[Tutor] Why I'm learning Python (OT and long)

[Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams]

On Thu, 30 Aug 2001, Sheila King wrote:

> Just the other night I was saying to my husband, how discouraged I was,
> because the more I learn, the more I realize that I don't know. I
> wondered how do people learn all this stuff about how the operating
> systems work, and file locking and sockets and servers and ...
> Lots of stuff I'd like to know, but it took me a whole week (with lots
> of help) to write a file-locking module that works cross-platform on
> Win32/Unix. (And has only been tested under win98 and Linux.)

The whole OS innards thing can take a LOOOONG time to learn Trust me, I have
almost a decade and I still have a lot to learn.

> I know I need to learn some database stuff as well, but SQL seems a bit
> intimidating. And I don't really have anything to practice on. (Or time
> to do so, either, it seems.)

It only looks intimidating because it's big. It actually follows certain
rules so it's very predictable. Plus, there are many many many tools out there
to help you.

<plug>
If you're using MySQL (http://www.mysql.com/), there is a tool written in PHP
called phpMyAdmin (http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpmyadmin/) which will
help you use it. It can do almost anything with it. Plus, I've been helping
out with it, so it can't be THAT bad ;)

Version 2.2.0 is coming out RSN; it's going to be SLICK.
</plug>

> In my search for code to help me with file locking, I tried reading
> other people's code and couldn't understand it, either. (That's partly
> why I write my own. At least I understand my own code!)

Understanding other people's code only comes after months of working with your
own, because you need a point of reference for yourself.

> Here's some code I was looking at today that I COMPLETELY DON'T GET:
> http://www.sabren.com/code/python/crypt/md5crypt.py
> (I'm wanting to learn how to do session management and cookies...
> http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lab2q/lesson_7/

The MD5 message-digest algorithm (RFC 1321,
ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1321.txt) isn't something that _anybody_ gets;
it's enough that it works ;)

> So what am I saying here? Basically, Bill, you aren't the only one who
> feels this way. I'm stumbling through, as well. So, hang in there. The
> best thing about Python, I think, is the supportive community. If you've
> managed to fool those guys you work with for four years, you must have
> something going for ya! ;)

Meh. I think Bill here is just still a little uncomfortable with Python. I
remember feeling that way when first starting out with Python (and PHP, and
XSLT, etc...)

> --
> Sheila King
> http://www.thinkspot.net/sheila/
> http://www.k12groups.org/

-- 
Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams  <ignacio@openservices.net>