"Jeff Molinari" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote > when I think programs or software I think interactivity. > I'm just not sure where this is leading me. > > I want to creat a fully functional program that actually > does something USEFUL. It doesn't have to be big. > But it has to actually do something other than add > and subtract and display a simple string.
You have to start with small steps before you can run. Excel is considered by many to be a useful program but is at heart a program which reads strings and does simple math. It just does that a lot of times - once per cell. A Word Processor is essentially a program to read in strings and reformat them by inserting extra characters. A database stores data in files and searches for it again later. And most user programs (as opposed to servers) are essentially variations on those three themes. If we add manipulation of images and sound (which admittedly are more complex) and some basic networking(email/browsers) then you pretty much have the average PC users ambitions covered. But you have to understand the basics before you can put them together. Its likelearning the chords on a guitar before being able to accompany yourself, or composer a new tune. The better you grasp the basics the easier the more advanced stuff will be later. > Well I suppose I'm asking more for opinions and suggestions > on how to go about learning. Stick with a tutor and adapt the examples as you go. Be sure you understand what your changes did diffeently and why. As you keep going the examples will get bigger and more "real world" -- Alan Gauld Author of the Learn to Program web site http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
