New to Python, what now?

[MattH]

Hey guys. I'm new to Python and this forum. I've been an SEO Expert for the past five years, but I want to spread my wings and make something beautiful myself. I've done a short course on Udemy, which I didn't take much from at all if I'm going to be honest, but the joy I get whilst using software - Just makes me NEED to learn how to create something so beautiful myself.

My main interest is bots, spiders and crawlers. Where do I go from here? (sorry if the question is a bit broad).

[metulburr]

If you got the basics i would start getting comfortable with classes. Then check out our web crawler tutorials

[wavic]

Start with the basics. The data types, built-in functions, classes. After that networking ( sockets, requests, selenium, twisted, tornado, aiohttp ), databases like sqlite3 standard module for example. Or sqlalchemy. These links refer to the official documentation. But there are plenty of resources you can use. Also, take a look at our forums Tutorials. Just play with all of that and feel free to ask if you face some obstacles

[MattH]

Thank you for your responses guys. I'll take it all on board!

What would you say are the essential tools as a beginner? Right now, I have a text editor, and that's about it? I'm not sure if it's frowned upon to share resources on here - If so, could someone P/M me with the tools which I need so I can get going?

[wavic]

OS? I use Geany for small quick scripts, Atom or Sublime Text 3 for all others. Obviously you need Python. Do not start with version 2 but get the latest Python 3.6.3, 3.6.2. You may install IPython ( and its successor Juppyter Notebook ) as well. It's like the Python interpreter on steroids.

[MattH]

I use a Macbook. Thank you again, I'll look into all the resources and try them out! I've used PyCharm which seems ok but I don't have any experience to judge it against anything! We shall see!

[metulburr]

What you use to write the code is complete preference. I often use Vim. You might prefer emacs. I dont usually include an IDE as essential tools as you dont really need one. But they do make complex programs easier.

If you have a mac, you should have python already as well as emacs...albeit maybe not python3.x. If so i would install that as previously mentioned. But thats all you really need to start the bascss. You more you write the more 3rd party libs you might prefer. But you would have to know the basics beforehand. Here are a list of basic tutorials on our forum.

Then i would suggest to follow along with questions on the board. Whether they are your own or someone else. You can learn alot from reading other threads.