Wannabe python programmer

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Joined
8 Dec 2008
Posts
997
Location
Liverpool
So I can write a basic script, fair enough, but how do I become a good programmer.

I need to learn how to plan a project properly and write effecient code, but don't really know where to begin.

Anyone know of any websites/articles/tutorials/books that we help me advance in the subject of python programming?

Cheers :)
 
Cheers for the lead mate, his posting history isn't particularly consistant of late though, perhaps someone who sees this thread might still be in touch with him
 
TBH, no mate been kinda busy past couple of days with other things, I'll look into insatlling MSN/getting an account and getting intouch with the guy mentioned hopefully before the weekend. I'll let you know how it goes
 
Hello, Sorry I missed this thread, only found out about it from Alphane's friend request on skype. I can help you to learn Python and I have some other students that I have taught lurking on Skype :)

Learning python seemed to have a very positive impact on one student and helped a lot with his college studies, he was a complete novice to begin with. He is now moving onto C++ which is much harder to program with but it has its speed advantages.

Its not unusual for a student to be a fairly slow learner at first but everyone is different. Aswell as the mentioned books above, getting one on one tuition from me can vastly speed up your learning process and turn you into a better programmer :)

If anyone else wants to learn Python too, feel free to do a thread resurrection batman on my old thread or post here :)

I have been lurking on OCUK but not posting a vast amount.
 
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Ok guys if it's alright with Rich (didn't speak to him last night a friend popped round) I'll use this thread to log my progress into the world of python.

Also perhaps Rich would be good enough to discuss things in public, the problem with chatrooms I find when discussing an interesting subject is there's no easy permanant record to refer to later. I was going to ask Rich if we could move from Skype to email but I'd reckon this thread is as good a place as any to discuss our interest.

I'll go about preparing a 'mission statement', Who I am , What I've done, What I know already (or think I do), What my overall project plan is.
 
Ok going to describe what I'm up to at the moment first as it easier.

I'm downloading market logs from EVE and extracting the information.

This is the text document you get when you hit the download log button ingame

Code:
price,volRemaining,typeID,range,orderID,volEntered,minVolume,bid,issueDate,duration,stationID,regionID,solarSystemID,jumps,
2.77,4512538.0,2308,32767,2448030695,4512538,1,False,2012-02-22 07:18:58.000,7,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
2.7799,798068.0,2308,32767,2447710267,998069,1,False,2012-02-21 23:07:46.000,30,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.0,81577.0,2308,32767,2447803614,81577,1,False,2012-02-22 01:10:58.000,1,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.09,368326.0,2308,32767,2448116230,446511,1,False,2012-02-22 10:01:55.000,1,60004057,10000002,30000173,9,
3.14,4038108.0,2308,32767,2445942656,10238108,1,False,2012-02-20 09:20:07.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.14,414976.0,2308,32767,2446830973,414976,1,False,2012-02-21 02:50:13.000,30,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.15,16086652.0,2308,32767,2444026040,16086652,1,False,2012-02-18 20:38:26.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.16,41527722.0,2308,32767,2441757193,41527722,1,False,2012-02-16 20:19:28.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.17,1049115.0,2308,32767,2437908251,1049115,1,False,2012-02-12 23:32:27.000,14,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.17,904796.0,2308,32767,2439888093,904796,1,False,2012-02-14 21:43:37.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.19,3603.0,2308,32767,2435917382,3603,1,False,2012-02-11 13:07:35.000,30,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.3,1440502.0,2308,32767,2441711402,1440502,1,False,2012-02-16 19:31:54.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.36,1962572.0,2308,32767,2435165677,1962572,1,False,2012-02-10 20:20:47.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.37,160906.0,2308,32767,2435162927,160906,1,False,2012-02-10 20:17:56.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.38,2794038.0,2308,32767,2435160446,2794038,1,False,2012-02-10 20:15:16.000,30,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.42,729392.0,2308,32767,2433385025,873392,1,False,2012-02-09 00:05:54.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.44,3137947.0,2308,32767,2433088238,3937947,1,False,2012-02-08 18:39:01.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.45,196626.0,2308,32767,2433058602,196626,1,False,2012-02-08 18:06:02.000,90,60004423,10000002,30000142,0,
3.48,20609839.0,2308,32767,2397951892,26000000,1,False,2012-02-13 23:09:17.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.61,40089.0,2308,32767,2397761562,40089,1,False,2012-01-05 20:15:24.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.8,160001.0,2308,32767,2396344880,1054556,1,False,2012-01-04 21:22:22.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
3.99,5904882.0,2308,32767,2385753060,5904882,1,False,2012-01-04 00:34:39.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
4.28,3222617.0,2308,32767,2395084303,3222617,1,False,2012-01-03 02:22:43.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
4.36,1297987.0,2308,32767,2385089807,1297987,1,False,2011-12-23 16:38:59.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
4.99,10000000.0,2308,32767,2367759787,10000000,1,False,2012-02-16 12:22:02.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
6.95,639608.0,2308,32767,2369494517,639608,1,False,2011-12-08 14:32:34.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
2.65,150000.0,2308,0,2430549140,150000,1,True,2012-02-06 02:30:09.000,90,60004072,10000002,30000137,5,
2.62,3806851.0,2308,-1,2446659395,10000000,1,True,2012-02-20 23:05:10.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
2.61,28750711.0,2308,-1,2415497769,100000000,1,True,2012-02-09 20:57:04.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
1.81,4576101.0,2308,3,2421630659,10000000,100,True,2012-02-17 19:20:23.000,90,60001540,10000002,30000119,2,
1.8,100000000.0,2308,0,2442149304,100000000,1,True,2012-02-17 05:21:13.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
1.79,86064702.0,2308,-1,2404418297,100000000,1,True,2012-01-25 08:03:37.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
1.76,3464454.0,2308,5,2447093695,3464454,1,True,2012-02-21 10:12:55.000,90,60000361,10000002,30000142,0,
1.75,1399175.0,2308,-1,2408785248,12375000,1,True,2012-01-16 07:50:11.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
1.74,6889455.0,2308,-1,2408390051,10000000,1,True,2012-01-15 22:06:28.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
1.74,1079889.0,2308,-1,2402876348,12000000,1,True,2012-01-15 22:17:04.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
1.36,99094241.0,2308,32767,2439037961,100000000,1,True,2012-02-14 00:46:48.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
0.5,100000000.0,2308,-1,2395229603,100000000,1,True,2012-01-03 06:29:56.000,90,60003760,10000002,30000142,0,
0.43,500000.0,2308,5,2364025107,500000,1,True,2011-12-03 13:41:06.000,90,60004069,10000002,30000137,5,

