[Tutor] Tutor FAQ
Here's a small batch of questions/answers for the tutor FAQ. Let me know if you have any corrections or clarifications. I'll post them to the web site in a couple of days. Mike - How much code should I post? Post as much relevent code as you can. However, the consensus seems to be that the more code you post, the less likely you'll get someone to review it. A max of 100 lines is suggested. If you have more code, you might post your code at http://www.rafb.net/paste or a similar site. - How do I dynamically name my objects? How do I name my objects based on user input? Rather than performing voodoo by dynamically creating variables, your best bet is to use a dictionary with the keys being the name of the object or user input and the values being the objects. - Why doesn't my special method add, init, or cmp.. work? Remember to use two underscores before and after the method name __add__, __init__, __cmp__. ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
[Tutor] Tutor FAQ
Well, I posted a few questions to http://pyfaq.infogami.com/tutor-index late last week. Since the next questions and answers are a bit on the long side, I'll send them to this list in multiple messages. Please let me know if you have any corrections or clarifications. Below is a reworked question from last week. - How do I make public and private attributes and methods in my classes? Python followws the philosophy of we're all adults here with respect to hiding attributes and methods. i.e. trust the other programmers who will use your classes. You should use plain attributes whenever possible. You might be tempted to use getters and setters, but the only reason to use getters and setters is so you can change the implementation later if you need to. However, Python allows you to do this with properties http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.2.3/descrintro/#property If you really must hide an attribute or method, Python does do name mangling. By putting two underscores before the attribute or method name and not putting two underscores after the name, Python will mangle the name by putting the class name in front of it. For an short example see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_mangling#Name_mangling_in_Python [Paraphrased from a post to comp.lang.python by Steven Bethard] ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
[Tutor] Tutor FAQ
- What's the difference between import foo and from foo import *? import sys This brings the *name* sys into your module. It does not give you access to any of the names inside sys itself (such as exit for example). To access those you need to prefix them with sys, as in sys.exit() from sys import * This does NOT bring the name sys into your module, instead it brings all of the names inside sys(like exit for example) into your module. Now you can access those names without a prefix, like this: exit() So why not do that instead of import sys? The reason is that the second form will overwrite and names you have already declared - like exit say. exit = 42 from sys import * # hides my exit variable. OR more likely, the other way round from sys import * exit = 42 # now hides the sys.exit function so I can't use it. Of course some of these are obvious but there can be a lot of names in a module, and some modules have the same name in them, for example: from os import * from urllib import * open(foo) # which open gets called, os.open or urllib.open? Can you see how it gets confusing. Bottom line is it is usually better to accept the extra typing and use import foo or for just a few names from foo import bar,baz [from a post on Python Tutor by Alan Gauld] ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
[Tutor] Tutor FAQ
I need some help with this question and answer. It appears that useless Python is gone. uselesspython.com. Is it still around? Does anyone have any ideas on this one? - I'm learning Python. What should I program? If you have a personal itch to scratch, it's probably best to scratch it. You'll probably be more interested and motivated to program if it's something you want to accomplish. However, if you don't have any ideas, you can try the Python Challenge http://www.pythonchallenge.com/ ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
[Tutor] Tutor FAQ
- What are some good books on Python? See the Python wiki http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonBooks or search comp.lang.python or the tutor archives since this is a very frequently asked. If you have no programming experience, try Alan Gauld's book Learn To Program http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/ If you have some programming experience try Learning Python http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lpython2/index.html Dive Into Python http://diveintopython.org/ Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=10013 Core Python Programming http://starship.python.net/crew/wesc/cpp/ Good Python reference books are The Essential Python Reference http://www.samspublishing.com/title/0672328623 Python in a Nutshell http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pythonian/index.html Python Cookbook http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pythoncook2/ A note to Perl programmers who are learning Python. Don't start with Programming Python. It is not the same as Programming Perl. Start with Learning Python, then move on to Programming Python. ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
[Tutor] Tutor FAQ
