Pythons & Ladders

[Jeff Schwab]

Benoit wrote:
> I've been teaching myself the python language over the past few months
> using Mark Lutz' Learning Python, 3ed.  Python is also the first
> programming language I've ever taken up.  I find the language easy to
> learn and rather productive in relation to the introductory course on C
> ++ I'd begun in January for fun @ school (we're practicing dynamic
> arrays using pointers... kill me now).

Get a better teacher, if you can.  Please do me a personal favor:  Don't 
hold the crappy course against C++.  For the record, you should never 
have to manage dynamically allocated arrays manually, nor store pointers 
to them.  Try the std::vector template, and post in comp.lang.c++ if 
have any trouble.

>  My problem, however, is that I
> found myself lacking problems with which to create solutions and so
> practice what I've learned.  I think I'm one of those people who
> really get into something when the instructions come from without.
> 
> So I'd like to ask you resident python gurus to help me learn.  Give
> me something to do!  Specifically, I'd like to be given tasks that
> incrementally increase in difficulty, starting from simple file/text
> manipulation to those harder things like built-in function overloading
> (you know, where you can make the "+" operator do something different
> in relation to a given object). I hope my request doesn't come off as
> demanding, as perhaps we could archive these tasks for future
> pedagogy.
> 
> If something like this already exists though, please point me in the
> right direction.  Otherwise, thanks for any and all assistance.

Happy hacking!
http://www.pythonchallenge.com/