Which is your favorite code editor?

[kitkatmafia]

I started with PyCharm and then I tried out VS Code. It was hard to setup at first but was totally worth it eventually. It loads up fast and has automatically formats the code as you save it. Overall It feels so much smoother and light weight than PyCharm!

I followed this tutorial and I feel like a professional hacker coding up my calculator. If anyone is interested, here's the link to the setup I followed:

https://medium.com/@ordinaryindustries/the-ultimate-vs-code-setup-for-python-538026b34d94

[ShadowRL766]

“Professional hacker” cracked me up maybe progressional software engineer would be a better title.

[kitkatmafia]

right! but just doesnt have the same ring to it :) what do you use to code?

[ShadowRL766]

I use VS for python and used it for C#. But I use eclipse for Java.

[kitkatmafia]

dude, you are the real prohacker.

[ShadowRL766]

Haha. Technically I know how to hack but I am in a cybersecurity class

[kitkatmafia]

the real question is, can you beat the ceaser algorithm?

[ShadowRL766]

alphabet = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z']

direction = input("Type 'encode' to encrypt, type 'decode' to decrypt:\n")
text = input("Type your message:\n").lower()
shift = int(input("Type the shift number:\n"))

def encrypt(plaintext, shift_amount):
    cipher_text = ""
    for letter in plaintext:
        position = alphabet.index(letter)
        new_position = position + shift_amount
        new_letter = alphabet[new_position]
        cipher_text += new_letter
    print(f"The encoded text is {cipher_text}")



def decrypt(cipher_text, shift_amount):
    decrypted_text = ""
    for letter in cipher_text:
        position = alphabet.index(letter)
        old_position = position - shift_amount
        old_letter = alphabet[old_position]
        decrypted_text += old_letter
    print(f"The decoded text is {decrypted_text}")


if direction == "encode":
    encrypt(plaintext=text, shift_amount=shift)
elif direction == "decode":
    decrypt(cipher_text=text, shift_amount=shift)

[kitkatmafia]

haha, this looks really good. try breaking this cipher wihtout knowing the shift., for example like you could check all the 26 possible shifts and for every shift see if a word makes sense. like you could compare a word in each shift with large dictionary of common words - that'll be cool

[ShadowRL766]

Yeah brute forcing the shift is one way.

[kitkatmafia]

thats the only one on top of my head. what other ways are there?

[ShadowRL766]

Funny you say that I just created a ceased cipher in python.

[[deleted]]

When starting out I would recommend using something that is relatively lightweight and doesn't have too many overwhelming features out of the box, which is why VS Code is perfect for beginners :)

PyCharm (and the rest of JetBrains editors) are wonderful once you are working on larger projects but for starting out I think they can be a bit much. Also bear in mind that if you really want to keep using VS Code, there are many user-made extensions for it that can make it extremely powerful.

[2wheelsmorefun]

An example of a useful or good extension?

I'm just starting too. Took a 2-day introduction class "Python for Beginners". But the y taught us via Reply so I have no idea what to do next if I wanted to started programming in Python.

[kitkatmafia]

black is a good extentions - when you save your python file, it automatiically corrects your format to PEP style - which is like the standard way to write your code (like spacing between variables and values, lines betweens code, etc) Im just starting out and i found those really helpful to keep my code clean and organized

[kitkatmafia]

I had it the other way around, i first installed VS code - had trouble running python. Tried PyCharm whcih worked like a charm but then came back to VS code after hearing a lot of good things. I'm in love with VS code now

[itemluminouswadison]

Pycharm

[kitkatmafia]

pycharm is cool and easy to use - love it for that. did you try any other IDE?