new here

[Alex Martelli]

"Cheese Effect" <dmtapp at hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:8tv9kk$9sd$1 at coward.ks.cc.utah.edu...
> I'm new to programming basically.  Well I learned some stupid Basic stuff
> years ago as a young teenager, but don't remember much and I've heard
> that not remembering is a good thing.

Hoi Cheese, welcome!  If you're familiar with Monty Python's
"Cheese Shop" sketch, you know almost everything important
about the Art of Programming (the remaining 15% is in the
"Parrot" and "Spanish Inquisition" sketches, basically!).


> Does anyone have any good advice as to how to get into the right mindset
to
> start playing around with code.  I've also read that Python is good code
> because it is powerful, clean, but simple.

Yep, it IS that.  "Easy, Clean, Powerful" is the title of
my adaptation of Hetland's classic tutorial (latest version,
Italian only, at http://sra.itc.it/people/olivetti/; that's
what I presented a few days ago at the Linuxmeet).

The right mindset (for Python): I gotta learn the rules,
but the system AIN'T outta get me.  Few languages can
make such a heady claim.


> I do know HTML and network stuff.

That's very good.  You do know There Are Rules (and
yes, they have exceptions, sometimes... not often,
though!).  Now just grab "how to think like a computer
scientist (with Python)", aka
http://www.eleceng.uct.ac.za/courses/EEE103W/python/yhslug.tux.org/obp/think
CS/thinkCSpy/
and ask here for any doubts...!


Alex