Does anyone here know PYTHON (the programming language) or any others?

[lxskllr]

GENERAL QUESTION TO ALL: How long did it take you before you learned your first programming language enough to where you could start tinkering with it and move away from tutorials? It shouldn't take too long, right? I am hoping to learn a pretty decent amount of Python by the end of the year, I want to at least be able to do somethign with it at that point, I understand that doing complex programming takes years of experience but if I could even do simple stuff by the end of the year I would be happy. [/SIZE][/FONT]

I'd say never. If you're gonna keep growing, you're gonna keep learning. I used to program calculators in RPL, and I was always extending functionality, and learning new things. I don't know anything about Python, but in general, you'll keep interest up if you can use what you create. Start simple, and build and extend on what you've done. That makes it a lot more fun, and less like schoolwork.

[sgreger1]

I'd say never. If you're gonna keep growing, you're gonna keep learning. I used to program calculators in RPL, and I was always extending functionality, and learning new things. I don't know anything about Python, but in general, you'll keep interest up if you can use what you create. Start simple, and build and extend on what you've done. That makes it a lot more fun, and less like schoolwork.

Yah that's pretty much what i'm doing, jsut going to try and write little time saving thigns and little personal projects, not trying to make this like school work at all. I just want to know how long it will be before I could say that I really know how to "do somthing" in python, as in maybe write a simple program that makes a calculator or something lol. I just want to know if it is going to take me 10 years before I can do anythign usefull with programming or if it is something that I could pick up a decent amount of in a year, at least enough to where I could do somethign with it other than just copying tutorials verbatim.

[lxskllr]

Just pulling a number out of my ass, I'd say 2 years as a hobbyist. Linux really is a good idea for you to learn on. You'll have access to all the source code, so you can see how things go together. Exaile media player is written in Python. Maybe you can make it not a bloated pig :^D

http://www.exaile.org/

[sgreger1]

Just pulling a number out of my ass, I'd say 2 years as a hobbyist. Linux really is a good idea for you to learn on. You'll have access to all the source code, so you can see how things go together. Exaile media player is written in Python. Maybe you can make it not a bloated pig :^D

http://www.exaile.org/

Can you elaborate a little bit as my jumping into this venture has really highlighted how little I actually know about computers. I have no experience with Linux and do not even know what a computer running linux would look like if I saw the screen. I am completely ignorant about how to run virtual machines and whatnot or how to make my machine Linux, can anyone point me to simple instructions on how to accomplish this?


From what I gather here, it is possible to partition my hard drive to allow linux and/or windows to run on my mac? If this si true than please tell me how I can accomplish this amazing feat, I know it is possible but never tried it. I tried installing linux on my PC last time per instructions from this forum but I ended up destroying the computer and losing all o fmy daughters videos and baby pictures and everything else to my name, so I am a little unsure about trying to instlal seperate operating systems on my laptop here. Is this safe to do? I odn't want to fry the whole computer like the last time I tried.



Is there a place I can go to learn all of this lingo? I keep trying to read help manuals but everything assumes you already know at least 20 other programming languages first or that you area computer scientist.

[lxskllr]

Best way to learn is by doing. Go here, and download/install VirtualBox...

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

I'm gonna suggest Ubuntu as the distro. If you have questions, you'll be more likely to find answers since it's the most used distro, as well as being noob friendly. I suggest downloading 10.04 32bit instead of the latest. That's a long term release, and will be supported for 2 more years. For your purposes, stability is better than the latest/greatest features...

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

See where you get from there. Your first test will be getting a virtual Ubuntu install inside VirtualBox :^D

It's pretty easy, and going over the whole process will be duplicating functionality that you'll probably understand yourself. Just come back if you need help :^)

[sgreger1]

Best way to learn is by doing. Go here, and download/install VirtualBox...

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

I'm gonna suggest Ubuntu as the distro. If you have questions, you'll be more likely to find answers since it's the most used distro, as well as being noob friendly. I suggest downloading 10.04 32bit instead of the latest. That's a long term release, and will be supported for 2 more years. For your purposes, stability is better than the latest/greatest features...

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

See where you get from there. Your first test will be getting a virtual Ubuntu install inside VirtualBox :^D

It's pretty easy, and going over the whole process will be duplicating functionality that you'll probably understand yourself. Just come back if you need help :^)

Sweet, I am going to do this when I get home tonight. So by installing a "virtual box" this will allow me to load the "virtual box" with a different operating system, specifically the one you recommended which is Ubuntu (which I have heard lots of great things about but never tried)?

