[Tutor] Tutor Digest, Vol 146, Issue 9

[Alan Gauld]

On 08/04/16 17:44, Jason Willis wrote:

> there are hard-coded content dependant entries. I solved this by changing
> all instances of the word "elite" and changing them to "standard" and the
> program works! 

Glad you got it working.

> I agree with you that taking a few hours to learn python
> would go a long way. I believe by doing things like this that this is
> exactly what I am doing. 

I don't know that you are. You are reading and playing with other
people's code. But you don't know if what you are reading is good
or bad code. For example the code you just posted is not that
great it (unnecessarily) mixes two different techniques for
processing the text and has several awkward stylistic things
going on. Also do you know what classes are for and when/how they should
be used? In the code example you sent there are two
classes and two functions, but why? And is that a good idea?

Just because something gives you the answer you expect today does
not mean it will tomorrow if it is not properly designed.
How do you know when the code you modify is well designed
unless you know what it all does? How will you fix it
if/when it breaks?

> I don't know if it's the materials I'm using or
> what but learning from a book is not helping me much. 

There are many online tutorials (see below for mine) but there
are also videos galore on Youtube/Vimeo etc.

I personally like the ShowMeDo series:

http://showmedo.com/videos/python

And there are interactive code schools online too that many
find more inspiring than reading books.

Here's one you might try:

http://www.learnpython.org/

But there are several others.

Don't get me wrong, reading and playing code is an important part of
learning to code. But even more important is creating your own code from
scratch. Only then are you forced to confront what each and every line
does and thus be sure you understand it.

And the great thing about Python is you can get up to a useful
standard with literally a few (<10?) hours of reading/practising.

-- 
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld
Follow my photo-blog on Flickr at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos