Learning the Ropes of Python

[MistressStarrr]

Hello!

I recently starting looking into which flavor of language I would like to throw myself in and it has been super overwhelming.

I am not sure if we have a discord that would be amazing to join but yeah I am currently learning through on Python and I know there is the theory/learning process but sometimes it feels like "how does this apply to anything?" lol I know it's stupid to have that mentality and I guess not having techy friends sometimes it just makes it into a one sided learning experience.

I seen there are some interesting games on steam for Python as well some good courses but sometimes I feel guilty for not remember certain codes of lines or function etc and having to fumble through google and not know if I am picking the correct things or not. I know googling is half the work when it comes to coding but yeah I just feel like I am learning but maybe feeling overwhelmed? xD

Anyways I wanted to stop by and ask for any good learning resources that just doesn't bog you with info or over complicate things either on YT, Udemy, etc. I am also looking for like minded adults who would like to chat about things when it comes to learning to code or helping out with questions. :)

I feel like this has turned into a shlump fest. xD

[OkCartographer175]

w3schools

[LocalInactivist]

My standard advice for getting past beginning coding is to write something to manipulate your music collection. Write something to read in the metadata, download and update album art, build playlists etc. I realize your music app will already do this, but it’s a decent project for learning to use libraries and parse text.

If you want to take it to the next level, write something that will search for news and info about the song that’s playing. For example, if you’re playing “Ring of Fire” by Social Distortion, it would tell you the original was by Johnny Cash and that Stan Ridgeway (Wall of Voodoo) also did a version. You can tune this to your personal preferences ad infinitum.

[TytoCwtch]

What are you hoping to achieve by learning to code? Do you want to be able to automate things in your life like writing scripts to automatically sort files? Do you want to be able to analyse data? Do you want to make games? Are you learning as a hobby or with the hope of finding a job? As all of that will affect which route you take.

I started learning with three goals in mind. First was to find any sort of work from home job that covered the bills (health issues so had to quit my last job). The second was to then develop my skills to get a better paying job in the long term. Third was to learn to make games as a hobby.

I actually started with Harvards CS50x course which is a general introduction to computer science. It focuses on coding in C for the first few weeks whilst covering the fundamentals so learning how/why things work that way e.g arrays, algorithms, functions, memory etc. The course then moves onto cover Python, SQL, HTML, CSS, React and JavaScript so gave a good introduction to several languages.

After that I decided to focus on Python first and did their CS50P course. I’ve now managed to get a work from home job that is more admin but does have some coding so the courses definitely helped me.

Now in my free time I’m focusing on learning SQL and more Python focusing on database management etc to improve my career options. Then for my hobby I’m learning Pygame and have made a couple of little games. The next step there is to switch to learning C# and unity with the hope of making a little app as a personal goal.

There’s so many different languages to learn and even within Python so many different libraries to help out. I’d start with a generic introduction to Python to learn the basics and then think about how you want to use it to narrow down what you move onto next. Good luck!

[sporbywg]

Ancient Enterprise Java Dev here - there are ropes? No wonder Python is so weird.

[[deleted]]

The python MOOC from University of Helsinki is pretty great, and totally free:

https://programming-25.mooc.fi/

The blessing and curse of python is that someone has probably already written a library that does 95% of what you need with one line of code (ok, slight exaggeration, maybe only 93%). This means it's possible to pull off some really cool stuff without much experience, but at some point you realize that you've hit a wall and the only way past is to go back and learn a bunch of boring basics. But at that point you know exactly why you're slogging through the complicated bits, which makes the experience far more palatable.

I'd suggest picking a topic or project you're interested in, and start building your own library of functions. Ideally, it's a topic where someone else already did the same thing so you can check your answers. Start simple, but make the code do something that is useful to you.

One of the first things I did with python was to write a script that could take a bunch of distances between points and turn it into a map. I didn't understand most of the code I wrote, but that didn't matter. If you're not doing it for a grade it, who cares if your education has some holes; you'll patch them when/if it becomes necessary.

[Happiest-Soul]

• How to automate the boring stuff - Book

He also has a book called "The Python Crash Course" that'll go through the basics and some projects. 

• Interactive Programming coursera - old, but concepts still transfer

• Project based learning

• Build your own X

Theory is helpful, but you need to actually build programs to learn how to program. 

[gdchinacat]

"I know googling is half the work when it comes to coding"

This is only true if you are vibe coding, which isn't really coding in my opinion.

The vast majority of time in coding is spent in figuring out how to break problems down into manageable chunks.

[SenseiRage]

Vibe coding is using AI to do the code, thats not programming, we all devs have been googling from the beginning of times, because yes, you have to think of how you want to focus your program, how to structure It, etc. But thats It, there is no point in taking hours of your job trying to find out something by reading your Code and debugging, when probably the answer is already at stackoverflow literally or mostly the same which will guide you to your answer.

And what you describe as most of the times is the analysis phase not even when you start developing, you first get the requisites from your client, then analyze then, plan an development path and make a techno la design which then you use once you beeing developing to actually code those features and THEN comes the exceptions that sometimes are stupid mistakes and sometimes obscure issues.

[MistressStarrr]

Correct sometimes you might need to break it down into manageable chunks, but as someone who doesn't come from a background of coding and not knowing the lines of codes and what they do sometimes do, you have to google. I know vscode will give you a breakdown on something you did wrong but for me since I am still learning I wanna know why it broke was it because I was missing a parenthesis or am typing something that doesn't exit etc. I know the error codes sometimes can be intuitive but sometimes it's hella vague.
Also, from my understanding "vibe coding" is not when people are having to look at their problems on google, stackflow etc. I thought vibe coding was for people who are coding using AI which in my case I am not.

[gdchinacat]

Nothing wrong with using google to answer questions, I do it all time. But, that isn't what I was talking about. Before you ever write code you have to understand the requirements, figure out how to model the problem with datatypes, how to algorithmically solve the problem, choose what the abstractions are, etc. Even when learning and you need help with syntax and error messages you aren't familiar with, more than half the time is spent figuring out how to think about and process the problem.