[Tutor] wanting to learn

[Alan Gauld]

"Michael yaV" <michael at yavarsity.com> wrote

> person. I have taught myself HTML and flash by reading manuals and a 
> lot of trial and error over the last 11 years. I have always wanted 
> to  learn a language like php, asp, .net but I never took the time 
> to  learn them. I have recently found Python and  believe this is 
> the  language that I will "hang-my-hat-on" and learn.

Thats a good choice. Python is one of the easiest languages to learn.

> "django" but really, how much Python do I need to know before I can 
> head down the web path?

You need to know about:
data types and structures (numbers, strings, lists, dictionaries etc)
sequences
loops
branches
functions

and for Django, one more advanced topic:
OOP, although at a fairly basic level.

This can all be picked up in a week doing 2 hours or so per day.


> Is Python a language a total beginner/tutorial reader like myself 
> can  learn or do I need to take classes at a local college?

Python is easy to learn and there are lots of tutorials for
absolute beginners listed on the non programmers section
of the python site. I try not to push my own tutor too often but
it is well suited to you since it also teaches basic JavaScript
which you definitely should learn for web apps too. (Python can't
do browser side scripting)

> just too much to learn to do this on my own. I am starting to get a 
> bit over whelmed with all of the information I'm finding.

There is a lot of concepts and jargon.
In my tutor I try quite hard to explain all terms as I first use them
and highlight jargon terms on first use. I also have a couple of
concept topics before getting onto the hands-on stuff, and I
recommend that you do take the half hour to read them if you
decide to do my tutor. (And of course I am online to answer
questions :-)

-- 
Alan Gauld
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld