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Simplest/Quickest/Best Way to Get Started? - abrogard - Oct-22-2020
I decided to use Python.
Now into the third day and still not up and running.
I have win10.
Tried Anaconda because it was advised everywhere.
Had hassles and reinstalls with it.
Then tried spyder and had hassles with it.
Tried conda as part of all this and had hassles with it.
Want database utility in what I want to write to tried to get mysql because it was advised.
Had all sorts of hassles with it.
Nearly all of these hassles I think are due to incompatabilities with various versions of this multitude of packages.
Like when I open spyder it tells me there's an update available every time. When I try to install the update with coda
Like I just tried to install mysql-connector-python and it told me it is incompatible with my python (3.8 I think).
I think maybe I've gone off on the wrong track.
What's the simplest, quickest, easiest, most fireproof way of installing python so's I can get busy (complete with some kind of database facility (just to keep a few hundred simple records is all) ) ?
p.s. like what I mean is I see conda is simply a package manager - it just gets things for you and installs them, except often it doesn't, and then I learned that anaconda itself is something similar being 'just a collection of packages' some guy said when I was browsing troubleshooting anaconda hassles.
And it seems to me these 'helping' apps are getting to where they're just a big hassle. All I need is python and mysql and whatever makes the one able to use the other, isn't it?
RE: Simplest/Quickest/Best Way to Get Started? - perfringo - Oct-22-2020
(Oct-22-2020, 08:44 AM)abrogard Wrote: All I need is python and mysql and whatever makes the one able to use the other, isn't it?
I personally don't think so, you should be more like Kimi Räikkonen I know what I'm doing.
Currently you have no understanding how nuts-and-bolts of Python and programming in general fit together. If you are up and running what gives you the knowledge to use tools you know next to nothing?
While you in state of 'guessing' that you have Python 3.8 I suggest that you don't try to start with writing code to connect to database which has any real/important data.
I think that most straightforward way to start could be to go python.org/downloads, download and install Python for your appropriate OS and move forward from there.
RE: Simplest/Quickest/Best Way to Get Started? - buran - Oct-22-2020
do you really need MySQL? I don't have problems with using MySQL, nor I recommend against it, it just look like overkill for what you have described in your other task - just keeping some strings.
can you use sqlite3, which is file like database and support comes included in Standard Library? A simple text file in the right format may do too. It depends on your goal (apart from "storing some 250-chars-long strings")
I personally prefer working with python downloaded from python.org and use VS Code as IDE.
You may look at these two tutorials. Follow them (especially the one regarding the installation)
https://python-forum.io/Thread-Python-3-8-3-6-3-7-and-pip-installation-under-Windows
https://python-forum.io/Thread-VS-Code-from-start
On Windows I also happen to use Notepad++ with some plugins for quick and dirty jobs (i.e. if you don't want to delve into more advanced IDE, yet get some basic features like syntax highlighting)
No Anaconda, Spyder, Jupyter, etc. But I understand and accept that it may be more convenient for some users or in some use cases.
Note that Simplest/Quickest/Best Way may not always be the same :-) e.g. simplest/quickest is to use IDLE that comes with python on windows. But it's considered poor substitute for IDE, i.e. not BEST way :-).
RE: Simplest/Quickest/Best Way to Get Started? - metulburr - Oct-22-2020
i dont ever advise a person to use Anaconda. I just always tell them to do the following steps. However if your using 9/10's of the packages in anaconda, then it just saves you a step to install them.
1) Download pygame from pygame.org
1) Download python from python.org
2) pip install PACKAGNAME (where PACKAGENAME is whatever 3rd party library you want) AND do that command in the windows prompt not the python interpreter.
3) If you want an IDE, install whatever one you want and link your python version to that one
(Oct-22-2020, 08:44 AM)abrogard Wrote: (just to keep a few hundred simple records is all) ) ?MYSQL is overkill for this. A simple python dictionary set in a JSON file could handle this. A text file would do even, but then you dont have the structure. As an added bonus in using JSON: you are learning to work with python dictionaries, you do not need any 3rd party libraries at all as json module is in the standard library, and if in the future you want to convert to MYSQL you can easily obtain it by loading the JSON back in as a python dictionary and proceed from there.
RE: Simplest/Quickest/Best Way to Get Started? - buran - Oct-22-2020
(Oct-22-2020, 10:05 AM)metulburr Wrote: Download pygame from pygame.orgI think @metulburr means python from python.org
RE: Simplest/Quickest/Best Way to Get Started? - abrogard - Oct-22-2020
Thanks very much for all those replies. I must have not set notifications because I didn't get any. Have to look into that.
I will backpedal and uninstall everything and start back where a couple of you have suggested. If this current thing doesn't work out.
It's just what I was thinking and where I would have gone in the first place but something directed me to anaconda as the easiest and the best!
Mysql overkill is also interesting. I'm accustomed to using mysql in connection with my phpbb boards and think of it as a handy easy tool - like it comes with phpbb. But all this fuss and commotion i'd happily go elsewhere.
I just want to be able to access the rows by number or even by content which is what makes me think of a db rather than a text file of my own creation.
:)
RE: Simplest/Quickest/Best Way to Get Started? - buran - Oct-22-2020
Anaconda indeed comes with some packages included and that's why it's considered easier by some (again - it's subjective). Also - you may not need these packages anyway, depending on what you plan to do.
With respect to db - one think is do you want server running (i.e. sqlite3 that I suggested is server-less). As I said, a lot depends on what you plan to do next (e.g. a nosql database like Redis may also work for your use case)
RE: Simplest/Quickest/Best Way to Get Started? - metulburr - Oct-22-2020
whoops yeah, i meant python from python.org haha