[Tutor] New programmer, need some help getting started on my first project

[Kent Johnson]

Chris Delgado wrote:
> Here is an example of the type of output I am looking for.

<snip a bunch of examples>

OK, I think you have your work cut out for you :-) I still think my 
basic approach can work but the output handler is going to have to keep 
track of a fair amount of stuff as it gets parse events. The good news 
is you can build it up a line at a time - start with a program that 
converts the first line correctly, then make it two lines, etc.

> I wont lie, I found your "simple" example a bit mind blowing, maybe I 
> need to work through some more tutorials lol. Still plugging away, 
> thanks so much for helping this novice out.

Yes, it uses a lot of...hmm...at least novice-level concepts - 
cooperating classes, regular expressions and first-class functions, for 
a few. You said you have read a couple of books and you seemed at least 
comfortable with the idea that you might need classes and regular 
expressions so I didn't explain it much. Feel free to ask questions 
about the parts you don't understand.

I wonder if maybe you need to write some code? You talk about *reading* 
but you haven't mentioned *writing*. You can't learn to program without 
writing programs - that would be like learning to write a foreign 
language by reading books in the language - it helps but it won't get 
you there!

So if you have just been reading, I suggest you try writing a few small 
programs as warmups.

Good luck!
Kent