- What is if __name__ == __main__ for? The 'if __name__ == __main__: ... trick exists in Python so that our Python files can act as either reusable modules, or as standalone programs. As a toy example, let's say that we have two files: ## mumak:~ dyoo$ cat mymath.py def square(x): return x * x if __name__ == '__main__': print test: square(42) ==, square(42) mumak:~ dyoo$ cat mygame.py import mymath print this is mygame. print mymath.square(17) ## In this example, we've written mymath.py to be both used as a utility module, as well as a standalone program. We can run mymath standalone by doing this: ## mumak:~ dyoo$ python mymath.py test: square(42) == 1764 ## But we can also use mymath.py as a module; let's see what happens when we run mygame.py: ## mumak:~ dyoo$ python mygame.py this is mygame. 289 ## Notice that here we don't see the 'test' line that mymath.py had near the bottom of its code. That's because, in this context, mymath is not the main program. That's what the 'if __name__ == __main__: ...' trick is used for. [From a post to Python Tutor by Danny Woo] ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ
Mike Hansen wrote: - What's the difference between import foo and from foo import *? import sys This brings the *name* sys into your module. (Technically, it binds the name sys to the object that is the sys module.) It does not give you access to any of the names inside sys itself (such as does not give you _direct_ access... exit for example). To access those you need to prefix them with sys, as in sys.exit() from sys import * This does NOT bring the name sys into your module, instead it brings all of the names inside sys(like exit for example) into your module. Now you can access those names without a prefix, like this: exit() So why not do that instead of import sys? The reason is that the second form will overwrite and names you have already declared - like exit say. exit = 42 from sys import * # hides my exit variable. OR more likely, the other way round from sys import * exit = 42 # now hides the sys.exit function so I can't use it. Of course some of these are obvious but there can be a lot of names in a module, and some modules have the same name in them, for example: from os import * from urllib import * open(foo) # which open gets called, os.open or urllib.open? Can you see how it gets confusing. confusing? Another disadvantage of from sys import * is that it makes it harder to find the definition of a name. If you see sys.exit() in the code, you know exactly where exit() is defined. If you see exit() in a module that has several from xx import * statements, you will have to search each imported module for the definition of exit(). Bottom line is it is usually better to accept the extra typing and use The bottom line... import foo or for just a few names from foo import bar,baz [from a post on Python Tutor by Alan Gauld] ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ
Mike Hansen wrote: - What are some good books on Python? See the Python wiki http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonBooks or search comp.lang.python or the tutor archives since this is a very frequently asked. If you have no programming experience, try Alan Gauld's book Learn To Program http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/ Python Programming for the absolute beginner http://premierpressbooks.com/ptr_detail.cfm?isbn=1%2D59863%2D112%2D8 Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science http://www.fbeedle.com/99-6.html If you have some programming experience try Learning Python http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lpython2/index.html Dive Into Python http://diveintopython.org/ Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=10013 Core Python Programming http://starship.python.net/crew/wesc/cpp/ Good Python reference books are The Essential Python Reference http://www.samspublishing.com/title/0672328623 Python in a Nutshell http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pythonian/index.html Python Cookbook http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pythoncook2/ A note to Perl programmers who are learning Python. Don't start with Programming Python. It is not the same as Programming Perl. Start with Learning Python, then move on to Programming Python. ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ
Py2exe makes an executable of your Python program. For Windows only. http://sourceforge.net/projects/py2exe/ I believe Gordon McMillan's installer (now called pyInstaller) also makes Linux (and Irix!) executables so may be worth a link/mention here too. http://pyinstaller.hpcf.upr.edu/cgi-bin/trac.cgi Although Linux users seem far less likely to want/need to create standalone executables. Alan G. ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
[Tutor] Tutor FAQ
Here's the next batch of questions and answers for the tutor FAQ. If you have any clarifications or corrections, please let me know. I'll try to post this on the web site in a couple of days. - How do I get data out of HTML? Try Beautiful Soup. http://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/ Beautiful Soup is more forgiving than other parsers in that it won't choke on bad markup. - What's the best editor/IDE for Python? It's really a matter of preference. There are many features of an editor or IDE such as syntax highlighting, code completion, code folding, buffers, tabs, ... Each editor or IDE has some or all of these features, and you'll have to decide which features are important to you. See http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEditors for a list of editors. Also http://wiki.python.org/moin/IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments