python newbie

[Maura E Monville]

On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 1:50:54 PM UTC+1, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Jun 2014 05:10:03 -0700, Maura E Monville wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> > My supervisor has palmed me off with a python code, written by a
> 
> > collaborator, which implements an algorithm aimed at denoising the dose
> 
> > distribution (energy per unit mass) output from a radiation transport
> 
> > Monte Carlo code. My task is to translate the python code into a MatLab
> 
> > code. A colleague of mine and I stared at the python code for a while
> 
> > without understanding the logic. To me that code looks like Chinese or
> 
> > Arabian. I don't have clear ideas about the syntax and python variables.
> 
> > For instance, in MatLab there is the cell array storage type to host
> 
> > data of different type. I have no idea how a 3D matrix can be loaded
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> > through python. Does a debugger exist for python code ? Is there an easy
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> > concise user's manual ?
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> If you don't understand how to even read Python code, using a debugger 
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> isn't going to help you.
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> 
> 
> Start by spending an hour or two to go through the tutorial, to get up to 
> 
> speed with the basic principles of the syntax:
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> 
> 
> https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/
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> 
> 
> If you're using Python 3, you should use this instead:
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> 
> 
> https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> Although there aren't very many differences between the versions, when 
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> you're learning something for the first time, those differences can be 
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> perplexing.
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> 
> 
> Once you've done that, you'll be better able to ask sensible questions 
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> about your code. Feel free to show us your code (especially snippets) if 
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> there is anything unclear.
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Steven

Thank you so much.
I am pretty sure you'll have to put up with my naive questions for a while. The python code though is not long.
Best regards,
Maura