[Tutor] NEWBIE looking for help (fwd)

[Danny Yoo]

Hi Robert,

Let me foward your message to Tutor; I'm a little busy at the moment, but
I'll try to answer later this evening.

Here's a quicky link to PalmPython, software to build Palm conduits in
Python:

    http://pdacentral.planetmirror.com/palm/preview/34601.html

Other interesting links include the Pippy, a Python interpreter for the
Palm:

    http://www.endeavors.com/pippy/


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed,  6 Feb 2002 10:22:07 -0500
From: Robert Garber <garber@centralcatholic.org>
To: Danny Yoo <dyoo@hkn.eecs.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Re: [Tutor] NEWBIE looking for help

Thank you very much taking the time to respond to my questions. I have
been working very hard to gather the info needed to complete my project
and i am so far very satisfied with the results. I have been messing
around with writing programs for the PALM OS USING PDA Toolbox. My
eventual goal is to write my program for use on a windows machine as well
as a Palm OS device. That means I will also need to write a conduit to
synch the desktop to the palm. Is python capable of such a task?

Thanks again,
Robert
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Danny Yoo <dyoo@hkn.eecs.berkeley.edu>
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 19:03:16 -0800 (PST)

>On Mon, 4 Feb 2002, Robert Garber wrote:
>
>> I am very new to programing and am hoping that Python is the place to
>> start. My question is this: I am a football coach who is very unhappy
>> with some of the software available to use in scouting and keeping
>> stats. I am certian a program of this nature will need to be set up as
>> some type of database that is searchable ( by formation, field
>> position, player number/position, down and distance, etc...)
>
>Hi Robert,
>
>You might be able to do a lot with Python combined with a SQL relational
>database.  It might be good to invest some time looking at SQL.  Here are
>some links that may help explain what SQL is about:
>
>    http://www.arsdigita.com/books/sql/
>    http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/MySQL/Intro/page1.html
>    http://mysql.com/
>
>A relational database is a fairly flexible medium for saving and querying
>data.  You can learn it independently of Python, and it's not too hard to
>coax a relational database to do basic bread-and-butter stuff.
>
>
>
>> is Python the language to start with? I have purchased the Sams
>> "TEaching yourself Python in 24 hours" as Alan Gaulds "Learnign to
>> program book". I have also downloaded every tutorial I can find on
>> python. I am enjoying the learning experince and hope that Python is
>> the language to open a whole new world for me. Thans for any help,
>
>Cool!  Glad to hear you're enjoying things.
>
>It must be said that this is "Python-Tutor" --- you may not get an
>unbiased answer here.  *grin* Yes, I think it's a good language to learn
>and use.  It has a fairly nice syntax that tries not to get in the way of
>learning.  It's nice because you can do a lot of casual programming with
>it, yet it's powerful enough to handle things like web serving and
>scientific applications.
>
>Most importantly, it has a great community behind it!  *grin* There's more
>cheerleader-style advocacy here:
>
>    http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=3882
>
>Try Python out; it's free, and you can always ask questions here.  We'll
>do our best to answer your questions well.  Ah, by the way, here's a link
>that has another good source of tutorials:
>
>    http://python.org/doc/Newbies.html
>
>
>
>For the sake of completeness, I should mention: there's another powerful
>programming language called Perl, and it too has a strong user community
>behind it.  If you're interested, take a look at:
>
>    http://learn.perl.org/
>
>for more information.  I wouldn't say that Perl is for beginners --- Perl
>code can have a really cryptic syntax, and I think it forces the user to
>carry too much mental baggage.  Still, it's a very popular alternative,
>and it's good to know what choices you have.
>
>
>Good luck to you!
>
>