On Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 3:57 PM, Ryan Shuell wrote: > > Thanks guys. I just feel frustrated that I can't do something useful. > I'm reading all about dictionaries, and types, and touples. Then I read > about string manipulation and loops; two of my favorite things to do. Then > I read about logic: > -719 >= 833 > False > > That's great, but it's just not very useful for me. I thought I could use > Python to do screen scraping. Right now, I use R to do almost all my screen > scraping. I used to use Excel, but r is just light years easier to use, so > I'll go with that. I thought Python may be even easier to use than R, and > perhaps even more powerful too. However, since I picked up my first Python > book about 3 months ago, I seem to be learning all kinds of useless things, > and no practical things. When I find cool code samples online, I can't even > get them to run. Last week I found a small sample of code that supposedly > merges data from several text files in a folder into one single file. I > played with it for a couple hours, and never got it to work. In less than > 15 minutes, I could have done the merging task, using Excel, Access, VB.NET, > C#.NET, or even a batch file.
You have my sympathies. Most of what help you'll get here is 'inside-out': Start with small toys. Work slowly towards more realistic problems Many people (like you) would like to go the other way -- Start with trying to solve a real problem. Handle the small nitty-gritties as they arise. On and off Ive expressed a need in a similar direction eg https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2011-November/615522.html https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2011-May/603506.html https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2011-May/603635.html The problem with your approach is that its very system-specific >>> [1,2]+[3,4] [1, 2, 3, 4] will be the same on any python. Any OS. Any version. However installing a package will vary. And the best way of installing will vary widely. So its harder to help OTOH I will say this: Any learning requires some faith at least temporary and provisional. If you pick up some book which purports to educate on some subject and decide before opening it that - subject is bogus - author is a rogue etc etc you are not likely to get much out of it.¹ So it may irritate you to listen to the advice you get here to start baby-steps first. However if you dont listen, you are wasting time - most of all your own. ----------- ¹ Of course your suspicions may be true. Thats the fun of life! -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list