Title: ['Tough Love, or 'Are we paying attention yet?'] ---Scenario: Socratic Genie {SG} is holding forth--- 1. >>> import os You rang,master 2. >>> os SG: Yo, my name is,my name is,my name <module 'os' from 'C:\PYTHON22\lib\os.pyc'> 3. >>> dir(os) ['F_OK', 'O_APPEND', 'O_BINARY', 'O_CREAT', 'O_EXCL', 'O_RDONLY', 'O_RDWR', 'O_TEXT', 'O_TRUNC', 'O_WRONLY', 'P_DETACH', 'P_NOWAIT', 'P_NOWAITO', 'P_OVERLAY', 'P_WAIT', 'R_OK', 'TMP_MAX', 'UserDict', 'W_OK', 'X_OK', '_Environ', '__all__', '__builtins__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__name__', '_copy_reg', '_execvpe', '_exists', '_exit', '_get_exports_list', '_make_stat_result', '_make_statvfs_result', '_notfound', '_pickle_stat_result', '_pickle_statvfs_result', 'abort', 'access', 'altsep', 'chdir', 'chmod', 'close', 'curdir', 'defpath', 'dup', 'dup2', 'environ', 'error', 'execl', 'execle', 'execlp', 'execlpe', 'execv', 'execve', 'execvp', 'execvpe', 'extsep', 'fdopen', 'fstat', 'getcwd', 'getenv', 'getpid', 'i', 'isatty', 'linesep', 'listdir', 'lseek', 'lstat', 'makedirs', 'mkdir', 'name', 'open', 'pardir', 'path', 'pathsep', 'pipe', 'popen', 'popen2', 'popen3', 'popen4', 'putenv', 'read', 'remove', 'removedirs', 'rename', 'renames', 'rmdir', 'sep', 'spawnl', 'spawnle', 'spawnv', 'spawnve', 'startfile', 'stat', 'stat_result', 'statvfs_result', 'strerror', 'sys', 'system', 'tempnam', 'times', 'tmpfile', 'tmpnam', 'umask', 'unlink', 'unsetenv', 'utime', 'write'] SG: You're desire? 4. >>> os.lstat SG: Yo, my name is,my name is,my name <built-in function lstat> 5. >>> os.lstat() SG: Happy to lstat for you. Lstat what? 6. >>> ? os.lstat() SyntaxError: invalid syntax SG: Not even close. Why not try "ertjke;" for that matter? 7. >>> help SG: How hard did I make that?

Type help() for interactive help, or help(object) for help about object.

Now you know what help is. Do you wish me to perform it? ["()", "perform" - anything getting through yet?] 8. >>> help(os.lstat()) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<pyshell#24>", line 1, in ? help(os.lstat()) TypeError: lstat() takes exactly 1 argument (0 given) Come on. help(object) was the incantation I suggested. Does () make an object a wish or a wish an object? 9. >>> help(os.lstat) SG: Are we learning something? Help on built-in function lstat: lstat(...) lstat(path) -> (st_mode, st_ino, st_dev, st_nlink, st_uid, st_gid, st_size, st_atime, st_mtime, st_ctime) Like stat(path), but do not follow symbolic links. 10. >>> os.lstat()__doc__ SyntaxError: invalid syntax SG: Now, do you *really* think a () belongs there? [patience, patience] 11. >>> os.lstat.__doc__ SG: Had a problem with help(os.lstat)? And you were expecting maybe? 12. >>> print os.lstat.__doc__ SG: Hey buddy you looking to lstat or are we just playing games here? SG QUESTION Have you enjoyed our session on the meaning of ()? Oh yeah .. and something about lstat came up to, didn't it?