slightly OT: Python BootCamp

[J]

On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 09:21, Steven D'Aprano
<steve at remove-this-cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> On Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:20:24 -0500, J wrote:
>
>> The difference between me (learning a new language) and the guy teaching
>> (who knows it inside and out)
>
> I don't know about that. He's teaching some pretty atrocious habits. See
> below.

Ok... I snipped it because I don't know enough really to comment on
any one thing...

I supposed in his defense, I could say that the point of the exercise
had nothing to do with exception handling, and the part that DID
handle exceptions covered a good bit on actually catching individual
exceptions for various things, as well as doing things like writing
extensions to handle things.

Also, consider that this is a "boot camp" that's geared toward getting
you up to speed and writing functional code as quickly as possible.
One week has gone from "This is a string variable and you can iterate
it" to This is file operation, OS and SYS usage, exception handling,
etc... really, just in 4 days.  The last day, I think just covers
database access and operations and a brief overview of python web
development and the cgi module.

It's more an intense introduction for people who already know how to
write code (not necessarily, though, ones who know how to write it
properly) than it is a formal "This is how you write code the right
way".

I'm not necessarily trying to make excuses, but, that's my take on it.
 All I wanted to get out of it was familiarity with Python, a refresh
of OOP practices, and the ability to get REALLY started on some
projects quickly, making the code pretty and better afterwards...

Thankfully, I've got places like comp.lang.python and various books
and online references to help me take what I know and make it better,
but as a starting point, at least, it's not terrible.

Now, that all being said...  how atrocious was my OWN code sample.
I'm a firm believer in constructive criticism, so I'd like to know how
I'm doing so far.  I can provide other samples if necessary, because I
DO want to learn to write this cleanly and properly.

Keep in mind that while I DO know how to write programs, the only
thing I've really written in in 3 years now is BASH.  It's been ages
since I did anything in any other languages to amount to anything, and
if I did, it was something quick and dirty that got the job done and
that was that, not something I'd really want to give to anyone else to
use... Hackery if you will...

Cheers,

Jeff
-- 

Ted Turner  - "Sports is like a war without the killing." -
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