[docs] "knights of Ni" bug

[Martin Feuchtwanger]

Sandro,

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses -- most helpful!

I still think that something like

"Note that this tutorial is version N and many of the examples will not work with version
N-1 or version N+1 because ..."

Placed at the beginning --and frequently throughout-- will be very useful to a beginner --or anyone 
for that matter-- and it would even be more useful than

"Python is an easy to learn, powerful programming language. It has efficient
high-level data structures and a simple but effective approach to
object-oriented programming. Python’s elegant syntax and dynamic typing,
together with its interpreted nature, make it an ideal language for scripting
and rapid application development in many areas on most platforms."

after all, it is supposed to be a tutorial on --not an advertisement for-- Python.

Cheers,

Martin Feuchtwanger


On 13/04/2011 9:36 AM, Sandro Tosi wrote:
> Hi Martin,
> thanks for your detailed email :)
>
> On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 22:03, Martin Feuchtwanger<martinf at underhill.ca>  wrote:
>> Hi Sandro, Benjamin, et al.,
>>
>> Maybe you didn't notice -- i was using 2.6.4
> I thought I was using 2.6 but I was on a 2.7, that's the difference in
> behaviour :)
>
>> IDLE 2.6.4
>>>>> print 'We are the {} who say "{}!"'.format('knights', 'Ni')
>> Traceback (most recent call last):
>>    File "<pyshell#0>", line 1, in<module>
>>      print 'We are the {} who say "{}!"'.format('knights', 'Ni')
>> ValueError: zero length field name in format
> As you already know, the tutorial is for python 2.7 so the syntax can
> be different than previous versions.
>
>> If you're wondering why i'm using 2.6...
>> I was following the advice on
>> http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/Download so i downloaded and
>> installed 2.6.4 on my windows work computer. I worked thru the web-based
>> tutorial http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ and all was well until i got to
>> the "knights of ni" example, hence my first email query.
> Wikis are an extremely powerful tools, but they need to be updated -
> and reader should be aware (generally speaking) wiki can be outdated,
> while official documentation is not.
>
>> Interestingly, on the weekend, when i decided to install python on my home
>> computer, i never saw any advice re stability on windows {i now realize it
>> is because, silly me, i was getting advice on two different python.org web
>> sites}, so i downloaded and installed 3.2 on it. Unfortunately, none of the
>> print examples in the web-based tutorial http://docs.python.org/tutorial/
>> work on 3.2
>>
>> Python 3.2 (r32:88445, Feb 20 2011, 21:29:02) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on
>> win32
>>>>> print 'We are the {} who say "{}!"'.format('knights', 'Ni')
>> SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>
>> Now, i notice that the web tutorial is for python 2.7,
> exactly that's the problem :)
>
>> and i'm well aware,
>> from other parts of the web site, that there are significant changes from
>> python 2 to python 3, and, yes, i know that in python 3 print follows strict
>> function syntax, but may i suggest to you, and maybe to the entire docs/wiki
>> team,
>>
>> That each tutorial have this added at the beginning:  "Note that this
>> tutorial is version N and many of the examples will not work with version
>> N-1 or version N+1 because the silly bunts at python.org like to invent a
>> new kind of python with each release".
> of course this won't happen. Please note that at the beginning of the
> tutorial, there's the precise version of it: in your case:
>
> Release:	2.7
> Date:	April 13, 2011
>
>> That you explain on both wiki.python.org and docs.python.org that, although
>> they (docs and wiki) look the same they are different web sites and contain
>> conflicting information.
> Wiki.python.org is registration-free: you can create a user (or use an
> openid provider, like google) and start updating the pages you feel
> need a bit of attention. You'll convert your problematic experience in
> a contribution to python, and that would be awesome!
>
> Cheers,