New Users Introduce Yourself

[Doc_AElstein]

.....I have a play list from a “thenewbosten” guy downloading.

....Listened to that guys videos ....., he was using Python 2, so if he hasn't updated his videos,....

Following the link at the_....
https://python-forum.io/Thread-A-List-of...-Resources
_.... for thenewboston, I ended up at a play list which I downloaded starting with this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mf0h3HphEA
He was on 2.6.2 then.
I just noticed that he has a more up to date list… for Python 3.4 ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBxCHonP...k4JHw91mC_
so I will be downloading that and building up a play list.
Possibly the link at https://python-forum.io/Thread-A-List-of...-Resources for thenewbosten: ( https://thenewboston.com/videos.php?cat=36 ) might want to be updated to something like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBxCHonP...k4JHw91mC_
or maybe from his own site...
Although that older Playlist is very good. I have learnt ( and also laughed a bit ) from it

Alan

[Gribouillis]

Hello everybody,

I taught myself Python around 1995 with Python 1 and it has always been my favorite language. I use it for many personal or professional projects, but I'm not a professional python developer. I like to share python knowledge, techniques and tips!

[Skaperen]

Hello everybody,

I taught myself Python around 1995 with Python 1 and it has always been my favorite language. I use it for many personal or professional projects, but I'm not a professional python developer. I like to share python knowledge, techniques and tips!

what did you know before that, and what is your profession today?

[Gribouillis]

what did you know before that, and what is your profession today?

I wrote my first line of code in UCSD Pascal, then I used C, C++, lisp, perl, Objective C, java, D (great one!) and a few others. As for my profession, let's say I'm a researcher.

[league55]

Hi, all.

I've worked my way through most of The Coder's Apprentice by Pieter Spronck and plan to look for more in-depth information on how to write Python scripts in the real world, as opposed to just writing academic scripts. For that purpose I've done some googling on things that aren't mentioned to beginners, such as whether getter and setter class methods make any sense to implement at all, how to integrate regular expressions into a script, smart use of generators, and the use of function annotation and function decorators. (I'm finding the information on annotation and decorators really challenging right now.)

I also read online that there are about 185,000 third-party modules available for Python. Core Python modules are numerous and complex enough that I don't have a hope of learning everything about them in one lifetime, and finding out about the specific existence of more than a couple thousand of those third-party modules is unlikely in one lifetime as well. But I'm paying attention to what gets mentioned most often in discussion (Flask, pandas, matplotlib, etc.) and making tentative plans to look into that stuff.

I've been bouncing back and forth between running Windows 10 Home (which is activated on a free online license) and Debian (which is free of charge, period) depending on my mood, but eventually I hope to settle into using just one of those development environments. Right now Windows is winning because it offers more for casual end-use, but I've been told that Python might not be the ideal language for Windows applications.

Anyway, that's enough of a book about me. Nice to meet you all.

[Larz60+]

I also read online that there are about 185,000 third-party modules available for Python.

126631 on PyPi alone: https://pypi.python.org/pypi

[sparkz_alot]

I've been told that Python might not be the ideal language for Windows applications.

Not sure why someone would say that. I write scripts for both Windows and Linux, though usually they are for administrative tasks and I try to make them cross platform.

Some things to keep in mind:
Linux has many programs that rely on Python and usually comes with v2.x and v3.x pre-installed. You do not want to remove these as you will probably end up having to re-install the OS.

Windows has no OS dependency on Python, so it can be added and removed as often as you like. I think I can speak for all admins and mods when I say that we strongly recommend you use the latest version of Python (currently 3.6.4) and stay away from v2.x as it is currently a 'maintenance' only release and will be discontinued in 2020.

Another thing to keep in mind, some 3rd party modules need to be compiled. While Linux comes with a compiler by default, Windows does not.
If you find yourself in a position on Windows where you need one of these modules, you'll want to bookmark this site:
https://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/
They have done a great job of pre-compiling many 3rd party modules for Windows users.

Whether Linux or Windows, we have excellent Tutorials on installing Python for either OS, as well as a very nice Resource collection.

Welcome to the community and hope you have fun with Python.

[league55]

Another thing to keep in mind, some 3rd party modules need to be compiled. While Linux comes with a compiler by default, Windows does not.
If you find yourself in a position on Windows where you need one of these modules, you'll want to bookmark this site:
https://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/
They have done a great job of pre-compiling many 3rd party modules for Windows users.

I note that these libraries are precompiled for CPython. I'm assuming that means I have to install CPython before adding them to my Python library, but please confirm.

Right now, in Win 10, I've got Python 3.6.4 x64_86 installed for limited user (in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\...). Not sure if that's a good idea, but I figure it would help me avoid having to reinstall Windows if I screw something up. Please comment.

Also please comment on whether using pyinstaller -F --noconsole is a good idea, or are there better alternatives to pyinstaller.

[sparkz_alot]

I note that these libraries are precompiled for CPython. I'm assuming that means I have to install CPython before adding them to my Python library, but please confirm.

Cpython is Python, they are one in the same.

Right now, in Win 10, I've got Python 3.6.4 x64_86 installed for limited user (in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\...). Not sure if that's a good idea, but I figure it would help me avoid having to reinstall Windows if I screw something up.

It does't do any harm, though usually I recommend an easier location, for example: "C:\Python36". If you uninstall Python and reinstall following our tutorial https://python-forum.io/Thread-Basic-Par...er-Windows you will be able to put Python where you want it, that "pip" gets installed and that your environmental variables are set correctly. Note: the image shows v3.6.0, but the instructions are the same.). Unless you have multiple users on your Windows machine, selecting an an installation for "all users" is the better way to go. Again, Windows does not rely on Python, so the chance you will corrupt the OS are negligable to non-existent.

Also please comment on whether using pyinstaller -F --noconsole is a good idea, or are there better alternatives to pyinstaller.

I only write programs for myself, and since my Windows and Linux machines all have Python, I've not had to make an executable file, so I cannot address this question. Perhaps someone with experience in that area can advise you on that.

[Skaperen]

... stay away from v2.x as it is currently a 'maintenance' only release and will be discontinued in 2020.

what effort is being made to get all those cool outsider modules to have a ready version for 3.X by then. i have seen that a number of outsider modules are still 2.X only making it necessary to develop on 2.X to be able to use those modules. some of them are even among the cool ones.