Early retirement project?

[wxjmfauth at gmail.com]

Le mardi 21 janvier 2014 18:34:44 UTC+1, Terry Reedy a écrit :
> On 1/21/2014 6:38 AM, Tim Chase wrote:
> 
> > On 2014-01-21 00:00, xeysxeys at gmail.com wrote:
> 
> >> Well, I retired early, and I guess now I've got some spare time to
> 
> >> learn about programming, which always seemed rather mysterious. I
> 
> >> am using an old mac as my main computer, and it runs os x 10.4 is
> 
> >> this too old? It fills my needs, and I am on a fixed income and
> 
> >> can't really afford to buy another. I think python would be a good
> 
> >> starter language, based on what I've read on the net.
> 
> >
> 
> > It's certainly a great way to consume lots of hours :)
> 
> >
> 
> > Mac OS X 10.4 should come with an older version of Python
> 
> > out-of-the-box.
> 
> 
> 
> Someone else said that it comes with 2.5. That will be fine for many 
> 
> purposed. If you do use that, always make any classes you define a 
> 
> subclass of 'object' if nothing else. In other words,
> 
> 
> 
> class MyClass(object): ...
> 
> # instead of
> 
> class MyClass: ...
> 
> 
> 
> In Python 2, the second gives you an 'old-style' or 'classic' class. You 
> 
> do not need to learn about those. In Python 3, both forms give you 
> 
> new-style classes, which is what you should learn.
> 
> 
> 
> There are a few other obsolete features to avoid, such as using strings 
> 
> for exceptions.
> 
> 
> 
> > The install media should also include XCode if you
> 
> > want to download the latest & greatest version of Python and install
> 
> > that from source instead.
> 
> 
> 
> If you can do that easily, I recommend starting with the latest Python 
> 
> 3, especially if you want to work with non-English (non-ascii) characters.
> 
> 

In fact, Python just becomes the last tool I (would)
recommend, especially for non-ascii users.

jmf