special interest group - python

[jensen]

Any members here using python?
Did a search on the forums here and noticed that the 2005-2008 was the time when python was actively discussed among members. Then it sort of died down. There were repeated questions as to whether python was supported and the answer is YES!

So if there are members there using python for scripting or learning python, maybe we can learn and share the skills we have or are picking up

Am using http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ as a base to jump into python. Very small baby steps and very traditional and wants people to learn "the hard way" Check out his website where the tutorials are FREE or better yet buy his book.

Using the online version - http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/
Have progressed up to exercise 33 and then got distracted with work. Maybe it's time to get back to completing it.

Have only done the exercises on my mac mini so maybe it's also time to try it out "on a real server like x10hosting".

 

[essellar]

Python isn't actually supported anymore on Free Hosting. The engine exists, since it's needed for some maintenance tools, but user accounts shouldn't have access to Python. If you find it's working at the moment on your server, its a config error that will soon be corrected.

That said, it is a pretty good language and has all sorts of uses outside of x10Hosting, so it's definitely worth learning.

 

[jensen]

Oh? That might explain why the discussions died down. No have not got access to Python.
Have played with the idea of learning proper programming and languages like Java and Ruby were so flexible that you could use a few ways to get what you want. Really great but bad for me because i don't have a base. No idea how programming works. Yes there's the flow charts and diagrams with the shapes. There's kids "jigsaw puzzle" style programming. But couldn't "get it"

Found the "learn python the hard way" was suitable for those who were a bit slow and needed some structure. Python more rigid and insists that you do things one way. Finally figured out programming a little better and the logic behind it, then could understand the concepts behind why the code was written in this manner. So excited about it and want people to know you can learn python even if you're only as smart as me. hahaha

 

[essellar]

"The hard way" is a good series. By the time you're through the exercises, you'll have more than an inkling as to how programming works. As a bonus, you'll get a valuable scripting language that will give you the ability to make other programs sing, dance, and otherwise do your beckoning even if you never use it as a main language anywhere. And most of the concepts transfer pretty well to other languages (apart from the idea of significant whitespace; blocks in most other languages rely either on punctuation or keywords, and indentation is mostly conventional and added for ease of reading). Taking what you've learned and applying it to other languages should be relatively easy with the foundation you will have built. It won't make Java any less verbose and painful though; that's a fundamental flaw in the nature of the language.

 

[jensen]

Thank you for the endorsement on the "hard way series".
Searching for an online place to try my coding (since python not available here) Stumbled on a gold mine.

Online Terminals and Online IDEs. I'd have to say go check it out, good place to try out what one has learnt.

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/codingground.htm

 

[jensen]

Got the "official recommendation" http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/intro/learning/

 

[essellar]

Once you feel, well, perhaps not "at home", but like a repeat longish-term guest who's well-tolerated by the locals, you might also want to checkout the Python "translation" of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. SICP is one of the true classics in the field, and concentrates more on the whys of programming than the hows (although it obviously has to dive into the hows to give you concrete examples of things that might otherwise seem just a little too much like philosophy). The original book (and the MIT 6.001 course it went with) was written to use a Lisp dialect called Scheme, which was at the time the only language that had many of the features that SICP relies on. (Scheme was co-developed by Gerry Sussman, one of the authors of SICP.) Not everything about SICP can make it into Python since it's not a homoiconic language (there is no fundamental difference between code and data in Scheme/Lisp; they both have the same shape and status), but there's still a lot of mind-expanding (yet somehow legal) stuff in the Python version, and that also translates easily to JavaScript (which was partially patterned on Scheme). It's completely optional, of course, but it can change the way you think about solving problems with code.

 

[jensen]

Got an account at c9.io which is like an online IDE to practice code and have the lessons and tutorials online without a PC.
(update: http://betanews.com/2016/07/18/aws-acquires-cloud9/)

Sort of to be able to code from any machine with browser and internet access. Also got a github account (don't know why but I got it anyway) just following some suggestions given.

essellar, must confess i don't quite understand all you've just written but am taking time to read it. So kind of them to share a textbook originally modified if for Python for the Fall 2011 semester. Tried this course https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x on edX but didn't quite make it past lesson 3. So with renewed fervour I'm trying this course again.

Thankfully I found the "Learn the Hard Way series" to keep my interest in programming and essellar's encouragement.

update: I bought the online book and video course for USD 29.99. You should check it out too. He already offers his book for FREE, but the videos are helpful. Plus he'd be giving the Python3 book thrown in (when it gets released) Zed A Shaw teaches using Python 2.7 in the current version as he believes it's enough and Python 3 is still not much in use as yet

 

[jensen]

Update on c9.io

Am very happy to introduce to you the c9 website. Have enjoyed the free "server" to learn the programming languages. What a relief to have found that website. You get to choose your own space to learn and on top of it you can actually code and collaborate with others as well on your projects

You can code and see your code and learn for FREE, hope it stays that way (It was just bought over by Amazon sometime on July 14, 2016) Source:https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/14/a...-development-tools-to-its-web-services-stack/

 

[jensen]

To practice your skills Check out the following sites.

CodeWars - throws you codes with error and you have to figure out to move forward.
https://www.codewars.com/?language=pythons

CheckiO - gamification of python, solving missions to progress in the game.
https://py.checkio.org/

Am so thankful to be learning python in an age where information is shared so openly.

 

[jensen]

Here's the official guide introducing python -> https://www.python.org/about/gettingstarted/
They have links and suggestions on that page too.

Learning through tutorials we have:
1) www.codeschool.com - https://www.codeschool.com/learn/python
2) www.codecademy.com - https://www.codecademy.com/learn/python
3) www.sololearn.com - https://www.sololearn.com/Course/Python/
4) www.teamtreehouse.com - https://teamtreehouse.com/library/python-basics (this is their 323-minute basic python course)
5) www.codementor.com - This is not tutorial. This is for speaking to mentors who can guide you for USD 10 for 15 minutes.

 

[bdistler]

the issue is - x10hosting has no support for Python

I have 5 Raspberry Pi's that are program in Python and C++

this desktop computer - that I am using - runs Ubuntu and has Python

I do a lot of Python programming - but not on x10hosting - I have other free hosts where I can run and test Python programs

IMO - to do some real Python programming - buy a [ Raspberry Pi Zero W ] and program it to do something
###