[Tutor] Greetings Pythonistas

[Lie Ryan]

On 1/8/2010 12:15 AM, galaxywatcher at gmail.com wrote:
> This is my first post to the Python tutor list and I just wanted to
> introduce myself and give a little background on my skill level prior to
> asking for Python advice and programming tips. I am relatively new to
> Python, but I have been dabbling with unix shell scripting for at least
> 10 years. I can construct powerful one liners using awk, sed, cut, uniq,
> sort, grep, etc. I definitely know my way around the unix file system. I
> use vim with various plugins, and I feel like I am the eternal unix
> student, constantly evolving my skills, but never reaching mastery. I
> have worked my way slightly past the novice level with Perl, but I never
> felt that I made the breakthrough that I needed to feel proficient
> enough to do anything serious with it.
>
> Python feels different. I have the gut instinct that I can really
> develop my skill set to do great things with the language. By great, I
> mean, that I can take an idea, a big idea even, and efficiently
> transform that idea into a software reality. I really want to master
> this language. I am reading two books at the moment and working through
> the exercises: Dive into Python by Mark Pilgrim, and Python Programming
> - An Introduction to Computer Science by Zelle. I have ideas that I want
> to develop, I put the books down and start scripting, but I always seem
> to hit a wall based on my lack of knowledge, so I pick up the books
> again and continue reading.

I suggest you read the official tutorial: http://docs.python.org/tutorial/

Since you have prior experience, you should be able to finish the 
tutorial in a 2-3 days or less. Don't start having any fancy ideas at 
first, at least not until you finished chapter 9; where you will have 
been fully introduced to most of python's core features.

Chapter 10 and 11 is an introduction for the most commonly used standard 
libraries; you could save a lot of time from having to reinvent the 
wheel just by reading the standard modules described there.

Don't forget about the built-in help() and the REPL shell.

 > I often wish that I had a private tutor or a
 > Python guru that I could just ask how to get past a certain wall.
 > Perhaps this list has that person or people on it. With that said, I
 > look forward to participating with the Python tutors here.

No, this list does not "have that person"; the list is "that person". 
Just write about the wall you've just stumbled upon.