problem at Rosalind [http://rosalind.info/problems/hamm/](http://rosalind.info/problems/hamm/)
+
+## Submitting Incomplete Solutions
+
+It's possible to submit an incomplete solution so you can see how others have completed the exercise.