has a list of IDEs. - How do I make public and private attributes and methods in my classes? Python followws the philosophy of we're all adults here with respect to hiding attributes and methods. i.e. trust the other programmers who will use your classes. You can't really hide variables and methods in Python. You can give clues to other programmers. Python does do name mangling. By putting two underscores before the attribute or method name and not putting two underscores after the name, Python will mangle the name by putting the class name in front of it. For an short example see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_mangling#Name_mangling_in_Python - Why doesn't my regular expression work? Typically, it's an isssue between re.match and re.search. Match matches the beginning only and search checks the entire string. See the regular expression HOWTO for more details. http://www.amk.ca/python/howto/regex/ - How do I perform matrix operations using Python? The Python FAQ has an entry on how to create multidimensional lists: http://python.org/doc/faq/programming.html#how-do-i-create-a- multidimensional-list You may want to look into the 'numarray' third party module: http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/numarray - How do I make an executable out of my Python program? Although it isn't necessary to turn your Python programs into executables, many people want to be able to put their Python programs on other machines that don't have Python installed. Py2exe makes an executable of your Python program. For Windows only. http://sourceforge.net/projects/py2exe/ ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ
Mike Hansen wrote: Here's the next batch of questions and answers for the tutor FAQ. If you have any clarifications or corrections, please let me know. I'll try to post this on the web site in a couple of days. Thanks Mike! - What's the best editor/IDE for Python? It's really a matter of preference. There are many features of an editor or IDE such as syntax highlighting, code completion, code folding, buffers, tabs, ... Each editor or IDE has some or all of these features, and you'll have to decide which features are important to you. See http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEditors for a list of editors. Also http://wiki.python.org/moin/IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments has a list of IDEs. This question is asked every few weeks on comp.lang.python so searching the archives will yield many opinions. - How do I make public and private attributes and methods in my classes? Python followws the philosophy of we're all adults here with respect to hiding attributes and methods. i.e. trust the other programmers who will use your classes. You can't really hide variables and methods in Python. You can give clues to other programmers. By convention, a name that starts with a single underscore is an implementation detail that may change and should not be used by client code. Python does do name mangling. By putting two underscores before the attribute or method name and not putting two underscores after the name, Python will mangle the name by putting the class name in front of it. IMO this needs work but not by me tonight... For an short example see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_mangling#Name_mangling_in_Python - Why doesn't my regular expression work? Typically, it's an isssue between re.match and re.search. Match matches the beginning only and search checks the entire string. See the regular expression HOWTO for more details. http://www.amk.ca/python/howto/regex/ Python comes with a handy program for testing regular expressions, Tools\Scripts\redemo.py. - How do I perform matrix operations using Python? The Python FAQ has an entry on how to create multidimensional lists: http://python.org/doc/faq/programming.html#how-do-i-create-a- multidimensional-list You may want to look into the 'numarray' third party module: http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/numarray Numarray is being replaced with numpy - we should refer people there You may want to look into the 'numpy' module which contains many resources for scientific computing including powerful matrix operations: http://numeric.scipy.org/ Kent ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ
Thanks Kent. I'll make those additions/corrections and rework the question about private and public attributes and methods. Mike On Apr 26, 2006, at 7:42 PM, Kent Johnson wrote: Mike Hansen wrote: Here's the next batch of questions and answers for the tutor FAQ. If you have any clarifications or corrections, please let me know. I'll try to post this on the web site in a couple of days. Thanks Mike! - What's the best editor/IDE for Python? It's really a matter of preference. There are many features of an editor or IDE such as syntax highlighting, code completion, code folding, buffers, tabs, ... Each editor or IDE has some or all of these features, and you'll have to decide which features are important to you. See http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonEditors for a list of editors. Also http://wiki.python.org/moin/IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments has a list of IDEs. This question is asked every few weeks on comp.lang.python so searching the archives will yield many opinions. - How do I make public and private attributes and methods in my classes? Python followws the philosophy of we're all adults here with respect to hiding attributes and methods. i.e. trust the other programmers who will use your classes. You