Dear Pythonistas Over a year ago I dabbled in learning Python, working my way through a few tutorials, the Deitel's "How to program in Python" and Hetland's "Practical Python", until I came across the OOP sections. My mind just froze up, and I found myself wondering if I had really understood anything at all. In addition to which I didn't have any "itch" that I needed to scratch so was trying to learn something without any purpose. So I stopped.
In the interim however I did have a few occasions to write programs and scripts for my GNU/Linux system to do the odd thing here and there, a few conversion programs and calculators. I found myself going back to the books and trying to figure it out again, and am proud to say that I have a few programs now that are probably not elegant nor the most efficient or stylish, but do the job. This has re-awakened my interest in programming and as I am going back to basics again I am conscious that I want to approach the matter differently. I *don't* work in a programming environment, nor am I likely to ever get into development, although would be interested in learning ethical hacking (the idea just interests me - too many espionage movies as a kid I guess). I am happy to read, and have done a fair amount, but am concerned about getting too overwhelmed and confused again. I acknowledge and realise the value of practising by scripting programs and enjoy the intellectual challenge of the debugging process, and trying to think through the trick of a particular way of cracking a problem. So, after this long-winded introduction, I was hoping to pick the wisdom of this list to get some pointers of what to do/not to do to make the most effective use of the few hours I have to learn how to program using Python. So, any advice for someone in their mid-40s who would like to learn Python in a more methodical and effective manner? Thanks in anticipation. Andy -- "If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow" _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
