total and utter newbie

[John Hunter]

>>>>> "rockbox" == rockbox  <rockboxb at webmail.co.za> writes:

    rockbox> Hi.  I hope that this is the right group to post this
    rockbox> problem in. If not then I appologise.

Ahh yes, the oldest newbie problem in the book :-)

In current versions of python (as in C and many other programming
languages) an integer divided by an integer returns an integer, so

x = 3/2      #x is 1

but if either number is a floating point number, then the division you
are expecting is used

x = 3.0/2.0  # x = 1.5

The trick is to add a decimal point and a 0 to your number unless you
want integer behavior

x = 3.0/2  # this is also 1.5

This is being phased out of python, and is slated for destruction.

Recent versions of python (2.2?) allow you to use

from __future__ import division

at the beginning of your program to get the division you are
expecting.

See http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0238.html for the official
information about these changes, and how how to do old fashioned
integer division under the new system when you want to.

Have fun!
John Hunter