Why does Requests have a cake in __version__.py? [closed]

Question

While browsing the GitHub repository for the Python Requests library, I noticed there was a strange __cake__ variable at the bottom of requests/__version__.py.

__license__ = 'Apache 2.0'
__copyright__ = 'Copyright 2017 Kenneth Reitz'
__cake__ = u'\u2728 \U0001f370 \u2728'

Searching through the code, I found that __cake__ is referenced in requests/__init__.py when importing copyright and version info.

from .__version__ import __title__, __description__, __url__, __version__
from .__version__ import __build__, __author__, __author_email__, __license__
from .__version__ import __copyright__, __cake__

My best guess is that __cake__ was added as an Easter Egg, but I'm not sure what the value u'\u2728 \U0001f370 \u2728' represents. (Possibly a Unicode string?)

Why does Requests have a __cake__ variable? What does u'\u2728 \U0001f370 \u2728' mean?

Answer 1

\U0001F370 is a shortcake: https://codepoints.net/U+1F370

\u2728 is sparkles: https://codepoints.net/U+2728

But that's just the "what". More interestingly is "why" it is done.

I am not familiar with python package standards, so when I look at the surrounding code as well as previous commits, and see variables like __version__, __copyright__, __author__, I assume that other variables that you introduce yourself such as __cake__ are just as valid.

However, more realistically, whether there is a technical motivation behind it, I would say it is more for branding purposes, or simply for fun. But one thing we know for sure, the cake certainly is a lie.