[Tutor] yet another Useless article

[Rob Andrews]

Danny Yoo wrote:

> 
> On Fri, 24 May 2002, Rob Andrews wrote:
> 
> 
>>http://uselesspython.com/BatteriesIncluded.html is the latest article
>>freshly posted on Useless Python. It's so new I haven't really proofed
>>it yet, and (as usual) submit it for a little constructive criticism.
>>
> 
> Looks good!  Are there other articles that you're planning on writing?
> 


I actually hope to add as many of these articles as possible to Useless 
Python, since the whole point of the site is to encourage people to 
start banging out code any way they can. Sometimes I set out to write 
about a particular subject (like the Jython/Swing piece), and sometimes 
I just start writing and see what comes of it. So other than the fact 
that I'd like to do more Jython-oriented material, I have no idea what's 
coming up next.

Also, these articles are part of my own learning process. You can learn 
a lot very quickly by trying to put it into words that someone else will 
understand. And trying to talk about these things in words that even 
someone like ME will understand is a special effort indeed!

Of course, part of my subconscious is also dwelling on the website and 
how great it would be if more tutorials and learning-based articles were 
collected in one central website. I'm very far from a Python guru, but I 
can honestly say that the process of learning Python is one of the great 
joys of my adult life, and who doesn't want to share their joy?


> 
> Another interesting module that could be used to show how modules are neat
> might be one of the cryptographic hashing modules like 'md5', since it's
> something that packages some really complex stuff in a tidy package.
> 


I haven't messed with the crypto modules yet, just because I keep 
needing to sleep every now and again. Of course, anyone could contribute 
such examples for the site. Format isn't a big deal, since I can always 
slap some XHTML around just about anything. (I'm not anti-proud of some 
of my little bits of wizardry in the web arena, like managing to 
actually get whitespace to appear in a browser window! heh)


> 
> One pitfall I've run into before is that, sometimes, I name one of my own
> modules something that's in the Standard Library.  It might be good to
> explain that Python files in one's directory are also 'modules' that
> Python can import.
> 


I did hint at this without stating it in so many words. It's on my list 
of things to go back and say, but haven't found all the right words for yet.


Thanks,
Rob