On Apr 17, 11:00 pm, Basilisk96 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Apr 14, 8:46 pm, "Eric" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Hello, after reading some of the book Programming Python it seems that > > python is something I would like to delve deeper into. The only thing > > is, I have no idea what I should try and write. So I was hoping that > > someone here could help point me to a group/project that would be a > > good starting place for a person with limited python knowledge, but > > that is willing to learn whatever is necessary. I'm hoping that with a > > goal I can start to learn python instead of just playing around with > > it. Thanks. > > Eric, > > You will certainly appreciate how concise and easy Python is. > I am also relatively new to Python (started about a year ago), and I'd > rather not go back to any other language! Why would I want to torment > my not-so-quick typing fingers?? :) I'm a self-learner. I learn by > reading, by example, and by doing. > > Here is a list of suggestions. Start with simple things, grow > confident, and move on to more interesting stuff as you progress: > > At the Python command line, type "import this" to see the basic ideas > behind Python development. It begins with "Beautiful is better than > ugly." - a nice thought. > > 1. First of all, read the publication "How to Think Like a Computer > Scientist: Learning with Python" by Allen B. Downey et al. I have > found this little gem to be very, very useful when I first got > interested in Python and thought to myself, "how do I go about > learning this, where do I start??". Highly recommended. I read it > from start to finish in a couple of days and started making useful > scripts right after that. The author actually implements a simple > card game toward the end of the book, using all the knowledge from the > previous chapters. The text is available > at:http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/ > > 2. Play with Python from the command line first, using PyShell, > PyCrust, or any of its other siblings that come with the wxPython > package (a GUI toolkit - see #8 below). You will find the code > completion feature and the syntax helper quite useful. > > 3. Tinker around with the builtin modules. There's a lot of built-in > functionality in Python right out of the box. Try the "os" and "sys" > modules to experiment with filesystem handling. Try reading and > writing text files, as this is quite a common task with a variety of > applications. Try the "struct" module for binary file processing. Try > the "urllib" and "urllib2" modules for loading and processing Web > pages... I could go on, but you get the idea. > > 4. If you have a text processing background, dip your hand in regular > expressions with the "re" module. Maybe you have a need for extracting > some statistical data from a financial report, and this might be one > way to do it. > > 5. If you have a mathematical background, download and install the > NumPy or SciPy package and do some wild matrix math! > > 6. I have recently tinkered with the Pymedia package, perhaps you want > to try it later on. It is a nice tool for dealing with audio - for > recording, encoding, decoding, spectrum analysis, etc. In just a few > hours, I came up with a nice voice-activated MP3 sound recorder > application. > > 7. If you feel brave and want to work with Windows COM client/server > stuff (assuming Windows is your platform), get the PythonWin package, > also known as "win32com" and try to read/write Excel, Word files, > etc., or whatever > > 8. Last but certainly not least, once you feel comfortable with basic > Python, try GUI development. Several gui toolkits are out there. > wxPython is a good one to start with, though you may find some others > to your liking. > > 9. If you have previous programming experience, try taking an > application you've developed before and port it to Python. See how > much your code base shrinks compared to its C++ or Java counterpart :) > But really, do it just to understand Python on a deeper level. Instead > of thinking in the old way, try to think in the Pythonic way. A nice > example of this is iteration. Where an iteration counter variable is > required in most other languages, Python inherently supports iteration > in sequence objects like lists, strings, and dictionary keys; so the > syntax is simpler in most cases. > > -Basilisk96
I choose python with a goal in mind the language was not important.. Python is fantastic for input and output.. Once in a while I get stuck and to be honest if I had a little more cash I would be putting a small project on rent a coder that said tracker software where the notes are defined in collums are great for practicing input output, I can always do that myself but if there is a interest (or if a intresting idea presents itself because small projects can be linked) then I am game... good luck to all of you and happy learning -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list