can't really hide variables and methods in Python. You can give clues to other programmers. By convention, a name that starts with a single underscore is an implementation detail that may change and should not be used by client code. Python does do name mangling. By putting two underscores before the attribute or method name and not putting two underscores after the name, Python will mangle the name by putting the class name in front of it. IMO this needs work but not by me tonight... For an short example see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_mangling#Name_mangling_in_Python - Why doesn't my regular expression work? Typically, it's an isssue between re.match and re.search. Match matches the beginning only and search checks the entire string. See the regular expression HOWTO for more details. http://www.amk.ca/python/howto/regex/ Python comes with a handy program for testing regular expressions, Tools\Scripts\redemo.py. - How do I perform matrix operations using Python? The Python FAQ has an entry on how to create multidimensional lists: http://python.org/doc/faq/programming.html#how-do-i-create-a- multidimensional-list You may want to look into the 'numarray' third party module: http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/numarray Numarray is being replaced with numpy - we should refer people there You may want to look into the 'numpy' module which contains many resources for scientific computing including powerful matrix operations: http://numeric.scipy.org/ Kent ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
On Apr 22, 2006, at 3:15 AM, Fredrik Lundh wrote: Ed wrote: I don't think the FAQ is open to public editing yet. I'm not sure when it will be, but Fredrik might be able to give a timescale. There are a few known conversion issues to deal with (the FAQ uses a lot more looks like markdown syntax than the tutorial, which con- fused the converter). I've made some progress, but it'll probably take another week before everything's sorted out. When Ed brought up the tutor/tutorial FAQ idea, my first thought was that Ed and other volunteers could add pages in a separate tutor- namespace (to avoid collisions with material from the existing FAQ), and ended up writing a couple of paragraphs on how to manually convert titles to page names. When I found that I had written this isn't quite as hard as it may look, I realized that it would be better if I just wrote a script that did this. So, while I'm working on that script, I suggest that you start adding stuff the tutor suggestion page that I just set up: http://pyfaq.infogami.com/suggest-tutor One entry per comment; use ## title to mark the first line as the FAQ entry. I've added Mike's examples. cheers /F Hi, I'll post the questions and answers to the list first. If I don't get any corrections or clarifications in a day or so after posting, I'll add it to the tutor suggestion page. Ed mentioned that you are using restructured text. Should I put the entry in restructured text? I spent some time last night reading up on restructured text and docutils. Thanks, Mike ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
Mike Hansen wrote: I'll post the questions and answers to the list first. If I don't get any corrections or clarifications in a day or so after posting, I'll add it to the tutor suggestion page. excellent! Ed mentioned that you are using restructured text. Should I put the entry in restructured text? I spent some time last night reading up on restructured text and docutils. the infogami site uses markdown, which is a similar (but a bit simpler, imo) syntax. There's a very brief introduction on http://pyfaq.infogami.com/suggest-tutor (which basically says that you should use ## to mark the entry title, and indent all code snippets by at least four spaces) and there's an on-line test editor here: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/dingus (that pages also contains a cheatsheet and links to full documentation). When this is moved over to python.org, it'll either be handled as HTML or converted to ReST (which is the main syntax used on python.org), but that'll all be taken care of by tools. The important thing now is to get the content in place. cheers /F ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
When Ed brought up the tutor/tutorial FAQ idea and yes, I'll change tutorial FAQ to tutor FAQ, to make things a bit less confusing. ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
Yep, I'm volunteering. Forgive my ignorance, but I couldn't seem to figure out how to edit/add pages to http://pyfaq.infogami.com/. The tutorial wiki has the edit, but the pyfaq page doesn't. I am logged in using my reddit login. I don't think the FAQ is open to public editing yet. I'm not sure when it will be, but Fredrik might be able to give a timescale. I've made a start on adding your questions, but probably won't get to do much more until tomorrow. Ed On 21/04/06, Mike Hansen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Maybe this could be integrated with the main Python FAQ in a beginner's section? Fredrik Lundh is experimenting with a FAQ wiki here: http://pyfaq.infogami.com/ Actually I put something about this on PyFAQ just the other day. Fredrik was quite keen on the idea, but I've been busy the last couple of days and haven't got around to doing anything about it. Mike, if you're volunteering that would be perfect. If anyone here has ideas for questions that get asked a lot (like How do I write a program that prints a word backwards) then just posting them in this thread would be a good start. I assume Kent, Alan