[Tutor] Python information

[Rob]

> > I'll pose this question to the list (especially the newbies): What would
> > you like to see demonstrated in a tutorial for absolute programming
> > newbies? Be as specific or as general as you like.
>
> I was wondering if there would be any chance of creating "spot" tutorials
> for added features in new releases, given that the rate of change means
> that the paper people have little chance to catch up. These spot
> tutorials
> [do pythons have spots?] could be organsized as "chapters" and should be
> less of a chore to write than a whole book.
>

I agree that this would be nifty, although I'm not "cutting edge" enough to
actually use most new features as they come up. I tend to learn new Python
(or any other programming language) tricks in one of three ways most of the
time:

1. By "happy accident" or magic. I will be piddling around doing something
odd, like sifting through the documentation and just seeing what all I can
figure out about some module. I try things out and *BAM!*... knowledge
occurs. (As NASA scientists not-infrequently seem to point out: You are more
likely to find something when you look for it.)

2. I need/want to do something, so I look it up as best I can and likely
wind up asking people like the Tutor List, Jython Users list,
comp.lang.python, etc. and benefit from spiffy on-the-spot lectures. The
archives are AMAZINGLY rich with these gems.

3. I set out to write an answer, however weak, to someone else's question or
problem. It's really spectacular how much you can learn by just *trying* to
answer someone else's question, whether or not yours proves to be the one
that seems to do them the most good. A variant on this is trying to write a
short demo or tutorial on anything you can put words to. I have added a few
of these to Useless Python, and look forward to adding more after this class
I'm in finishes (after this week) and I have more time to get caught up on
updating the site.

So I'm not usually the first to get to the newer features of the language
unless they happen to be something I already need to do.

Rob
http://uselesspython.com