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How fast did you manage to learn Python? - RelocateMe - Jul-16-2018
I don't expect a promising answer like "in three months" or so. But i am really interested in how long does it take to start feeling confident in programming.
RE: How fast did you manage to learn Python? - metulburr - Jul-16-2018
What is your definition of "learn"? To read and understand code? To be fluently writing it? To know the basics? To teach python to students? To use a bunch of 3rd party libs? To do one task or many tasks?
It depends on each person. Everyone learns things at different time frames. Its also based on a number of factors....time put into actual coding, had experience with another language beforehand, familiarity with computers beforehand, etc.
I would say it took me 1-3 years to get comfortable in python. In other languages like c++ i still dont feel confident.
RE: How fast did you manage to learn Python? - Skaperen - Jul-16-2018
i felt confident long before i knew what i really needed to know. part of the reason for that is because i was already a programmer in many other languages for many years before. and python is not that much different than the "dream language" i had been thinking about creating. and i am still learning a lot about it and suspect i will for all the time to come just as i am for the other things i continue to use.
RE: How fast did you manage to learn Python? - Larz60+ - Jul-16-2018
I am retired now, but software has been almost my entire career, beginning in 1968.
I have used and learned many many languages over the years. I have to say that there's not one of them that I have used where i didn't continue learning new things about the language. I never really felt that I knew everything about any language, although the competence level was usually achieved after a couple of years of use.
Think of python as a set of tools. These tools can be used to make new tools, and if you like what the new tool does, you'll have to learn that as well. To me, that's the beauty of it, you never run out of new and exciting things to learn.
RE: How fast did you manage to learn Python? - ichabod801 - Jul-16-2018
Learning Python and learning programming are not necessarily the same thing. I learned programming very quickly. However, I'd already been programming almost thirty years when I started learning Python, which is very similar to other languages I'd used. I basically just needed to understand the quirks of the language (indentation, variable referencing, modules) and the words it used for common programming constructs, and I was off and running.
RE: How fast did you manage to learn Python? - Skaperen - Jul-17-2018
i just dove in even before i felt confident. i started python with an example script using the pexpect module. i just made a few simple changes, at first (changing text to make it access a router). then i expanded it and i had to get a reference document to understand how to do it. i don't remember what version of python was used but this was around 2009.
i typically don't learn from tutorials. for example, i learned most of IBM 360 assembler language by reading a hardware reference called Principles of Operation. i was already programming in 4 languages by then.
RE: How fast did you manage to learn Python? - RelocateMe - Jul-18-2018
(Jul-16-2018, 09:38 PM)metulburr Wrote: What is your definition of "learn"? To read and understand code? To be fluently writing it? To know the basics?
Yes, by "learn" I meant being able to program a product (even a small one) which works.
RE: How fast did you manage to learn Python? - nilamo - Jul-18-2018
How long did it take me? Well, I already knew two or three different languages at the time, so it took about a weekend to know enough Python to make things.
Learning the base programming concepts (variables, loops, functions, etc) is what takes time. Once you know that, then "learning the language" is sometimes as easy as looking up how that particular language does it.
Once you know how to ride a bike, learning how to ride a bike that has a cargo basket over the rear tire doesn't take very long.
That said, languages fall into a couple categories. Lisp, for example, is radically different from most other languages, and a lot of what you know about other languages doesn't translate well to it. (...I'm planning on learning lisp this year)
RE: How fast did you manage to learn Python? - ichabod801 - Jul-18-2018
(Jul-18-2018, 06:04 PM)nilamo Wrote: Lisp, for example, is radically different from most other languages, and a lot of what you know about other languages doesn't translate well to it. (...I'm planning on learning lisp this year)
Well, you can force Lisp to act like other programming languages. But it takes work and defeats the point of programming in Lisp. Same with SAS, which I've done a lot of work with.
One thing about learning to program: First you learn a particular language, like Python. Then you learn some other languages, like C++ and Java or something. Then you realize that the project you are working on is going to have an effect on which language you use.
RE: How fast did you manage to learn Python? - Larz60+ - Jul-18-2018
How do you drive a Lisp programmer crazy? (Hint: the joke is in the title
)