and Danny don't mind their answers being reused in the wiki, but it would probably best to get explicit permission from them (and other people) to re-use text from their answers. Ed ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor Yep, I'm volunteering. Forgive my ignorance, but I couldn't seem to figure out how to edit/add pages to http://pyfaq.infogami.com/. The tutorial wiki has the edit, but the pyfaq page doesn't. I am logged in using my reddit login. Below is what little I slapped together last night. I copied the content from the Python tutor mailman page for the first question. = Python Tutor FAQ - What is Python Tutor? This list is for folks who want to ask questions regarding how to learn computer programming with the Python language. Python (http://www.python.org) is a programming language which many feel is a good first language, because it makes it easy to express the fundamental concepts of programming such as data structures and algorithms with a syntax which many find easy to read and write. Folks interested in learning about programming with Python are encouraged to join, as are folks interested in helping others learn. While the list is called tutor, anyone, whether novice or expert, can answer questions. If individuals wish to start off-line conversations about a particular concept and become one-on-one tutor/tutee, that's fine. If either party wants to summarize what they learned for others to benefit, that's fine too. There is a searchable interface to archived Tutor messages on Activestate's web site at http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Browse/Threaded/python-Tutor. To see the collection of prior postings to the list, visit the Tutor Archives at http://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/ Using Tutor To post a message to all the list members, send email to tutor@python.org - I need help; I'm getting an error in my program. What should I do? If you are getting an error in your Python program that you don't understand, post the error message and any relevant code. Post the exact error message. Don't paraphrase the error message. The error message has details that can help resolve the issue that caused the error. - What is the policy on homework? Although those on the Python tutor mail list are eager to help, they don't want to hand you the answers to your homework. They want to help you find the answers. If you are having difficulty with your homework, send a message to the list about the problem and what you have tried. The tutors will try to nudge you in the right direction. - Why do my replies go to the person who sent the message and not to the list? This is by design. See http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html Also see this explanation http://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/2005-July/039889.html = Unless anyone has any more, I think the above covers the FAQs about the tutor list. Here's some of the FAQs that I came across scanning the list: ord and chr parsing html beautifulsoup editors/ides getters and setters regex match and find maxtrix operations how do I make an exe out of a python script books what should I program? unicode/encoding Mike ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
On 20/04/06, Kent Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Mike Hansen wrote: I'd like to send a big Thank You to Danny, Alan, Kent and others(whos names escape me) for being such an asset to the Python community by relentlessly answering questions on the tutor list.(Do these guys sleep? They must work in shifts.) This list is one of the most civilized and responsive lists I have ever read. When many pop onto the list and ask what may seem like some of the most obvious questions, you guys calmly answer and nudge them in the right direction without ever losing your patience. It's a great list. Thanks! I do sleep but I have my email tied in to my clock radio so whenever an email arrives on the tutor list I am awakened to answer it ;) Anyway, I've been reading the list for a couple of years now, and I wonder if a Tutor FAQ would be helpful. I don't believe one exists. Should there be something on the Python wiki that would list the most common questions to the tutor list along with their answers? It would be a FAQ about the tutor list as well as common questions to the tutor list. I wonder about this sometimes too. I think it would be good to have a place to collect this stuff. Maybe this could be integrated with the main Python FAQ in a beginner's section? Fredrik Lundh is experimenting with a FAQ wiki here: http://pyfaq.infogami.com/ Actually I put something about this on PyFAQ just the other day. Fredrik was quite keen on the idea, but I've been busy the last couple of days and haven't got around to doing anything about it. Mike, if you're volunteering that would be perfect. If anyone here has ideas for questions that get asked a lot (like How do I write a program that prints a word backwards) then just posting them in this thread would be a good start. I assume Kent, Alan and Danny don't mind their answers being reused in the wiki, but it would probably best to get explicit permission from them (and other people) to re-use text from their answers. Ed ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
Ed Singleton wrote: If anyone here has ideas for questions that get asked a lot (like How do I write a program that prints a word backwards) then just posting them in this thread would be a good start. We should be careful about posting solutions to homework problems, which this could easily be. I assume Kent, Alan and Danny don't mind their answers being reused in the wiki, but it would probably best to get explicit permission from them (and other people) to re-use text from their answers. Fine with me! Kent ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
