New to Python, and programming, looking for advice

Cyrusm · 2008-06-17 16:52:24

Hi everyone,
So I just recently started learning Python, with the ultimate goal of becoming a proficient software developement hobbiest in the open-source community (and maybe make a career out of it as soon as I get some practical experience under my belt) I've been taking on-line tutorials for about a week now and haven't really found anything to suit my current needs. Basically what the problem is, is I've found quite a few beginners tutorials on batch programming, and touched on event-driven programming and making GUI's with Tkinter and GTK+, but I'm having trouble tying the two together (basically, I can make a program, I can make a GUI, but I can't figure out how to make a program with a GUI) Does anyone know a good tutorial or book that I can use to overcome this obstacle? Maybe I'm just moving too fast and I need to get a better grasp on the basics before I move on.
I've currently been learning from "Learning to Program" by Alan Gauld, (a great beginners tutorial in Python, Java, and VBScript). it seems to move a little quickly though and I don't think I've been learning the "function to the form"
Programming fascinates me beyond belief, (my girlfriend has a hard time tearing me away from emacs ) I guess I'm just looking for advice on where to go from here. or maybe some small projects to help get my feet wet. any sage-like-advice will be appreciated.

Cyrusm

sniffles · 2008-06-17 17:04:19

Cyrusm wrote:

(my girlfriend has a hard time tearing me away from emacs )

I take it she's a VIM fan?

Have you checked out this: http://www.python.org/doc/ .. and more specifically this: http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonBooks ?

Also, check this out: http://norvig.com/21-days.html

Cyrusm · 2008-06-17 17:30:40

I really liked this page, it definitely makes me feel better about my situation, and gave a good laugh http://norvig.com/21-days.html

peets · 2008-06-17 18:14:43

I wrote a python program that needs finishing and improving. It provides facilities for checking if some webcomics have updated, downloading the webcomic to store it locally, and display a collection of web comics in html. It's around 200 lines split across several modules. Warning: I am also a python newbie. This will probably be my last python project because I don't like it (python, not the project. I don't see the point of the language. It seems like the worst of both worlds, whatever two worlds you pick!). I can make a tarball of the files and send them over to you!

For general programming / computer usage advice, this is a good start, with some reserve: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/index.html

I think some of the programs that help make Arch are written in python. You might want to have a look at those.

P.S. Maybe the best tip I can give is to be patient. Now that you know that you can make your computer do anything, just wait to see what you would really like to do with it. Program for yourself. Write something that "scratches your itch". The market is you.

Last edited by peets (2008-06-17 18:21:07)

pelle.k · 2008-06-17 18:39:52

http://diveintopython.org/ !

sph · 2008-06-17 19:09:44

A Byte of Python

http://www.swaroopch.com/byteofpython/

dsr · 2008-06-18 02:00:41

Make sure you're comfortable with all the material in http://docs.python.org/tut as well as the aforementioned http://www.diveintopython.org. Then write some command-line software for practice, using http://docs.python.org/lib and http://docs.python.org/ref as references. Since you're just starting, you should probably learn PyQt or wxPython since they're more portable than PyGTK (look better on Windows and Mac OS X) and more powerful than Tkinter. Qt probably has a cleaner design than wxWidgets, but note that you can only use it to write free (libre) software. Good luck with your explorations into the world of programming. I think Python is an excellent choice for a first language.

buttons · 2008-06-18 12:57:58

I cannot believe no one has mentioned this: http://python.net/~goodger/projects/pyc … ndout.html

As soon as you're even remotely familiar with the language the above link is required reading. While learning correct idioms for any language is A Good Thing, python's are especially important, because many of them deal with readability.

[knap] · 2008-06-18 17:52:27

This one is very good, and is one of the books for my course which uses python in college

http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/

gazj · 2008-06-18 18:55:38

Have this coming hopefully tomorrow

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSear … 13986.html

'Learning python'. Can't wait.

My linux format magazine gave it 9/10 will let you know if ut's any good

Arch Linux

#1 2008-06-17 16:52:24

New to Python, and programming, looking for advice

#2 2008-06-17 17:04:19

Re: New to Python, and programming, looking for advice

#3 2008-06-17 17:30:40

Re: New to Python, and programming, looking for advice

#4 2008-06-17 18:14:43

Re: New to Python, and programming, looking for advice

#5 2008-06-17 18:39:52

Re: New to Python, and programming, looking for advice

#6 2008-06-17 19:09:44

Re: New to Python, and programming, looking for advice

#7 2008-06-18 02:00:41

Re: New to Python, and programming, looking for advice

#8 2008-06-18 12:57:58

Re: New to Python, and programming, looking for advice

#9 2008-06-18 17:52:27

Re: New to Python, and programming, looking for advice

#10 2008-06-18 18:55:38

Re: New to Python, and programming, looking for advice

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