Hobbyist - Python vs. other languages

[Luis M. González]

On 31 jul, 15:32, fprintf <stuart.a.h... at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have been playing with computers since I first learned to program
> moving shapes on an Atari 800XL in BASIC. After many years of dabbling
> in programming languages as a hobbyist (I am not a computer scientist
> or other IT professional), I have never found a way to stick with a
> language far enough to do anything useful.  I learn all about loops
> and data structures and functions/methods etc. but never get to create
> a program that will do anything of value that I can't more easily do
> via freeware. Well, except the slot car timing system I wrote in C++
> for Linux many moons ago.
>
> Honestly Python seems like a breath of fresh air and possibly a way to
> get back to my BASIC roots, you know, programming just for the fun of
> it.
>
> Since I don't have a specific problem to solve, besides
> Pythonchallenge (which I found very cryptic), and Project Euler (which
> I found beyond my mathematics skills), is there a place to go for
> increasingly difficult problems to solve? I have followed a number of
> the recommended online tutorials that contain a logical progression of
> problems and yet they all end at the point where a person has enough
> knowledge of the syntax, but not really enough to do anything.

Are you interested in web development?
This could be a very good way to use python for doing useful things,
since any app you create for the web can be instantly available to
thousands of people. And now you have Google App Engine, which is a
new and free way to get your python app online.
Actually, any problem you may want to solve should have some kind of
graphical interface if you want your app to be used by other people.
So why not giving your apps a web interface? It has many advantages,
and it seems to be the way to go today.