[Tutor] trouble with if

[Che M]

>I'm not sure what the whole indentation thing is for.  And now I'm having 
>trouble with the if statement things.

Maybe your if statement troubles have been solved by others by now, but I'll 
just add that "the indentation thing" is a vital feature of Python, it is 
the way to separate code blocks.  Other languages uses other means, like 
curly braces, etc.  I get the sense those who like Python enjoy indentation 
because it forces the code to be quite readable, and I agree.  See this:

http://www.diveintopython.org/getting_to_know_python/indenting_code.html

Also, as mentioned previously, keep in mind that 2 is not the same as "2" 
and "=" is not the same as "==".  The single "=" is used to assign names to 
objects, whereas the == is for evaluating something, so for if statements 
use == and not =.  Also note you can put "and" along with if, so you can say

if x == "mom" and y == "dad":
    print "my parents"

and lots of other stuff.
-Che

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