Need some simple coding help

[Steven Bethard]

mx2k wrote:
> indeed, we're it is our combat timeline. we enter the initiative and
> reaction time, it should find out the lowest then the next, then the
> 'n'th etc. and shouw it on the screen like
>  Next action 'Character Name1' at tick No  'Initiative1
>  2nd  action 'Character Name2' at tick No  'Initiative2'
>  [...]
>  'n'th action 'Character Name n' at tick No  'Initiative n'
> 
>   Now you enter a value by which the initiative should be increased,
> then adding reaction time to that value and then adding the result to
> reaction time. Now soring again by lowest,next,'n'th, etc. and then
> again showing the output, asking for another number etc.

Not sure if I got your calculation right, but something like this should 
work:

py> characters
[Character('Steve', 3, 2), Character('mx2k', 5, 1)]
py> def get_init(character):
...     return (character.initiative + character.reaction_time +
...             int(raw_input('%s initiative: ' % character.name)))
...
py> def print_initiatives(characters, rounds):
...     for _ in range(rounds):
...         inits = dict([(character, get_init(character))
...                       for character in characters])
...         for character in sorted(inits, key=inits.__getitem__):
...             print character, inits[character]
...
py> print_initiatives(characters, 3)
[... I type '5', '6' ...]
Character('Steve', 3, 2) 10
Character('mx2k', 5, 1) 12
[... I type '9', '1' ...]
Character('mx2k', 5, 1) 7
Character('Steve', 3, 2) 14
[... I type '1', '2' ...]
Character('Steve', 3, 2) 6
Character('mx2k', 5, 1) 8

If you want the characters in the opposite order, simply use
     sorted(inits, key=inits.__getitem__, reverse=True)
instead of
     sorted(inits, key=inits.__getitem__)

HTH,

STeVe