#lpthw

[i-wheely-love-poodles]

Python Day 5

Today we warm up by completing Exercise 25. This is even more practice with functions and variables!

To run the program we call python in the terminal and import ex25 from there.

As I was working through calling the different functions in the terminal I realized that I missed a function - specifically the one that sorted a sentence. I called it and ended up getting a mess of individual letters. After bug hunting I found the issue to be that I called sort_words(sentence) instead of sort_words(words)

After fixing those issues I finished running through the function calls in the terminal and it went great!

Up next is Exercise 26! We are halfway through the book and it is time for a test. We are given broken code that we copy paste into a file. Our job is to fix it and get the program running! As I went through the program I left comments wherever I was fixing code. Below is my finished and fixed program.

And here is the output in the terminal:

Exercise 27 went over different booleans as well as a chart to memorize. The next practical was exercise 28 where you type in different statements then guess if they will be true or false. With my previous experience in programming I already knew a lot - the only thing that tripped me up was NOT OR booleans. Here's the output of the terminal!

Chugging right along to Exercise 29! ex29 introduced if statements. I already know lots about if statements from Javascript so this is more of a refresher than anything.

And then the output:

Exercise 30 introduces Else If statements.

And the output:

Exercise 31 combines everything that we've learned about If/Elif statements with the new concept of Nested statements. Using nested statements we are able to write a very simple Choose Your Own Adventure text game.

Here are a couple different runs I did with this program. My first try was not the best - I ended up having my mind turned into Jello!

My second run went better! I ran into a bear but I survived.

For the study drill it challenged me to write my own text game. I made a very simple one and got about halfway through where I want it to be.

That's it for today folks!

[babydatajournalism]

Python on Windows 7

I have to use a Windows 7 computer for a couple of months (I know, pity me, right?). I wanted to start using Python on it, and sure enough, Zed's sweet instructions worked just fine.

The hard part was Zed's step 5: "Run your Terminal program. It won't look like much." You are ALREADY IN THE TERMINAL PROGRAM when you open the PowerShell, which he already told you to do. Geez.

Next, I got a big fat error message after I typed python and pressed Enter. That is because Python is not installed. Zed has a link for that (in step 6.1). While installing, I carefully accepted all the defaults, changing NOTHING, because I know Windows is like that.

After installing Python 2.7 (oh yes -- I had to check whether my Windows computer was 64-bit or not. Open the Control Panel, click System, and look for "System type" there), I had to copy and paste the line Zed supplies in step 6.4. This sets the environment variable so the PowerShell can find Python.

Next, I had to exit and restart PowerShell. 

And then -- voilà! I typed python at the command prompt, and I was in Python! 

Thanks, Zed!

[365jenna]

Day 28: Ooh Ahh OOP

I was working my brain muscles tonight on LPTHW's exercise on Object Oriented Programming. Here's the exercise with only a tiny bit of tinkering on my part.

I need to do more to cement these ideas of class and object because they are feeling mighty foreign right now. 

[365jenna]

Day 11: Dictionary Direction

Tonight I did a bunch of poking around and reading about dicts or dictionaries (following along with LPTHW).

Dicts are handy storage containers which take multiple entries of a key and a value. Curly brackets tell Python that you're heading out of list territory and into the dictionary zone.

neighborhoods = { 'Brooklyn': 'Greenpoint', 'Queens': 'Astoria', 'Manhattan': 'Tribeca', } print neighborhoods

[365jenna]

Day 9: While You Were Out

While is a capable tool, but perhaps too capable. It's so busy running a loop I don't get error messages to know what's going on. While is best used when carefully observed so it doesn't burn down your house in a fit of productivity. Here's a LPTHW adapted program.

[365jenna]

Day 6: Listing Away

Lists, à la LPTHW, are on the menu tonight. 

[365jenna]

Day 1: Unicorn Fun House

Today I brought in some aggressive mythical creatures into my code. 

I did one of Zed Shaw's excellent exercises from Learn Python the Hard Way. Exercise number 36 asks for a game navigating through a fun house.

My fun house has some very angry unicorns, so watch your back, kids:

https://gist.github.com/Telesca/7818146

I got to know how to use the "in" operator so that I could move the player to different parts of the game whether or not she used capitalization when entering commands.

def poker_room(): print "There are unicorns here, sitting around a table smoking and playing cards." print "Some have horns. Some do not." print "One without a horn approaches you." print "Do you suggest he is more horse than unicorn? (yes or no)" dialogue = raw_input(">") if "yes" in dialogue or "Yes" in dialogue: dead( "He still has his teeth, dude. You're dead meat.") exit(0) else: print "Smart move. He hands you a whiskey and asks you to sit down."

I learned the hard way (ahem) that "in" doesn't function the way "==" does. There's more flexibility because "in" just looks to see if the phrase was part of the entered text, where == wants an exact match. 

I also got some good "if," "else," and "elif" practice. The indentation must be right or the program will not run. Just error message, error message, error message.

[catherinestevens-blog]

LPTHW day 1

New Terminal Commands I learned today:

pwd

Print Working Directory. This prints out whichever directory you’re in currently.

cd /Users/path/to/directory/you-want/to-be-in

Change Directory to wherever you want to be. 

ls

List all the files and directories in whichever directory you’re in. 

touch [new-filename]

Make a new file (using Textedit) in whichever directory you’re in.  

mkdir [new-directory-name]

Make a new directory in whichever directory you’re in.

open [filename]

Opens up the file.

open -a [specific application] [filename] 

Opens the file in the specified application (TextWrangler, LibreOffice, etc)

cat [filename]

Prints out the contents of filename (you have to be in the same directory as filename)