Hopelessly Lost And Desperate Newbie

[Peter Hansen]

Afgncaap5 wrote:
> 
> Hello, there.  I'm desperately in need of assistance, because I can't figure
> out how to get Python to work.  Could someone help me with a program that can
> examine textual input in pairs of letters, keep track of how often the letters
> occur, and then write a random letter generator based on that input, do you?
> 
[snip problem description]
> 
> Does this make sense, or am I rambling?
> 
> Sorry for being so dense, but while I can get some of the stuff in all of the
> Python tutorials, there are a few things that I'm still having trouble even
> getting started with.

This sounds far too much like homework for me to want to give any direct 
answer, but even if it's not homework, you really ought to do a few things
to get better responses here.

One is to make at least a token effort to solve the problem yourself, and then
if you can't quite figure it out, post a snippet of your "best effort" to 
show that you are actually trying.  Nobody wants to help someone who doesn't
try.  (Not entirely true, actually, since in this newsgroup there'll always be
someone who does help anyway. :-)

Secondly, explain exactly what is giving you trouble.  Is it a particular
data structure, or some control flow, or performance, or what?  You say
"there are a few things that I'm still having trouble with"... well what are they?

Thirdly, while the problem description seems clear enough, it really seems
like either a homework problem or perhaps an attempt to create more spam
support tools... either of which should scare off most people from giving you
the answer on a silver platter.  At least try to explain why you are "desperate"
for an answer for such a problem... it's not like the world will end if you
don't get a solution, I suspect.  If it's homework, say so, and you'll get 
useful help that doesn't just give away the answer (which wouldn't help you at all).
If it's actually real work, explain how that could be, and you'll get some
serious pointers (probably to places where you can learn more, since clearly
you don't know enough Python yet to be using it for serious work).

Finally, http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html might be of interest.

-Peter