Getting started with python

[Eric_Dexter at msn.com]

On Apr 17, 11:00 pm, Basilisk96 <basilis... at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Apr 14, 8:46 pm, "Eric" <erichapk... at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hello, after reading some of the book Programming Python it seems that
> > python is something I would like to delve deeper into. The only thing
> > is, I have no idea what I should try and write. So I was hoping that
> > someone here could help point me to a group/project that would be a
> > good starting place for a person with limited python knowledge, but
> > that is willing to learn whatever is necessary. I'm hoping that with a
> > goal I can start to learn python instead of just playing around with
> > it. Thanks.
>
> Eric,
>
> You will certainly appreciate how concise and easy Python is.
> I am also relatively new to Python (started about a year ago), and I'd
> rather not go back to any other language! Why would I want to torment
> my not-so-quick typing fingers?? :)  I'm a self-learner. I learn by
> reading, by example, and by doing.
>
> Here is a list of suggestions. Start with simple things, grow
> confident, and move on to more interesting stuff as you progress:
>
> At the Python command line, type "import this" to see the basic ideas
> behind Python development. It begins with "Beautiful is better than
> ugly." - a nice thought.
>
> 1. First of all, read the publication "How to Think Like a Computer
> Scientist: Learning with Python" by Allen B. Downey et al.  I have
> found this little gem to be very, very useful when I first got
> interested in Python and thought to myself, "how do I go about
> learning this, where do I start??".  Highly recommended. I read it
> from start to finish in a couple of days and started making useful
> scripts right after that.  The author actually implements a simple
> card game toward the end of the book, using all the knowledge from the
> previous chapters.  The text is available at:http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/
>
> 2. Play with Python from the command line first, using PyShell,
> PyCrust, or any of its other siblings that come with the wxPython
> package (a GUI toolkit - see #8 below).  You will find the code
> completion feature and the syntax helper quite useful.
>
> 3. Tinker around with the builtin modules.  There's a lot of built-in
> functionality in Python right out of the box. Try the "os" and "sys"
> modules to experiment with filesystem handling. Try reading and
> writing text files, as this is quite a common task with a variety of
> applications. Try the "struct" module for binary file processing.  Try
> the "urllib" and "urllib2" modules for loading and processing Web
> pages... I could go on, but you get the idea.
>
> 4. If you have a text processing background, dip your hand in regular
> expressions with the "re" module. Maybe you have a need for extracting
> some statistical data from a financial report, and this might be one
> way to do it.
>
> 5. If you have a mathematical background, download and install the
> NumPy or SciPy package and do some wild matrix math!
>
> 6. I have recently tinkered with the Pymedia package, perhaps you want
> to try it later on.  It is a nice tool for dealing with audio - for
> recording, encoding, decoding, spectrum analysis, etc.  In just a few
> hours, I came up with a nice voice-activated MP3 sound recorder
> application.
>
> 7. If you feel brave and want to work with Windows COM client/server
> stuff (assuming Windows is your platform), get the PythonWin package,
> also known as "win32com" and try to read/write Excel, Word files,
> etc., or whatever
>
> 8. Last but certainly not least, once you feel comfortable with basic
> Python, try GUI development.  Several gui toolkits are out there.
> wxPython is a good one to start with, though you may find some others
> to your liking.
>
> 9. If you have previous programming experience, try taking an
> application you've developed before and port it to Python.  See how
> much your code base shrinks compared to its C++ or Java counterpart :)
> But really, do it just to understand Python on a deeper level. Instead
> of thinking in the old way, try to think in the Pythonic way.  A nice
> example of this is iteration.  Where an iteration counter variable is
> required in most other languages, Python inherently supports iteration
> in sequence objects like lists, strings, and dictionary keys; so the
> syntax is simpler in most cases.
>
> -Basilisk96

     I choose python with a goal in mind the language was not
important..  Python is fantastic for input and output..  Once in a
while I get stuck and to be honest if I had a little more cash I would
be putting a small project on rent a coder that said tracker software
where the notes are defined in collums are great for practicing input
output, I can always do that myself but if there is a interest (or if
a intresting idea presents itself because small projects can be
linked) then I am game...  good luck to all of you and happy learning