On 28/05/15 23:26, Yongnuan Liu wrote:
I am new to Python. I just downloaded Python 2.7.10. I am very frustrated on starting programming.
Welcome. Don't be surprised at being frustrated, many people find that when starting out. We are all so used to computers doing very smart things that its often a surprise to discover just how dumb they really are and how much detail is needed to program them.
1. Could someone recommend me a more user friendly python debugging tool?
That depends on what debugging tool you are using now. For beginners the best debugging tools, by far, are the print statement and the >>> prompt. But you can also use an IDE like IDLE or Pythonwin. They both have more sophisticated (and so more complex) debuggers. And then there is Winpdb which is a GUI debugger but also fairly complex for a beginner. Finally, there are complex professional tools like Netbeans and Eclipse that have Python add-ons that have very powerful debugging tools included. But they are probably only worthwhile if you already program in another language and use those tools there. Most Python programmers, even professionals, do 90% of their debugging using the >>> prompt and some print statements!
2. Where to download the computing/plotting library, like scipy etc?
There is a repository of modules and packages for Python called PyPI and a tool called pip which you use to install things from there. But as a beginner you almost certainly don't need any of that yet. Python comes with hundreds of modules as standard that should do most of the things you need initially. If you are going to do a lot of mathg/science work then you should probably install one of the bundled SciPy distributions such as Anaconda or Canopy. But learn the basics first, you may find the standard edition does all you need,
example, when I input a=sin(30), the error says sin is not defined??
That's right, sin() is a math function so it is defined in the math module. You need to import math first then you can access it as math.sin() if you do >>> import math >>> print math.sin( math.radians(30) ) # sin() uses radians not degrees 0.5 Then type >>> help(math) ...... and you will see all of the functions and constants that are defined in that module. You don't say which tutorial you are following but any reasonable one should include information about using modules. (For example mine- -see the .sig - has a topic called 'Modules and Functions'. But even in the first hands-on topic - Simple Sequences - it introduces the idea.)
3. How to set up variable enviroment before using these libraries?
I'm not sure what you mean by this one. On any properly installed Python you can import modules from the standard library without any additional work. -- Alan G Author of the Learn to Program web site http://www.alan-g.me.uk/ http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld Follow my photo-blog on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
