[Tutor] Advice needed on first project

[Adam]

Thanks Magnus. I have some more related questions below

Magnus Lycka wrote:

> Adam wrote:
> 
>>I've started coding some python as my first attempt at learning it - I 
>>kind of learn things by doing them.
><snip>
> 
> Try replacing the line:
> 
> create_new_article.newarticle()
> 
> with
> 
> article_items  = create_new_article.newarticle()
> 

I did try this earlier, but must have had a syntax problem, or something 
similar - it seemed to me to be the most obvious thing to do. Am I right 
in thinking that the passed article_items and the menu article_items are 
different references - or do they point to the same object? What I'm 
trying to say is, does it produce a copy of that object, or is it 
another pointer to that same object ?

> 
>>I'd also appreciate some feedback on the code design. Does the code 
>>reflect the best design, or would there be a better way of doing this?
> 
> 
> No. There is always a better way of doing things. Is it good enough?
> Well, since it doesn't actually work yet, and seems far from complete,
> I guess it's a bit early to say...
> 
> One detail is that you shouldn't make lines longer that 70-80 characters
> (just like with normal text) as it gets difficult to read.

Agreed

> It's also not very pythonic to make such small modules. I this case
> I see no reason to make more than one file. Split it if it really needs
> to be split, i.e. if it gets big, has several maintainers etc. With the
> typical "if __name__ == '__main__':" trick, you can still use the code
> as a module even if it also works as a stand alone program.

Ah, I did wonder this - it is good to know this sooner than later. I 
will try to encorporate the code in to fewer files.

> I also see two cases where it might be more pythonic to use a loop
> and a more data driven approach, 

Hmm - I'm not sure what you mean here - would this involve producing 
something like a query module, which acts as a menu which receives the 
options that are available and then outputs them to the user and handles 
the response? I imagine that this would save a lot of coding. Is this 
possible? It is difficult for me to be clear without writing some code. 
I might have a stab at this this evening.

> You might also consider using triple quoted milti line strings for
> your welcome message.
> 

What benefit does this offer? I thought that the quotes pretty much 
acted in the same ways, unless you used 'special chars', like " and ' 
inside them. Does this have something to do with the newline characters?

Thanks again. Already I feel at home!

adam