[bwhmather]

Implementation details at the top. Python is a scripting language so modules are actually evaluated from top to bottom. Putting high level logic up top is nice when you just have functions, which defer lookup until they are called, but you quickly run into places (decorators, base classes) where it doesn't work and then you have to switch. Better to use the same convention everywhere. You quickly get used to reading a module from bottom to top.

[mkesper]

But this is really backwards? Everyone uses the if __name__ == "__main__" dance to avoid calling functions before they're defined, no?

[bwhmather]

It is a bit backwards, but in exchange you get predictability

With backwards sorting you know that, unless there is a cycle, you can always scroll up from a call site to find the definition or down from a definition to see where it is used. With forwards sorting you can scroll down to find a definition, unless the function was imported, or used as a decorator somewhere, or called by something that was used as a decorator, or used in some other way that I haven't thought of.

My personal experience is that this predictability is hugely useful. It almost entirely obviates the need for jump-to-definition within a module, and gives modules a very obvious shape and structure.

[aij]

I never thought of it as backwards. Defining functions before calling them makes as much sense as defining terms before using them or assigning variables before reading them.