old_contents: import json
  import requests
  
  
  class TemperatureWatch(object):
      thermostat_url = None
      alert_high = 80
      alert_low = 60
      _last_response = None
  
      def get_info(self):
          r = requests.get(self.thermostat_url + '/tstat')
          self._last_response = json.loads(r.text)
          return r.text
  
      def check_temp(self):
          if not self._last_response:
              self.get_info()
  
          if self._last_response['temp'] > self.alert_high:
              self.alert('Temperature max of %s exceeded. Currently %s' % (self.alert_high, self._last_response['temp']))
  
          if self._last_response['temp'] < self.alert_low:
              self.alert('Temperature min of %s exceeded. Currently %s' % (self.alert_low, self._last_response['temp']))
  
      def alert(self, message):
          print(message)
  
  
  if __name__ == '__main__':
      tw = TemperatureWatch()
      tw.thermostat_url = 'http://10.0.1.52'
      tw.check_temp()
  
new_contents: import json
  import requests
  
  
  class TemperatureWatch(object):
      thermostat_url = None
      alert_high = 80
      alert_low = 60
      _last_response = None
  
      def get_info(self):
          r = requests.get(self.thermostat_url + '/tstat')
          self._last_response = json.loads(r.text)
          return r.text
  
      def check_temp(self):
          if not self._last_response:
              self.get_info()
  
          if self._last_response['temp'] > self.alert_high:
              self.alert('Temperature max of %s exceeded. Currently %s' % (self.alert_high, self._last_response['temp']))
  
          if self._last_response['temp'] < self.alert_low:
              self.alert('Temperature min of %s exceeded. Currently %s' % (self.alert_low, self._last_response['temp']))
  
      def alert(self, message):
          print(message)
  
  
  if __name__ == '__main__':
      thermostat_ip = '10.0.1.53'
  
      # simple configuration - set the IP, nothing else. Print the alerts when they occur to stdout. Not very useful though...
      tw = TemperatureWatch()
      tw.thermostat_url = 'http://%s' % thermostat_ip
      tw.check_temp()
  
subject: Refactor the initialization a bit to make configuration easier.