I hereby give my permission for any answer I've ever posted to this list or to any other Python list or newsgroup to be used in any Python related FAQ anyone cares to produce! :-) Alan G. - Original Message - From: Ed Singleton [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: tutor@python.org Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 2:38 PM Subject: Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ? -- Mike, if you're volunteering that would be perfect. If anyone here has ideas for questions that get asked a lot (like How do I write a program that prints a word backwards) then just posting them in this thread would be a good start. I assume Kent, Alan and Danny don't mind their answers being reused in the wiki, but it would probably best to get explicit permission from them (and other people) to re-use text from their answers. Ed ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
On 21/04/06, Kent Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Ed Singleton wrote: If anyone here has ideas for questions that get asked a lot (like How do I write a program that prints a word backwards) then just posting them in this thread would be a good start. We should be careful about posting solutions to homework problems, which this could easily be. Agreed ;-) The last couple of times people have asked this, there's been some really good replies that helped them tease out the solution (what to think about, how to think about the problem, etc). I think quite a lot of the answers to some FAQs won't be solutions, but advice. Ed ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
I assume Kent, Alan and Danny don't mind their answers being reused in the wiki, but it would probably best to get explicit permission from them (and other people) to re-use text from their answers. I give explicit permission for any of my replies to be reused this way. ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
Maybe this could be integrated with the main Python FAQ in a beginner's section? Fredrik Lundh is experimenting with a FAQ wiki here: http://pyfaq.infogami.com/ Actually I put something about this on PyFAQ just the other day. Fredrik was quite keen on the idea, but I've been busy the last couple of days and haven't got around to doing anything about it. Mike, if you're volunteering that would be perfect. If anyone here has ideas for questions that get asked a lot (like How do I write a program that prints a word backwards) then just posting them in this thread would be a good start. I assume Kent, Alan and Danny don't mind their answers being reused in the wiki, but it would probably best to get explicit permission from them (and other people) to re-use text from their answers. Ed ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor Yep, I'm volunteering. Forgive my ignorance, but I couldn't seem to figure out how to edit/add pages to http://pyfaq.infogami.com/. The tutorial wiki has the edit, but the pyfaq page doesn't. I am logged in using my reddit login. Below is what little I slapped together last night. I copied the content from the Python tutor mailman page for the first question. = Python Tutor FAQ - What is Python Tutor? This list is for folks who want to ask questions regarding how to learn computer programming with the Python language. Python (http://www.python.org) is a programming language which many feel is a good first language, because it makes it easy to express the fundamental concepts of programming such as data structures and algorithms with a syntax which many find easy to read and write. Folks interested in learning about programming with Python are encouraged to join, as are folks interested in helping others learn. While the list is called tutor, anyone, whether novice or expert, can answer questions. If individuals wish to start off-line conversations about a particular concept and become one-on-one tutor/tutee, that's fine. If either party wants to summarize what they learned for others to benefit, that's fine too. There is a searchable interface to archived Tutor messages on Activestate's web site at http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Browse/Threaded/python-Tutor. To see the collection of prior postings to the list, visit the Tutor Archives at http://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/ Using Tutor To post a message to all the list members, send email to tutor@python.org - I need help; I'm getting an error in my program. What should I do? If you are getting an error in your Python program that you don't understand, post the error message and any relevant code. Post the exact error message. Don't paraphrase the error message. The error message has details that can help resolve the issue that caused the error. - What is the policy on homework? Although those on the Python tutor mail list are eager to help, they don't want to hand you the answers to your homework. They want to help you find the answers. If you are having difficulty with your homework, send a message to the list about the problem and what you have tried. The tutors will try to nudge you in the right direction. - Why do my replies go to the person who sent the message and not to the list? This is by design. See http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html Also see this explanation http://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/2005-July/039889.html = Unless anyone has any more, I think the above covers the FAQs about the tutor list. Here's some of the FAQs that I came across scanning the list: ord and chr parsing html beautifulsoup editors/ides getters and setters regex match and find maxtrix operations how do I make an exe out of a python script books what should I program? unicode/encoding Mike ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
