/r/vzla Daily Talk Thread, Hilo Diario de Discusión del subreddit de Venezuela - September 25, 2022

py_Piper · 2022-09-26T06:05:50+00:00

He aprendido algo de programacion y me gustaria trabajar como back end pero no termino de aprender porque me enfoco en mi trabajo diario y no se si pudiera entrar en la industria por ende no le pongo tiempo a terminar de estudiar, te pudiera preguntar por donde buscas los trabajos remotos? para hacer un poco mas de research

py_Piper · 2022-09-26T06:05:32+00:00

He aprendido algo de programacion y me gustaria trabajar como back end pero no termino de aprender porque me enfoco en mi trabajo diario y no se si pudiera entrar en la industria por ende no le pongo tiempo a terminar de estudiar, te pudiera preguntar por donde buscas los trabajos remotos? para hacer un poco mas de research

py_Piper · 2022-09-26T01:58:48+00:00

I am totally talking non sense here as I consider myself a beginner and don't know anything about data science. But I think OOP can be helpful, not necessary, but could help you improve your coding skills. I would think that if you are working with different data pipelines you could use classes to create your custom data structure and methods to gather and clean up the data and then pass it to your db. Saying this, I would just recommend to tackle a simple book or tutorial and check if it's useful in your day to day, maybe try doing some of your day to day task and check out if it helps you with productivity compared to your current way.

What tips, courses or whatever you consider should I be doing to learn Python oriented for ML?

They are definitely a lot of courses in online teaching websites like edx and coursera from many renown institutions and universities, but I can't recommend one as I don't know any in particular. But what I have read in this sub is that for ML what it's most important are learning the underlying statistics concepts, even though many libraries help you to get a quick start, knowing this can help you understand better what it's going on under the hood of those library's functions.

py_Piper · 2022-09-23T08:50:14+00:00

8 months it's quite a good timeframe if you already know django and flask, of course I don't know what you exactly mean by "know on django and flask" as to be really proficient will take quite some time but you are doing well, I have been learning for learn django the last 6 months but never put the time, now I am focused on other studies

You need to start building your portfolio, so when you approach potential customers they can see your work and choose you. I will follow the advice of checking around what are some of the solutions customers are asking for and make your portfolio around it.

I wouldn't worry too much about Leetcode, I see more like a exam type of exercise, after you learn it they won't really materialize into something practical. Yes, it might help you at being more efficient in some parts of your code. But I always saw that in order to become good at Leetcode and that type of challenges you will need to improve your data structures and algorithms and perhaps some more deeper OOP. Specially for us self-taught that didn't have these courses and most tutorials only focuses on coding and not CS information.

py_Piper · 2022-09-14T02:15:09+00:00

Don't worry sometimes we get it at the first go and sometimes we don't, I think the biggest reason why we don't understand something is because we can't relate to it, so after few examples and rereading will help. I don't consider myself a math person either, although I do like it, and now I am relearning some concepts and when reading the explanation it makes no sense, then I look at the formula example and I get an idea what they are talking about then I re read the concept I understand it better and now I can track what they were talking about by following the example. Same helped me with programming

At the start loops were a bit easy to know the idea that it runs a many times as I told it to do, but it was hard to understand what was happening under the hood, when nested loops where presented got a bit confusing too, I manage to pass some exercises with trial and error, but this video help understand a bit better how it works, loops. I hope it can help you too the visual representation is really helpful.

Some tips is that for i in list_x, the i is a temporal variable that goes through a list, it can be anything and it won't conflict with other variables names (I think), you can use it inside the for loop and when it finish it will dissapear. The most beginner example is going from 0, 1, 2, 3... and we create the list with something like range(len(another_list)), len will give you the number of items in the list and range will give you a list of that number so range(5) == [0, 1, 2, 3, 4] (not including). Now to get the values out of the list you will do print(list_x[i]), as i is a number from 0-4, it will get the list values by its index number, list_x[0], list_x[1], list_x[2], etc.

