a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread John Salerno
Now that I've learned much of Python, I'm sort of stuck with what to do with it. I'm not a professional programmer, so I don't really have a use for Python now. But I really want to come up with some neat uses for it (for fun, and so I don't just start forgetting it right after I learned it). I

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread Felipe Almeida Lessa
Em Qua, 2006-03-29 às 18:07 +, John Salerno escreveu: > I found a few exercises online, but I wonder if anyone has other ideas > (or exercise websites) that I can use to keep my Python skills going. Try creating simple games using PyGame. Think of simple things like minesweeper. -- Felipe.

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread John Salerno
Felipe Almeida Lessa wrote: > Em Qua, 2006-03-29 às 18:07 +, John Salerno escreveu: >> I found a few exercises online, but I wonder if anyone has other ideas >> (or exercise websites) that I can use to keep my Python skills going. > > Try creating simple games using PyGame. Think of simple t

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread Benji York
John Salerno wrote: > Now that I've learned much of Python, I'm sort of stuck with what to do > with it. http://www.pythonchallenge.com/ You can (thank|curse) me later. -- Benji York -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread John Salerno
John Salerno wrote: > Actually, PyGame *is* something I am interested in experimenting with. I > definitely want to use it, but I also want to try some stuff with the > basics too, just so I don't immediately get into the complicated stuff > without working with the usual things first, like lis

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread John Salerno
Benji York wrote: > John Salerno wrote: >> Now that I've learned much of Python, I'm sort of stuck with what to >> do with it. > > http://www.pythonchallenge.com/ > > You can (thank|curse) me later. > -- > Benji York "This challenge is fantastic. Clever, addictive and really gets your mind wo

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread Enigma Curry
I would second the vote for pythonchallenge. It's what taught me Python. The amazing thing about the python challenge is by the time your done with it, you've gotten through a very large and diverse sampling of the python docs. It really gave me a good understanding of all the things that Python c

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread John Salerno
Enigma Curry wrote: > I would second the vote for pythonchallenge. It's what taught me > Python. > > The amazing thing about the python challenge is by the time your done > with it, you've gotten through a very large and diverse sampling of the > python docs. It really gave me a good understanding

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread Gerard Flanagan
John Salerno wrote: > Now that I've learned much of Python, I'm sort of stuck with what to do > with it. I'm not a professional programmer, so I don't really have a use > for Python now. But I really want to come up with some neat uses for it > (for fun, and so I don't just start forgetting it rig

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread Terry Reedy
"John Salerno" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Try creating simple games using PyGame. Think of simple things like >> minesweeper. >> > > Actually, PyGame *is* something I am interested in experimenting with. I > definitely want to use it, but I also want to try som

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread Jim Sizelove
John Salerno wrote: > Now that I've learned much of Python, I'm sort of stuck with what to do > with it. I'm not a professional programmer, so I don't really have a use > for Python now. But I really want to come up with some neat uses for it > (for fun, and so I don't just start forgetting it r

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread John Salerno
Jim Sizelove wrote: > John Salerno wrote: >> Now that I've learned much of Python, I'm sort of stuck with what to do >> with it. I'm not a professional programmer, so I don't really have a use >> for Python now. But I really want to come up with some neat uses for it >> (for fun, and so I don't

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-29 Thread Ravi Teja
I don't have any dearth of Python needs ( I now, sort of pay my tuition through Python :-) ). But I use it for fun as well, say gaming. For example, I have scripts that send keystrokes based on voice commands or other keystrokes. Having a productive language like Python at your disposal can help a

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-30 Thread Benny
John Salerno wrote: > Anyway, any suggestions are appreciated! What've you got for hobbies? As my first Python based project I wrote something that put up a GUI and allowed me to add and delete records in a file so that I could catalogue my model railway collection. Now I could have used a dB pa

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-30 Thread John Salerno
Benny wrote: > John Salerno wrote: > >> Anyway, any suggestions are appreciated! > > What've you got for hobbies? Hmm, my hobbies...well, programming for one. :) Also literature and anything computer-related. I suppose I could try to catalog some books. One like I'd like to learn is how to us

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-30 Thread benchline
Since you want to learn to use python with a database you may want to try it with SQLite. SQLite is a very easy to use database that stores the whole database in one file. Working with it would be very similar to working with Mysql through python. http://www.sqlite.org http://initd.org/tracker/p

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-30 Thread John Salerno
benchline wrote: > Since you want to learn to use python with a database you may want to > try it with SQLite. SQLite is a very easy to use database that stores > the whole database in one file. Working with it would be very similar > to working with Mysql through python. > > http://www.sqlite.o

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-30 Thread Fredrik Lundh
John Salerno wrote: > One like I'd like to learn is how to use Python with MySQL, but I just > can't get MySQL to work on my computer, so I'm at a dead end there. > Seems like the best option for cataloging though. if you want to play with SQL and Python's DB-API *without* having to install serve

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-30 Thread Alex Martelli
John Salerno <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Now that I've learned much of Python, I'm sort of stuck with what to do > with it. I'm not a professional programmer, so I don't really have a use > for Python now. But I really want to come up with some neat uses for it > (for fun, and so I don't just sta

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-30 Thread Kent Johnson
John Salerno wrote: > benchline wrote: > >>Since you want to learn to use python with a database you may want to >>try it with SQLite. > > The thing about mysql is that it's also the db used on my website, so I > figure it might be nice to learn that one in case I ever need to use > that db a

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-30 Thread John Salerno
Alex Martelli wrote: > John Salerno <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Now that I've learned much of Python, I'm sort of stuck with what to do >> with it. I'm not a professional programmer, so I don't really have a use >> for Python now. But I really want to come up with some neat uses for it >> (for

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-30 Thread Alex Martelli
John Salerno <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ... > > Instead of hacking away on your own, I suggest you look around > > sourceforge and other such repositories of open-source programs: find ... > Great idea. It would be fun to actually contribute something to the > community, but I don't think I'

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-30 Thread John Salerno
Alex Martelli wrote: > John Salerno <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >... >>> Instead of hacking away on your own, I suggest you look around >>> sourceforge and other such repositories of open-source programs: find >... >> Great idea. It would be fun to actually contribute something to the >> co

Re: a hobbyist's dilemma

2006-03-30 Thread Terry Hancock
You may find the attached files of interest. I wrote this PyGame script in order to teach my sons (ages 8 & 10) about some programming concepts. I intentionally avoided any function or class definitions, and tried to use minimal Python concepts. I think it's quite impressive that you can do a