On Ubuntu, is there anything that I should NOT use ubuntu for? As in, should I only load it for programming, or is it something that I could use as a regular operating system as well? I like Mac's interface but I am still very new to macs and getting into something like programming on one is killing me since I don't even know the basics of how macs work (as in where they install files by default etc). So for me I would feel more comfortable doing technical/programming stuff on somethign that acted more like windows. Is ubuntu in any way like windows?

[lxskllr]

Ubuntu is probably closer to Apple than Windows. You can use it as a full time O/S with the caveat that you won't be able to run Apple programs, and likely won't be able to Run Windows programs, though some do work in Wine which is a Windows compatibility layer.

Like everything, it takes time to get used to it. I've been running Ubuntu virtually 100% of the time for the last few months. I've used it on my portables for a few years now, but never as a full time O/S. I've settled on running linux(either Ubuntu or Debian) as my primary O/S on my next install. I'm comfortable with it, and prefer it for day to day use. I'll keep a Windows partition for gaming, but Linux will be my daily driver.

All these changes may seem overwhelming at first, but it should help you become more flexible, and versatile with your computer use.

Here's some reading material on Richard Stallman, the mad genius of MIT. He's an extremest regarding free software, but he's a legitimate genius, and I love his style and philosophy :^)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_stallman

That doesn't have anything to do with your current goal, but it'll give you an idea of why free software's important, and may give you some inspiration programming :^)

[internope]

You really don't need Linux, you have everything you need and more in OS X.

The reason that your Python code would not run is the goofy quote characters. If those odd quote marks came from the code you pasted from the web you'll need to fix them. Always create and save your code as plain vanilla text and you should be fine.

[lxskllr]

You really don't need Linux, you have everything you need and more in OS X.

No, Linux isn't at all necessary, but having the source code available to tons of software will give good practical examples, and who knows; he may be able to improve some packages, and submit them to the maintainers :^)

[devilock76]

Second Ubuntu as a Mac like Linux distro. Heck you might find as you become more savvy installing lighter distros in your VirtualBox. On my CentOS server I run a virtual FreeBSD and Arch install.

The best way to learn is to do and for a first timer into linux virtual machines really are the best way to get your feet wet. Once you get it installed and working fine make a snapshot of the machine state so that if you hose it with playing around then you can quickly restore it to that state. Trust me it is much better to "play" around and hose a guest os in a virtual box than it is to hose your actual computer and the host os.

Ken

[ratcheer]

Has anyone here ever heard of Ruby Rails? Is this something anyone here has tried?

It is called Ruby on Rails and it is a web application framework based on top of the Ruby programming language. I have looked at it briefly, but never used it. It was all the rage about five years ago.

Tim

[ratcheer]

Yah that's pretty much what i'm doing, jsut going to try and write little time saving thigns and little personal projects, not trying to make this like school work at all. I just want to know how long it will be before I could say that I really know how to "do somthing" in python, as in maybe write a simple program that makes a calculator or something lol. I just want to know if it is going to take me 10 years before I can do anythign usefull with programming or if it is something that I could pick up a decent amount of in a year, at least enough to where I could do somethign with it other than just copying tutorials verbatim.

I had a personal project in 2009 where I was programming a text-based object-oriented Yahtzee game in Ruby. It was going pretty well, but I stopped long before the game was completed.

Tim

[ratcheer]

You really don't need Linux, you have everything you need and more in OS X.

The reason that your Python code would not run is the goofy quote characters. If those odd quote marks came from the code you pasted from the web you'll need to fix them. Always create and save your code as plain vanilla text and you should be fine.

Yes, way down in the middle of OS X, it is BSD UNIX. Everything is there, and it is as good as or better than Linux. In fact, I have been using mostly Ubuntu for the past couple of years, and I am considering changing to PC-BSD, myself.

Tim

[sgreger1]

Okay i'm going to try this vitual box thing tonight if I can. I can't believe how complicated this is, it used to be you just opened a compiler and then started writing code, but I guess it's a differetn world now.


I need to learn more about linux too because I too am very big on the open source movement. I do think there is a time and place for closed/for-profit things but I also dig the community crowdsourcing the developement things so I would love to get into linux more. Hopefully this virtual box will help me be more successfull than last time.

[captncaveman]

I wish you luck sir! once you start getting more comfortable with programming try playing around in bash scripting. You will be a l33t nerd in no time.