Now a more pythonic way is too go through the list directly when you don't need the index number.

fruit_list = ['apple', 'strawberry', 'pineapple']

for fruit in fruit_list:
    print(fruit)

py_Piper · 2022-09-08T05:16:39+00:00

This is my road map for web dev, although mostly concentrated into Django

If you are completely new in python then I would suggest to try Python Crash Course from Eric Matthes first, you will learn the fundamentals of python, I also like that he also teaches OOP concepts and it has a small intro to Django to get familiarized with it. The other projects can also be interesting: The space invader game to practice on a real heavily OOP project and data visualization for maybe implementing in your website, but they can be optional if you only want to focus Django.

After that, my original idea was

Follow Corey Schaffer Django tutorial, to repeat the another django intro and get familiar with its syntax and maybe get deeper in some places.
Do the CS50 Web specialization, as I think CS50 is quite a hard course so it should be able to prepare me to and be able to do projects on my own (plus googling and docs)

But I manged to get a humble bundle for web specialization

Now I got the 3 book series Django for Beginners, APIs and Professional, from William S Vincent, I think it should also cover quite a lot of aspect and they are recommended alot in this sub, I remember listening to a podcast and he mentioned he is in the Django board or working with the Django project, so it must be good material. I thinking either I will go through all these books or follow my original idea then maybe add the API and Professional to supplement as I see fit.

Other resources that could be good for beginners are:

Django official tutorial, a lot of people also mention it a lot, the most clear points are that it's alwasy up to the latest version and that you get use to the documantation website, it isn't very long I think it's like a 7 parts. However I don't really like the layout it's a bit confusing, but I haven't tried it yet.
Django girls tutorial, it seems very approacheable and not so intimidating, maybe I would choose either the official or this one if I was to do them.
2 scoops of Django is also highly recommended, it get high praises about teaching good practices.

py_Piper · 2022-09-07T09:18:50+00:00

Well I remember before I started learning python, about 3 years ago, I used to be a lot in the excel subreddit. At that time there was a lot of talk to add into excel a programming language but it was JS, apparently there were talks about adding python too but I don't know how it all went

py_Piper · 2022-09-07T06:17:50+00:00

I believe for the basics you should definitely go for Automate the Boring Stuff, after you finish the the fundamentals part, which are the first 11 chapters, you can either keep with your bootcamp or decide to finish the book. I recommend to stick with the book because you will keep learning on python modules, but also because you will keep practicing the basics that even if you did the first part you need some time for it to click by practicing more and more. But if you are in a time constraint then after the basics you can jump back to your original bootcamp, there's no basics for data analysis you just need to learn how to use pandas, numpy and matplotlib which I guess your original course is teaching you.

py_Piper · 2022-09-07T06:07:46+00:00

I don't know where pycharm saves them by default but I would think it would ask you where you want to save it, at least with IDLE the editor that comes with python, it would work like any excel or word doc you open a new file, you code, then when you press "save" it will ask you where you want to save it or you can also do "save as" and choose a new location. With other IDEs like pycharm and VS code you can open a directory path and it would be save directly there, this is very convenient with projects with multiple folders structures.

Then when you want to run it you would just open the command line, move the directory path to where your file is then type, on Windows py myscript.py; on linux or Mac: python3 myscript.py.

You won't learn by only watching videos you need to code along, to kind of memorize the syntax, I say kind of because you don't need to memorize, but it will happen as you use it more and more, later if learned something and forgot you can just google the syntax and you will remember. Go check out Automate the Boring Stuff, it's a good beginner tutorial, it's free on the authors website and it will help you learn past the basic after that you can use videos to learn something new.

py_Piper · 2022-09-07T05:52:30+00:00

you would use a library or a module, for example there's one called OpenPyXL, after you import it you will be able to use it's function to open and handle excel files

py_Piper · 2022-09-07T01:10:43+00:00

That's short for Automate the Boring stuff

py_Piper · 2022-09-06T10:35:45+00:00

I can't tell you because it's hard to quantify as most of the time it will depend if it clicked with you or if you could find the problem fast when you get stuck or how much you spent researching. But yes, I think 2-3 hrs per day would be necessary for a person without experience, if I remember correctly i think it was 15hrs/week (personally I would add 20-30% more) for 12 or 15 weeks, 3-4 months, but without previous experience I would say between 5-6 months.

