<HTML dir=ltr><HEAD><TITLE>Re: [Tutor] Shelve del not reducing file size</TITLE>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT color=#000000 size=2>Eric Brunson wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>> You seem like a smart guy that's having a bad day, so I'm cutting you</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>> slack.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>Thanks Eric. Yes I did indeed have a bad day (and it got much much worse),</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>and this is most definitely a case of a bad workman blaming his tools. I</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>apologise to all concerned for voicing my frustrations: it was clearly ill-advised.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>Still.. call me idealistic but I feel like a good toolmaker should try to listen to her</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>clients.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>I am not a dedicated programmer. I have other stuff on my plate. I probably</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>wouldn't be a programmer at all if Python wasn't (in the early stages) so</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>fabulously friendly.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>Alan Gauld wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>> But Pythons library is not newbie friendly, sorry. How does </FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>> a newbie know when to use pickle v cpickle? or urllib v urllib2? And </FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>> which of the xml parsers? And as for thev mess that is glob/os/path/shutil?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>> Its not clear to me even after 10 years of using Python which function</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>> sits where and why. And what about the confusion over system(),</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>> popen(),commands(),spawn(), subprocess() etc. or why is there time</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>> and datetime? Sure it makes sense once you've played with Python</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>> for a while it makes some sense and you learn the role of history.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>This is very much how this particular 'newbie' has experienced things. I'm</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>not here to damn Python, but to praise it, for opening </FONT><FONT size=2>my eyes to a whole</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>bunch of stuff. But you know when I teach biology and genetics, and the</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>kids don't get it, I feel like the onus is on me to improve my teaching. And</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>if I code a tool for people in my lab, and they can't use it, then I feel like</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>I've got some work to do, either in teaching or in making the tool easier to</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>use.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>That's just me, Tiger, and I'm sorry it makes you spit venom. Not my</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>intention at all. But it's Alan's hand </FONT><FONT size=2>that I want to shake, because as</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>far as I can tell, he's looking to the future, to the next <FONT size=2>generation, </FONT>to</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2>the ugly reality and the </FONT><FONT size=2>bright potential, </FONT><FONT size=2>and quite frankly, you're not.</FONT></DIV></DIV></BODY><br/>
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