[Tutor] Starting a simple python project

miguel.guasch at hushmail.com miguel.guasch at hushmail.com
Fri Mar 22 10:02:38 CET 2013


Greetings all!


My name is Miguel Guasch, I'm a software tester who's trying to 
slowly get into automation, and eventually (in a couple of years) 
into development. For that, I need to learn. At the moment I'm 
studying computer engineering in the evenings, and we do a lot of 
work in C and assembly. Java will be coming at some time, but not 
for the moment. So I decided to learn python as a side project, so 
I could get my feet wet with OOP and start actually being 
productive. I understand the basics of OOP thanks to a class I took 
about object modelling and design (UML on Enterprise Architect)

In order to better learn python, I'm trying to "automate" (or make 
it easier to do) repetitive tasks here in the company. 

Like, for example:

We have to write a daily "status" e-mail of our tasks, divided 
into: planned for tomorrow, open tasks, finished tasks, general 
findings.

I thought I could take it upon me to write a small program to, 
instead of writing these e-mails at the end of the day, we could 
just have the program open, and, as soon as we start working on a 
task, we enter it, and before we close it, we can write "general 
findings" to it.

It would work like this in the beginning: Open the program, import 
a new template, write the open tasks you have (and any you receive 
during the day), and then start working on a certain task. While 
working on the task, you can write a "general findings" entry to 
it, and when you're done, you "close it" (meaning, you open the 
next one). The tasks have specific ID numbers based on our 
ClearQuest entry numbers, so it would be easy to match the open and 
finished tasks, and substact the finished from the done ones.

At the end of the day, you can click on "end" and it would generate 
a simple text file with a very simple formatting, like:

Planned for tomorrow:
1.
2..

And the same with the others.

We could then just copy the text files contents and paste them into 
a regular outlook e-mail

This is a simple start, but in the future I'd like to be able to 
store these tasks in a folder and name the text files with the days 
date, so I can "import" them back in case I need to look at it.
I'd also like to make a small dictionary with the names and e-mail 
addresses of the people who should receive the e-mail, and somehow 
either copy the text into an outlook e-mail, or directly send it 
over SMTP (whichever is simpler)


I'm having a hard time actually starting, but so far I have a basic 
idea and it shouldn't be too hard.

I'm planning to use wxPython on Windows 7 because it looks pretty 
simple so far and it also looks elegant enough :-)


If you guys/gals could comment on this, or give me some kind of 
advice, I'd be more than thankful. I'll be sure to let you know how 
it goes, and share the source.


Thanks, everyone!
 
All the best!

Miguel A. Guasch
miguel.guasch at hushmail.com  



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