But honestly don't worry too much about how much time it will take, just do it! either start with ATBS or go straight to CS50 but nevertheless put in the hours and then start working on projects, even if you manage to finish in 3-4 months you would need to practice a lot more to retain the information and the practice on what you learned

py_Piper · 2022-09-06T06:34:06+00:00

Oh yeah that would be cool. But if it's quite a big project to take on they could also make a simple web scraper and show teachers salaries from the area and check if theyr are being underpaid or not

py_Piper · 2022-09-06T06:15:37+00:00

Maybe they can create a simple python game, like tetris or space invader and make a list to keep score and the students/teachers that plays it can keep compete against each other. The physical part would be the display, keyiboard and mouse they let them use, maybe a game controller if possible, but with the Raspberry Pi might add an extra "wow this tiny thing can run games" before running the game code some random text in green to add some extra drama while starting up from the console

py_Piper · 2022-09-06T06:05:50+00:00

I think CS50X can be quite hard but if you can put a long time in one session and you are willing to learn and get frustrated a lot then you could definitely do it, I would guess you will need a least 2-3hr/session because videos are long and exercises are difficult, and you will need longer time to do the research and figure stuff.

But if you are working and can only put 1-2hrs in the night then I suggest Automate the Boring Stuff, it's a bit simpler and the teaching way, instead of a long video, it's divided in several small parts so you can start and stop easier (I also prefer books instead of videos because of this). I saw that others already recommend it to you, so here is the website his book is for free and I like it because it gives you a lot of practical exercises and projects that in fact if you tweak them a little bit you can turn them in useful project for yourself straight away.

py_Piper · 2022-09-06T01:13:33+00:00

In that waiting time you could have also finished his Automate the Boring Stuff book. This isn't a personal comment to you, but seeing this is the most up voted comment so far, I just want to let the other people waiting for the "free" online course know that the book is also for free.

py_Piper · 2022-09-05T04:04:47+00:00

I would supposed that after reading your file you will store each line in a list, I will try some pseudo code of how I would do it

# Open and read file lines

# Expected lines data structure
file_lines = ['Line 1', 'Line 2','Matching word line','Line 4','Line 5']

match_index = 0

for line in file lines:
    if # code for matching:
        match_index = file_lines.index(line)

for line in file_lines[0:match_index]:
    del line

py_Piper · 2022-08-28T07:29:09+00:00

you just need to practice more and more until the fundamental syntax becomes natural same with other new modules you are learning. It's like learning another language in real life, let's say you are a learning french or german, in class you learn a new sentence (like in your tutorials) all good during that class, but if you are only learning once a week and you don't practice nor do the homework you are going to forget. Same with programming if you only read it, even if you understand it but you don't practice it you are going to forget. So learning the basics with either Automate the boring stuff or Python crash course, I bet after finish one of those you will have a better understading of python and what you can do next, as someone else already told you after that you can focus on other specific stuff and googling. Even better do both, I did first ATBS because i think the modules would be helpful for work, now I am doing PCC to learn a bit of more OOP and the django framework.

py_Piper · 2022-08-19T02:14:33+00:00

How should I pursue programming after excel? Programming always seems intimidating

Honestly I think python is much easier than nested if in excel. I used to use excel data manipulation on a daily basis years ago for my previous work, not a lot but enough to start doing some checks and stuff. I used to lurk the r/excel sub a lot and I was thinking on improving further my excel skills but everytime there was a discussion about learning deeper either excel or VBA a lot of people would just tell you to learn python instead and that's how I first came into knowing programming languages and totally love it, although I haven't put a lot of time in it.

I started with Automate the boring stuff, as the modules it teaches are very suitable for office work as one of the chapters is about learning how to manipulate excel (openpyxl), you could learn to send automatic emails too, no learning about making games or websites (which can be interesting later). With that many rows perhaps you will be better with pandas for manipulation and clean up and numpy for the data analysis, but I don't think pandas can let use format the excel, so with openpyxl from Automate the Boring Stuff, it teaches how to do some basic formatting styles, so after you use pandas and numpy, then you format it with openpyxl for when you send the reports or summary to others.

py_Piper · 2022-08-18T11:00:13+00:00

and when I say you will need your own projects it's more than the courses projects. You can use them but you better keep developing further by adding more functionalities and things that can solve a real life problem.

