[Tutor] Python

[Steven D'Aprano]

On 14/08/13 08:38, Jake Wohldmann wrote:
> Hello I am a beginner to using any type of script.  How long does it take
> to become fluent at a script?

How long is a piece of string?

The answer could be anything from "a couple of hours" to "forever". It depends on:

- what scripting language are you using? (presumably Python)

- how smart and focused are you?

- how much effort and work are you willing and able to put it?

- can you practice regularly, before you forget your last practice session?

- do you have a natural inclination to programming?

- have you ever programmed before?

- what other programming languages do you know?

- what level of knowledge do you consider "fluent"?

If you're an intelligent, expert programmer with lots of experience in other languages, you could learn the basics of Python in a few minutes, and become fluent in hours. (Fluent, however, is not "expert".) If you can barely spell "PC" and spend all your time messing about on Youtube and Facebook, you'll never become fluent.

Given that we don't know the answer to any of those questions except the first, the only honest answer is, it will take as long as it takes. But as an extremely rough rule of thumb, for the average person who has never programmed before but has an inclination towards programming, it probably takes about 1-200 hours of focused practice in a programming language to:

- learn the syntax and functionality of the base language and built-in types;

- become comfortable reading average code;

- learn the more common standard library functions;

- become comfortable searching the standard library for existing solutions instead of re-inventing the wheel;

- become able to write your own code following the standards and idioms common in the language;


which is what I consider moderately fluent.



>I will only be able to practice python on
> weekends since school is starting.  I was also wondering if I could use
> python on my android phone.

Yes, but not trivially. First you have to be able to install software on your phone. Have you tried googling for "python android phone"?

https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=python+android+phone



-- 
Steven