Learning new APIs/classes (beginner question)

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:41:23 -0700, Martin Jones wrote:

> In a nutshell: My question is: how do experienced coders learn about
> external/third-party classes/APIs?

Does it have a tutorial? Do it.

Does it have a manual, a wiki, FAQs, or other documentation? Read them.

If all else fails, what does help(external_library) say?

Are there examples you can follow? Do so.

Does it have a mailing list to ask for help? Subscribe to it.

Google for examples and sample code.

If all else fails, read the source code if it is available.

Otherwise find another library.

If you can't do that, then you're stuck with learning by trial and error. 
Which is to say, mostly by error, which is a trial.


> I'm teaching myself Python through a combination of Hetland's 'Beginning
> Python', various online tutorials and some past experience coding
> ASP/VBScript. To start to learn Python I've set myself the task of
> coding a viewer/editor for Google Contacts and Google Calendar, mainly
> because I've been experiencing some synchronisation anomalies lately.
> This has so far entailed getting into Google's Contacts API.
> 
> Although they give some examples, my searches haven't been able to 
> pull up anything approaching comprehensive documentation on each 
> class/method.

Sounds like this library is documented the same way most third party 
libraries are: as an afterthought, by somebody who is so familiar with 
the software that he cannot imagine why anyone might actually need 
documentation.

I feel your pain.


-- 
Steven