Mike Hansen wrote: - I need help; I'm getting an error in my program. What should I do? If you are getting an error in your Python program that you don't understand, post the error message and any relevant code. Post the exact error message. Don't paraphrase the error message. The error message has details that can help resolve the issue that caused the error. Instead of Post the exact error message. I would say Copy and paste the entire error message into your email, including the traceback. Kent ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
I suspect the best way to generate a scientific list of FAQ is by scanning the subjects in the list archives. But here are a few more: Special function _xxx_ doesn't work - double underscore needed Lack of indentation or inconsistent indents - inc tabs and spaces How to name an object based on user input - use a dictionary usually! How to get an attribute of an object by name - getattr() How does Python do my favourite PHP/Perl/VB trick Various possibilities here Binding functions to widgets ie not using parens after the function name How do I read the output from a program called via os.system() popen, command and the new Popen class Changing elements in a mutable object changes the object for all references assignment versus equality in x=x+1 That should keep you busy :-) Alan G. Below is what little I slapped together last night. I copied the content from the Python tutor mailman page for the first question. Here's some of the FAQs that I came across scanning the list: ord and chr parsing html beautifulsoup editors/ides getters and setters regex match and find maxtrix operations how do I make an exe out of a python script books what should I program? unicode/encoding Mike ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
- I need help; I'm getting an error in my program. What should I do? If you are getting an error in your Python program that you don't understand, post the error message and any relevant code. Post the exact error message. Don't paraphrase the error message. The error message has details that can help resolve the issue that caused the error. Instead of Post the exact error message. I would say Copy and paste the entire error message into your email, including the traceback. Kent That's good. It didn't occur to me since I considered the error message as including the traceback. - I need help; I'm getting an error in my program. What should I do? If you are getting an error in your Python program that you don't understand, post the error message and any relevant code. Copy and paste the entire error message into your email, including the traceback. Don't paraphrase the error message. The error message has details that can help resolve the issue that caused the error. Mike ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
[Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
I'd like to send a big Thank You to Danny, Alan, Kent and others(whos names escape me) for being such an asset to the Python community by relentlessly answering questions on the tutor list.(Do these guys sleep? They must work in shifts.) This list is one of the most civilized and responsive lists I have ever read. When many pop onto the list and ask what may seem like some of the most obvious questions, you guys calmly answer and nudge them in the right direction without ever losing your patience. It's a great list. Anyway, I've been reading the list for a couple of years now, and I wonder if a Tutor FAQ would be helpful. I don't believe one exists. Should there be something on the Python wiki that would list the most common questions to the tutor list along with their answers? It would be a FAQ about the tutor list as well as common questions to the tutor list. FAQ about the Tutor List would include - The policy on answering homework assignment - Why the reply-to is set that way. - Post code and exact error message. (A lot of this might be in that initial message you get from mailman when joining the list, but it might be a good idea to put it on the wiki) FAQ for common questions to the list would include - ord() and chr() - Common GUI programming questions - String module is deprecated, use string methods - ??? I'm sure you can come up with more of the common questions. Does this sound like a reasonable idea? Mike ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
