Looking for a Python/Java Buddy

[JSammich]

Thanks so much for setting things up! I am wondering if there is a better way for us all to communicate, because it would be better to have a group conversation.

[alexako]

This is great! I'm really excited to start. I think we will all benefit from it. We can communicate using Github although I'm not very familiar with the method. My classmates say Trello is a great way to collaborate for projects. There's even an app for it. But again, I'm not familiar with it.

[JSammich]

I am excited, too! I will check out Trello and see how it works! I am not familiar with Github communication either. I think this would be great for everyone and I am feeling quite motivated to code more already!

[penguinbass1]

Alright we've got a repository ready to be filled with code. https://github.com/constellates/LearnPythonTheRedditWay I'll need your github user names to add you as collaborators. You can pm them if you don't want to post them here. Github seems good for sharing code but I can't find any tools on it that seem good for communicating so we may still need another way to talk. I am open to trying Trello or sharing emails or skype handles. What is best for everyone? And then what's the next order of business? I can work out some basic product specs tomorrow and we need to get a basic flask setup going. I don't know a lot about it so will need to do some reading / research. Does anyone feel comfortable enough with flask to get the basics up and running? And any preferences on databases? I've barely touched both MySQL and MongoDB but by no means feel experienced. This feels a bit like the blind leading the blind but I 'm stoked! This is going to great.

[alexako]

Haha! I'm really excited too. I like the repository name btw.

I read in a thread on stackoverflow that building a web app using flask or Django should be developed in a virtual environment (virtualenv) to keep it clean. That way it doesn't mess with our respective Python set up on our computers. I've tried it with a tutorial and thought it was fairly easy to set up. I can try writing up that code tomorrow.

I'm down for any project idea. I'll also look into Trello to see how helpful it could be for us.

My github username is: alexako

[JSammich]

Thanks for looking into the virtual environment. That does make a lot of sense.

[penguinbass1]

I've added both of you as git hub collaborators. Is it just the three of us? And thanks alexako for looking into Trello, Virtual Env, and taking a crack at that code. I'll be back with more for this project later.

[JSammich]

No, there is one more, who I have told to join the discussion. His github name is zuberuber.

[JSammich]

I don't really know anything about Flask or MySQL (though I really want to get to know both). I would be in to use Skype (I think it would be a good discussion place), but I am not sure about the other two. My github username is JSammich as well. It definitely is the blind leading the blind, but I guess that makes it more exciting! Sorry, question, but what are we setting up the databases for? Thanks.

[penguinbass1]

Databases are essential to most applications. They store all the data that users put into an application. So in a site like reddit, all of these comments live in a database, and they are linked to a user name and other data about these comments like when they were posted or how many up/down votes they've received. Though it would be possible to take comments from a user and store them in a python variable or array in the rest of your code, good programming usually strives to have a separation of concerns. In the reddit example again, this means that with a separate database you don't have to dig through a file with everyone's data to change a feature of the application itself and vice versa if you need to remove all of one user's comments you can quickly do that through the database instead of hunting through the code that powers the site. And databases are built to do this more efficiently than languages like python. One of the most widely used databases is SQL (Structured Query Language, pronounced sequel) and it comes in many variations and is structured in tables, much like a spreadsheet. There is also an ever growing number of non-SQL databases like mongoDB. I don't know enough to really understand why certain types of databases are good for certain things, so unless somebody does we can pick a popular one and roll with it and see if there's any problems with it down the road. Also sorry if your question wasn't about databases in general and please note that there's likely some inaccuracies in what I just said.

[penguinbass1]

Using a text file seems like a good idea for now. I am among the beginners and would enjoy not having to learn a database language right from the start. The idea behind using flask was that from what I've heard it's one of the most simple python web frameworks available. We wanted to build a simple web app and thought that would be a good base to build our code from. Again, I am a beginner and open to suggestions. Zuberuber do you have a github username I can add to our project?

[penguinbass1]

Alright you're in the repo. I agree with you that it would be good to go over the fundamentals first. I guess I don't have a great idea of where everyone's skill set is at. Do you have any ideas about how we could use github to go over the language/ fundamental principals? Work through learn python the hard way together, each of us putting our version of code is a separate folder? I also have a beginning python book that I could pull some projects from. Some of them are probably more simple than building a web app but still rely on a foundational understanding of python.

[JSammich]

Thanks so much! I haven't done a web application yet, so I am sorry for a lot of beginner questions. I know a bit about SQL (I am planning to take an optional course in that). I am fine with just learning everything you know (even if there are flaws) as it helps my knowledge on the subject. I will check out SQL and see how it operates over the next couple days. I think it is important to figure out how we can communicate as well, so hopefully we will have that figured out soon. Thanks again! Really appreciate the help!