[Tutor] hitting a wall (not a collision detection question :P)

[Che M]

So, I'm just wondering what I should be doing at this point. Sorry for the vague question, but I'm pretty lost right now and this is about as specific as I can be. Thanks in advance for any help.

Michae

I started from scratch a 3 years ago and my advice would be:

- Accept confusion.  Marinate in it.  Don't fight it.  Clarity will come, with time.  It is easy to get overwhelmed early.  Take a break, get some hours of slow wave sleep, it will be clearer next time you engage it, probably.

- "I'm in a hurry, so dress me slowly".  Clarity and rushing don't mix well ever, but it is particularly bad with computer code.


- Make your function names meaningful:  long enough to tell what they do.  Make functions verbs, like GetDatabaseInformation(), and not just Database() or worse, D().  (This is my opinion, at least).  And comment your own practice code with explanations if that is helpful to you.

- Keep a notebook/file of what you have learned and where to find it again online if you need to refresh.

- Use this list and other lists (if there is a pyGame list, e.g.).  Great people in the Python community.  Ask good questions, too:  http://catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

- Once you have the basics a bit beyond "Hello, World!", don't just try to learn everything--learn *per task*.  So find what task you want, and try something simple to begin, establish that, and then move on.  

- Tutorials I've enjoyed and learned from:

Alan Gauld's Learning to Program
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/

Effbot's Guide to the Standard Python Library 
http://effbot.org/zone/librarybook-index.htm

Various Beginner video screencasts on ShowMeDo, incl. lots on beginning Python.
www.showMeDo.com

Good luck,
Che



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