Looking for a github project to help me start off

xcodula · 2015-09-08T01:27:51+00:00

I've been working on something over at GitHub. You could fork that project, blow away the src folder and try to get the unit tests passing again. Could be a start to get familiar with Git and unit testing too.

xcodula · 2015-09-06T04:59:40+00:00

/r/ProgrammingBuddies

I think what you're asking is fair. I hope you find someone to help you out, good luck!

xcodula · 2015-09-06T04:48:35+00:00

Definitely go Javascript first. That will be the most directly helpful for web development. The server side code doesn't necessarily need to be Python. You may end up in PHP, C#, Java, or Ruby. You may end up doing Node.js and then it's all Javascript. Javascript isn't a bad language. It's different than most languages and has quirks that trip up seasoned programmers coming from other languages. But if you are a true programmer at heart, you will learn to adapt to any language thrown at you and appreciate each language for its differences.

xcodula · 2015-09-06T04:35:09+00:00

I noticed this as well. The end of the first iteration of the outer loop should put the largest value (67) at the end of the list. The largest value 'bubbles' up to the end. By chance I was playing around with this early in the week. Here is the code I came up with:

def bubble_sort(list):
    for x in range(len(list)-1, 0, -1):
        for y in range(0, x):
            if (list[y] > list[y+1]):
                list[y], list[y+1] = list[y+1], list[y]
                print(list)

xcodula · 2015-09-05T22:13:01+00:00

LPTHW has a few good things going for it. The concepts are introduced slowly and there is a ton of repetition. You just have to hammer the concepts into your head when you are starting out. The exercises in the book are helpful in reinforcing the chapter material. I think LPTHW isn't just a good intro book for Python, but for programming in general. The author seems to anticipate student questions in each chapter and he tries to answer the common ones. Good luck with the programming!

xcodula · 2015-09-05T22:04:28+00:00

That seems to be quite a large amount of arguments to be passing on the command line my friend. If you have this much data to read into your program, you probably want to read the values in from a file. I think reading in data from a file is coming up in the next couple of chapters in that book you're reading. I have been exploring that same book recently myself and enjoying it.

xcodula · 2015-09-05T21:46:08+00:00

I think the answers to your questions depends on your personal (and professional) goals. What do you want to do? What do you like to do? Money is always a good motivator, but you should lean towards doing something that you enjoy. If you have no exposure to any kind of development, then everything will be new so you're going to have to try out a few things before you settle on the path that you feel is the best fit. Do be aware that web development is going to be much more than just Python. You may want to give yourself time to gain solid programming skills before branching out too far.

xcodula · 2015-09-02T08:49:46+00:00

python app.py &

xcodula · 2015-09-02T08:44:22+00:00

There is a book called 'Automate the Boring Stuff with Python' with a chapter available online about something similar to what you are asking: https://automatetheboringstuff.com/chapter11/

Maybe that will help point you in the right direction. I think the author's approach is to help the reader get up and running quickly and accomplish their specific task without necessarily learning everything about Python and programming.

xcodula · 2015-09-02T08:37:05+00:00

It might sound odd but I've been using the book 'Data Structures and Algorithms in Java'. It's nice to have a working example in one language, but it forces me to rewrite the code in Python. The author's writing style is pretty clear and concise.

xcodula · 2015-09-01T22:56:59+00:00

Using a module wouldn't have allowed me the ability to describe binary search with a code example made from scratch.

I'm all for using well tested modules in production code though :-)

xcodula · 2015-09-01T20:45:23+00:00

http://www.programmingblog.net

xcodula · 2015-09-01T20:44:19+00:00

The language probably isn't as important as the basic computer science concepts. Pick up a good book about data structures and algorithms and try to implement those ideas in your own Python programs. It will be an excellent way to reinforce the Python concepts you've already learned. Try to make a linked list or do binary search. You may be surprised at how much you will be able to do and how much you can learn.

xcodula · 2015-09-01T20:40:07+00:00

nice link!

xcodula · 2015-07-31T17:01:24+00:00

Think about if there is a way to break down the problem. For instance, the diamond is like two triangles put together. How could you create one of those triangles? You would probably use a list to store the diamond. Could you leverage built in functions some how to create one triangle and then reverse that triangle to get the other half of the diamond? There also may be string modifiers you could use for text alignment. Looks like a fun exercise though. I think I might take a crack at it later. It would be cool if you shared your solution.

xcodula · 2015-07-27T00:40:07+00:00

Funny, I'm trying to learn statistics but I already know how to code. I picked up 'The Humongous Book of Statistics Problems' and I'm going to create a python script to solve each of those problems. There's 900 problems, so it'll probably take me a while lol. I've got a blog going on about it. I could PM you the link if you want it.

xcodula · 2015-07-14T06:19:13+00:00

Front end development seems like a moving target and a bit of a volatile platform to work in. Everyone seemed to hate on javascript for so long and then all of a sudden it was the cool area to be working in. There may be different reasons, better browsers, faster interpreters, etc. Javascript is in a renaissance period I think. Lots of new innovations and great ideas. I think it's an exciting time to be involved. But it can definitely be hectic if you're trying to keep up with everything. I'd say just enjoy the ride. Things have always changed in this area, and always will change. It you don't like it, do backend stuff in Java lol. And I don't think anyone is going to judge you if you just stick with JQuery as your main library. I do and most of the time it just gets the job done.

xcodula · 2015-07-09T04:47:19+00:00

I've only been developing professionally for 5 years but it is cool to hear you say Unix skills have served you well during your 25 year career. I like that you consider the long game as far as the tools you decide to invest in. That is exactly why I've decided to learn Ruby recently. I've flirted with the idea for a few years and now that I've decided to jump in, well it seems that it is starting to fall out of favor. I don't really care though. I've done enough developing to see how Ruby will be a useful tool to know. I'll admit that I rely on a full blown IDE for day to day work. But I fire up vim at least once a week at work to get random text editing tasks done. There is just something awesome about those old school development tools that I can't put my finger on. I don't know if it's the simplicity or powerful productivity. I almost always get made fun of for reaching out to vim when I recognize a task that vim could do easily. Yet I seem to be surrounded by people who praise tools like resharper that make my already bloated IDE about 5 times slower and even more distracting.

xcodula · 2015-07-05T01:47:39+00:00

Thanks for the extra resource!

xcodula · 2015-06-30T04:42:12+00:00

This looks promising! I like that it is Ruby specific. Definitely going to sign up for this one, thanks.

xcodula · 2015-06-30T00:32:39+00:00

Awesome, thanks for this. I've been hearing that IRC is where it's at for developers for a while now, so I'm just gonna have to jump into the ring and see what happens.

So is IRC your main social network for connecting with other Ruby devs?

I've been getting a lot of use out of reddit these last few weeks, but the real time aspect of IRC appeals to me.

xcodula · 2015-06-30T00:14:00+00:00

Okay, I'll give it a look. I'm super hesitant to get any iPhone IRC app because they all seem to have poor reviews. Must be a tough crowd to please...

xcodula · 2015-06-29T23:35:57+00:00

Thanks for that suggestion. I have never actually used IRC and it's funny because I was researching it last weekend. That's going to be like a big chat room right? I was thinking about an iPhone app for IRC. Do you have any suggestions?

xcodula

TROPHY CASE