What my script does so far is strip the prices and how many buyers and sellers there are.

The code

Code:
openfile = open('[FILENAME]','r')

openfile.seek(0)

Whole_File_Library = openfile.readlines()

Files_To_Create = len(Whole_File_Library)

Files_Created = 0

Cost_Listing = 0

Buyers = 0

Sellers = 0


while Files_Created < Files_To_Create+1:
    
    if Files_Created > 0:

        if Files_Created < Files_To_Create:
            
            Entry_Working_On = Whole_File_Library[Files_Created]
        
        Cost_Finished = 0

        Cost_Length = 0

        Cost = 'empty'
        
        while Cost_Finished < 1:
            
            Digit_Working_On = Entry_Working_On[Cost_Length]


            if Cost == 'empty':
                
                Cost = Digit_Working_On

            if Digit_Working_On == ',':

                Cost_Finished=1

            else:

                Cost = Cost + Digit_Working_On

            Cost_Length = Cost_Length+1

                
        if Cost_Listing == 0:

                    Cost_Listing = [Cost]

        if Cost_Listing != 0:
            
                    Cost_Listing = Cost_Listing + [Cost]
     

        Comma_Count = 0

        Read_Position = 0

        while Comma_Count < 7:

                        if Entry_Working_On[Read_Position] == ',':

                            Comma_Count = Comma_Count+1

                        Read_Position = Read_Position+1

        Buy_Sell = Entry_Working_On[Read_Position]

        if Buy_Sell == 'F':
            
            Sellers = Sellers+1

        else:

            Buyers = Buyers+1


    Files_Created = Files_Created+1



print Cost_Listing, '\n'

print Buyers, 'Buyers \n', Sellers , 'Sellers \n'

The output so a far is a list of prices and how amny buyers and sellers there are.

As in

Code:
['22.77', '22.77', '22.7799', '33.0', '33.09', '33.14', '33.14', '33.15', '33.16', '33.17', '33.17', '33.19', '33.3', '33.36', '33.37', '33.38', '33.42', '33.44', '33.45', '33.48', '33.61', '33.8', '33.99', '44.28', '44.36', '44.99', '66.95', '22.65', '22.62', '22.61', '11.81', '11.8', '11.79', '11.76', '11.75', '11.74', '11.74', '11.36', '00.5', '00.43', '00.43'] 

14 Buyers 
26 Sellers

Further work needed is splitting the list and placing it in a DB (Sql hopefully), Strip the name and date out of the filename , Strip all files in a folder

Finally I will need to build an interface to query this database.

So far so good , I feel

/edit *phew* that certainly tested my Post-fu
 
Who I am , What I've done, What I know already (or think I do), What my overall project plan is.

Who I am

This post describes my skills in life (I'm a man with a couple of strings to my bow shall we say, though few formal qualifications)

I suppose other than that I love computers, living a simple but fulfilling life, Ecological technoligist would maybe describe my politics, I have a son 11 but no partner.

What I've done

Loads of good stuff :)

What I know already

Perhaps better to describe what I want to know

Initially

Python as the 'hub' of dynamic HTML referencing a SQL DB

Addressing an API

The theory and practice of cache scraping

The thoery and practice of browser plugins as a way of 'reading' a website

More longterm

The theory and practice of basic games design

AI what it means what it does and what we can do with it

Image analysis for the purpose data extraction

Overall Project plan

First Project is the deveopment of 3rd party tools for the MMO EVE.
 
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OK Rich after breaking down my first project these are the things I need to learn first

Learn how to DB using Python (wether that be a SQL DB at this stage or not)

Learn how to make graphs, charts etc from DBed data (also what to use as my output HTML or a simple GUI (which I have no idea how to make))

So if you could point me in the right direction, it would be much apprecaited, also as this is a group learning project and I don't really want to have to bother Rich all the time (as he has a few students on the go) help and advice from anyone else who knows is more than welcome.

Cheers all, Enjoying it so far

A.
 
From briefly looking at the way your approaching that, it looks like you need the csv library in your life.

Good luck with it :)

I'll go and introduce myself later

:D

/edit Commas hey interesting

Also your the dude who kicked my arse in that 'average 3 files' thread aren't you, your Python-fu is admirable, kudos, you inspired me to start this thread in the first place so thanks :D
 
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