So I'm learning Python again

Sir Gooch P Tigglington

Sir Gooch P Tigglington

Epic Skial Regular
Contributor
A few years ago I picked up a book on Python and eventually made it around to writing a small game where you guessed a number between 1 and 100, and the game would hint you toward the correct number and track the number of guesses you made. Example: the game randomly picks 48, and you choose 67 as your first number. The game says "Lower...", and you pick 20. The game says "Higher...", and so on until you get the number. Your score is based on the number of guesses it takes you (with lower being better).

Long story short, I've completely forgotten everything in the past few years and now that Python 3 is out, I'm just starting over fresh. Does anyone on the forums program in Python? If so, I'd love to hear about some simple project ideas to get me motivated (TF2 metal calculator?) or resources.

I was making my way through Codecademy until the interpreter stopped working for me and everyone else on the planet. I've moved on to this:

http://www.openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e/

Going to dig up my books soon.
 
You could try your public library, if the one by you doesn't have it but it's part of a system they could likely get it in from another library in the same system. Depending on your age most college systems within a state offer the same program.

Also assuming you live in the U.S.
 
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OakyTree said:
You could try your public library, if the one by you doesn't have it but it's part of a system they could likely get it in from another library in the same system. Depending on your age most college systems within a state offer the same program.

Also assuming you live in the U.S.
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That's a good suggestion. There is a library within walking distance of my house. I'll have to see if they have any of the NoStarch books I've been eying.

Currently doing Gen Ed for a CS degree and working full time. I am at a two year college in a transfer program that requires C++ and Java, although they offer Python. Bums me out.
 
You know what IDE to use? Last I programmed in Python I used Eclipse. Also, you could try to mess with the pygame module I guess.

Seriously though, Python sucks imo.
 
People who bluntly claim a programming language "sucks" don't understand the basic principles of Turing completeness and the specialization of programming paradigms, so you should pay them no attention.

I've been programming in Python for years now (I'm also decent at C and C++). While books like Learn Python The Hard Way or Dive Into Python are great for learning syntax and concepts, doing projects is always the best way to learn because you get "real life" experience in problem-solving, which simply cannot be taught.

Read a bit of those, then start doing a simple game (preferably something abstract like Tetris without intricate physics and such), visual effect (recursion tree, plasma) or simulation (Game of Life, Falling Sand), perhaps using the Pygame library. When you get stuck, ask questions from communities like /r/learnprogramming and Stack Overflow. Or just PM me or something.

At first it's like "holy fuck what is object-orientation, why does this code not work, I'll never be able to learn this". Everyone's been there. But if you keep going, you'll eventually have a couple of simple projects to look back on, and you'll suddenly feel like everything is intuitive.

Gradually, you get absorbed into the hobby. One day you find yourself coding a Commodore 64 demo in a basement at 4 AM. By the time you're making a new operating system from scratch, you will be completely detached from everyday life, other humans, and transient desires such as food or sleep. Then you start your greatest project yet: the program analyzing all online traffic for fractally resonant information so you could divide physics into its prime factors and start running a simulation of the real world on your computer.

Then you'll be one of us.
 
Uncle zägä said:
People who bluntly claim a programming language "sucks" don't understand the basic principles of Turing completeness and the specialization of programming paradigms, so you should pay them no attention.

I've been programming in Python for years now (I'm also decent at C and C++). While books like Learn Python The Hard Way or Dive Into Python are great for learning syntax and concepts, doing projects is always the best way to learn because you get "real life" experience in problem-solving, which simply cannot be taught.

Read a bit of those, then start doing a simple game (preferably something abstract like Tetris without intricate physics and such), visual effect (recursion tree, plasma) or simulation (Game of Life, Falling Sand), perhaps using the Pygame library. When you get stuck, ask questions from communities like /r/learnprogramming and Stack Overflow. Or just PM me or something.

At first it's like "holy fuck what is object-orientation, why does this code not work, I'll never be able to learn this". Everyone's been there. But if you keep going, you'll eventually have a couple of simple projects to look back on, and you'll suddenly feel like everything is intuitive.

Gradually, you get absorbed into the hobby. One day you find yourself coding a Commodore 64 demo in a basement at 4 AM. By the time you're making a new operating system from scratch, you will be completely detached from everyday life, other humans, and transient desires such as food or sleep. Then you start your greatest project yet: the program analyzing all online traffic for fractally resonant information so you could divide physics into its prime factors and start running a simulation of the real world on your computer.

Then you'll be one of us.
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are you saying that you made Jagga OS?
 
I think my greatest problem with programming is mostly trying to learn a new language and then getting bored because making console programs get old pretty damn quick.

screw you hello world
 
Tomatketchup said:
You know what IDE to use? Last I programmed in Python I used Eclipse. Also, you could try to mess with the pygame module I guess.

Seriously though, Python sucks imo.
Click to expand...

Right now I'm using IDLE in Linux at home, and IDLE in Windows at work. I do have Eclipse but I got that for Java. I might look into getting it working with Python. In the past I've developed Python by just using a text editor and then compiling the .py files. I do need to look into Pygame, and I've also been pondering maybe trying to write my own game engine years down the road once I pick up enough skill.

Tomatketchup said:
I think my greatest problem with programming is mostly trying to learn a new language and then getting bored because making console programs get old pretty damn quick.

screw you hello world
Click to expand...

I too have this problem, I'm really looking forward to learning how to integrate graphics into things.

takethepants said:
If you want to start learning, I would try Google's intro: http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-class/
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This is awesome, thanks!
 
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