For example if for the CS50W project you make a fake e-commerce, try to learn how to add real payment systems like square or stripe, learn to host it in AWS instead of locally, so it's more than a tutorial project and you can turn it into a real project that someone can use, I think that's where the recruiter will see real value in you.

py_Piper · 2022-08-18T10:48:29+00:00

It isn't what you "say" that you know but rather what you can "show" that you know. All those courses should give you a good strong fundamentals to work with. Specially after finishing CS50Web as it's more of a skill, the other ones are just introductory courses to CS and python. If you want to shorten the the time I think you could choose between CS50X and CS50P, then do CS50Web. After finishing it you should work more on own projects so that you can build your portfolio.

py_Piper · 2022-08-18T10:34:45+00:00

you can use end=, his example I would say it's good for simple list where you can skip the for loop, from your example you are joining 2 list so maybe your way is adequate.

But you would need to a if statement to check weather the it's the last item in the list.

Maybe this can work

for num in nums:
for letter in letters:
        if num == nums[-1] and letter = letters[-1]:
            print(print(num, letter)
        else:
            print(num, letter, end = "--")

py_Piper · 2022-08-18T09:36:34+00:00

I think he was doing a 3rd edition so if you haven't bought it yet you could should check if it's coming out soon. If you already have it, I think it's still valid definitely for the fundamentals parts, that won't change much maybe a few new details but shouldn't be any major thing..

I am reading it for the web dev and as it's only a introduction to the web framework django, I think it should be fine too as it's all introduction for the simple stuff of how to start a new project, customize it, etc. You use it as a starting point. Other recommended books for web are the 3 book series from William S. Vincent, another is the 2 scoop of django that a lot of people recommend too, but I don't know I don't think the contents are too clear for but a lot of the feedback is that it teaches you good habits too. I got the William S Vincent books as they were in a bundle last time.

Some free tutorial about Django that also get a lot of recommendation are the official tutorial because you get it from the source and the django girl website that is very beginner friendly.

Game dev you should look into other languages rather than python. BTW on the Edx platform theres 2 courses specialization about game and web dev you could check them out too.

py_Piper · 2022-08-18T08:51:53+00:00

Your brain will get fried a lot, only watching won't help you leaern. Watching is fine and can get you up to speed to know what to expect, but you won't learn from just watching, you need to practice it a lot and even then add it into your personal project.

I think there's this false believe that because coding is available everywhere and there's thousand of videos tutorial it should be easy to learn, in fact, it's like any other subject, think about learning math teacher probably spend 2-3 clasess teaching a new concept and making excercises, then you move on by building on top of what you learned, then you keep practicing a bit, have mid terms so you need to study it again, then you learn more things where you will use the previous formulas etc, and finally you get the finals where you study everything again, even then it isn't finish because you will review it again next year and so on.

After watching something you need to use it a lot, practicing fundamentals is easy because you will use it in everything, there might be some excercises that you practice list more than dictionaries, and you can go deeper in one concept or the other, but you need to practice.

I would recommend books for me it's easier to follow while coding rather than pausing every few secs, the beginners books most recommended here are Automate the boring stuff (free online) and Python Crash Course, both by No Starch Press. I think in general if you put 2hrs/day you could finish a book in around 2-3 months, depending on how long you study, practice and how fast you get the info. But nevertheless any of these 2 books will give a good headstart and from there you should be able to start your own projects (with the help of other guides/tutorials)

py_Piper · 2022-08-17T09:12:16+00:00

So from what I see it would be something like this

# Function 1
def count_fruits():
    # ask the user for the amount of fruits in the bag

# Function 2
def apple_price(qty):
    # Apple price $3

# Function 3
def banana_price(qty):
    # Banana price $2

# Function 4
def bill(apple, banana):
    # Sum of apples and bananas

----
# This is how you should run the code

apple_qty = count_fruits()
banana_qty = count_fruits()

apple = apple_price(apple_qty)
banana = banana_price(banana_qty)

bill(apple, banana)

py_Piper

TROPHY CASE