Mike Hansen wrote: I'd like to send a big Thank You to Danny, Alan, Kent and others(whos names escape me) for being such an asset to the Python community by relentlessly answering questions on the tutor list.(Do these guys sleep? They must work in shifts.) This list is one of the most civilized and responsive lists I have ever read. When many pop onto the list and ask what may seem like some of the most obvious questions, you guys calmly answer and nudge them in the right direction without ever losing your patience. It's a great list. Thanks! I do sleep but I have my email tied in to my clock radio so whenever an email arrives on the tutor list I am awakened to answer it ;) Anyway, I've been reading the list for a couple of years now, and I wonder if a Tutor FAQ would be helpful. I don't believe one exists. Should there be something on the Python wiki that would list the most common questions to the tutor list along with their answers? It would be a FAQ about the tutor list as well as common questions to the tutor list. I wonder about this sometimes too. I think it would be good to have a place to collect this stuff. Maybe this could be integrated with the main Python FAQ in a beginner's section? Fredrik Lundh is experimenting with a FAQ wiki here: http://pyfaq.infogami.com/ FAQ about the Tutor List would include - The policy on answering homework assignment - Why the reply-to is set that way. - Post code and exact error message. (A lot of this might be in that initial message you get from mailman when joining the list, but it might be a good idea to put it on the wiki) FAQ for common questions to the list would include - ord() and chr() - Common GUI programming questions - String module is deprecated, use string methods - ??? I'm sure you can come up with more of the common questions. Does this sound like a reasonable idea? Sounds good to me. Are you volunteering? Kent ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
Kent Johnson wrote: Mike Hansen wrote: I'd like to send a big Thank You to Danny, Alan, Kent and others(whos names escape me) for being such an asset to the Python community by relentlessly answering questions on the tutor list.(Do these guys sleep? They must work in shifts.) This list is one of the most civilized and responsive lists I have ever read. When many pop onto the list and ask what may seem like some of the most obvious questions, you guys calmly answer and nudge them in the right direction without ever losing your patience. It's a great list. Thanks! I do sleep but I have my email tied in to my clock radio so whenever an email arrives on the tutor list I am awakened to answer it ;) Anyway, I've been reading the list for a couple of years now, and I wonder if a Tutor FAQ would be helpful. I don't believe one exists. Should there be something on the Python wiki that would list the most common questions to the tutor list along with their answers? It would be a FAQ about the tutor list as well as common questions to the tutor list. I wonder about this sometimes too. I think it would be good to have a place to collect this stuff. Maybe this could be integrated with the main Python FAQ in a beginner's section? Fredrik Lundh is experimenting with a FAQ wiki here: http://pyfaq.infogami.com/ FAQ about the Tutor List would include - The policy on answering homework assignment - Why the reply-to is set that way. - Post code and exact error message. (A lot of this might be in that initial message you get from mailman when joining the list, but it might be a good idea to put it on the wiki) FAQ for common questions to the list would include - ord() and chr() - Common GUI programming questions - String module is deprecated, use string methods - ??? I'm sure you can come up with more of the common questions. Does this sound like a reasonable idea? Sounds good to me. Are you volunteering? Kent ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor Hey guys the FAQ thing sound great. I found what I think is the best pyQT tutorial around. Took me like 10 minutes and I am off and running. http://www.cs.usfca.edu/~afedosov/qttut/ begin:vcard fn:Eric Walker n:Walker;Eric org:Micron Technologies email;internet:[EMAIL PROTECTED] title:EDA Applications Engineer tel;work:208-368-2573 version:2.1 end:vcard ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
I'd like to send a big Thank You to Danny, Alan, Kent and others Over the years there have been many, some have moved from tutor list to c.l.python others have just got too busy. Others reappear and then disappear again at intervals. (Who remembers Ivan, Gregor, Magnus etc etc.) answering questions on the tutor list.(Do these guys sleep? They must work in shifts.) I live in the UK, Kent and Danny in the US so that gives a 5-7 hour time shift for free! :-) if a Tutor FAQ would be helpful. I don't believe one exists. It's been discussed several times but no-one ever quite got round to it. If you want to make a worthwhile contribution to the Python community that would be a good starting point! My tutor tries to answer the most common questions but its not so easy to findthe answers when buried inside a prose topic page. the tutor list along with their answers? It would be a FAQ about the tutor list as well as common questions to the tutor list. Agreed. FAQ about the Tutor List would include FAQ for common questions to the list would include I'm sure you can come up with more of the common questions. And then all it takes is someone to collate them and provide the answers. The Active State searchable artchive should be a good starting point. like a reasonable idea? Absolutely, are you volunteering? :-) Alan G. ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
Re: [Tutor] Tutor FAQ?
Thanks! I do sleep but I have my email tied in to my clock radio so whenever an email arrives on the tutor list I am awakened to answer it ;) Hmmm.. I wouldn't be surprised if there's an X10 module that does that. =) [...] Maybe this could be integrated with the main Python FAQ in a beginner's section? Fredrik Lundh is experimenting with a FAQ wiki here: http://pyfaq.infogami.com/ I'll take a look at this. Sounds good to me. Are you volunteering? Yes, I'll get the ball rolling. I'll most likely do something on the site above. I'll post to this list when I have something worth looking at. Mike ___ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
