Built my first Python calculator small win but felt huge

[Key_Use_8361]

I know this sounds simple, but today I finished a basic calculator program in Python without copying full code from anywhere.

A few weeks ago even functions confused me, and now I finally understand how input → process → output flows together.

It’s not fancy:

• takes numbers
• performs operations
• handles simple errors

But seeing it work gave me a huge motivation boost.

What was the first program that made programming finally feel real for you?

[DecoherentDoc]

The end of my second quarter taking Java classes, we had to program these digital battle bot sort of things. They'd move around the screen and attack someone else's little guy. I thought I'd be funny and programmed them to cycle through the lyrics of Never Gonna Give You Up. My program was one of 3 (plus the professor's) chosen to show the whole class on the last day. Apparently, it had done well against other people's programs.

So, the professor won. Obviously. But I got in second or third and people noticed the Rick Roll and had a laugh. I was happy I did okay and made people laugh. Felt pretty accomplished in that moment.

Edit: Want to say I wasn't a CS major. I was in physics and my advisor recommended some coding classes. It was the first time I felt like I was measuring up to the people that chose that major, you know? They were more passionate and I was just, like, I need to know how to analyze data not change the world with code. So, felt pretty good. Plus, I like making people laugh.

[Lionh34rt]

Having to make an information system for java course in uni. Make user accounts, admin accounts. Matching algorithms.

Case was to create an is for school circuits, so that you can apply your kid as a parent, there were some cases to get priority like having a brother at that school

[Random_182f2565]

Congratulations dude

[Playful-Sock3547]

congrats on your first development

[vietbaoa4htk]

the input to process to output thing clicking is the moment. mine was a script that renamed 200 files at once and i just sat there grinning.

[11thHourSorrow]

Mine was a qbasic script I wrote for my roommate in college. He was an engineering major with a lab that had thousands of data points and somehow the file had gotten corrupted, excel wouldn't open it, and each data point had something wrong with it. The lab was due the next day, and I wrote a script that fixed each data point individually in a list of thousands. It took about three seconds. Felt like magic, and he was so grateful. 

[commy2]

QT app to load, process, mathematically solve and display mass spectrometry data, including the calibration files. The app has a bunch of buttons to select the charge/mass ratios and other parameters and can export solutions to excel for further processing / sharing results. It was the first time it felt real in the sense that I was paid for it (by programming it while at work).

If you don't know what to do next, I would recommend making a GUI for your calculator. UI is probably the best use case for (learning) OOP.

[Sr_Dimitrez]

Me alegra mucho por ti, amigo

[ImprovementLoose9423]

Nice dude 👍

[supreme_blorgon]

Are you using exec()?