[Tutor] Hands-on beginner's project?

[bob gailer]

nathan virgil wrote:
> I'm very new to Python, and (to a slightly lesser extent) programming 
> in general. I'd like to get some experience by practicing 
> simple-yet-functional programs, with a bit of an emphasis on games. 
> The first game I'd like to attempt would be a simple, non-linear 
> story, similar to those choose-your-adventure books. I don't want to 
> start with anything too complicated, like having mapped-out 
> directions, or interactive objects, although I do eventually want to 
> get into stuff like that.
>
>
> Python seems to me like it would be a good language for this sort of 
> stuff. I figure I just need to use a lot of print, if/elif/else, 
> raw_input(), and a ton and a half of variables. My problem at the 
> moment is that I don't know how to get from one section of the story 
> to the next. I vaguely remember reading about some language using a 
> "goto" command for something like this, but I'm not sure how that 
> would be handled in Python.
>
> A rough idea of what I'm trying to do (in a presumably hypothetical 
> language) would be something like this:
>
> 0100  print "Ahead of you, you see a chasm.
> 0200 jump = raw_input("Do you wish to try jumping over it? Y/N")
> 0300 if jump = Y:
> 0400       goto 1700
> 0500 if jump = N:
> 0600      goto 2100
>
> Does this make any sense? 

Yes

> Is there some way I could do this in Python? 

Definitely. Python is a "structured programming language". This means it 
has no GOTO statement.
You could, for starters, use the following algorithm:

room = 1
while True:

  # retrieve data for current room
  if room == 1:
    desc = "Ahead of you, you see a chasm."
    ques = "Do you wish to try jumping over it? Y/N"
    destY = 2
    destN = 3
  elif room == 2:
    desc = "Ahead of you, you see a warty green ogre."
    ques = "Do you wish to eat it? Y/N"
    destY = 4
    destN = 5
  # etc for the rest of the rooms

  # ask current question and move to next room
  print ques
  ans = raw_input(ques).upper() # allow for lower case input
  if ans == "Y":
    room = destY
  elif ans == "N":
    room = destN
  elif ans == "Q": # give us a way out.
    break  else:
    print "Please answer Y or N"

Start with this. Try to get it running. Then come back with questions.
Notice that I have separated the "data" (description of rooms and flow 
between rooms) from the program logic.
This makes things a LOT easier.
There are more complicated structures in Python that make game 
programming a LOT easier and more flexible that the above.

-- 
Bob Gailer
919-636-4239 Chapel Hill, NC