

What I've Learned So Far (Python in 30 Days) - rodriguezcommaj
http://rodriguezcommaj.com/python-in-30-days-halfway-there/

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dwoot
We're alike in many ways, J. I am a self-taught web-designer who, in his 10
years, learned HTML, CSS, Photoshop, Illustrator, and SOME Javascript on his
own. I'm no pro by any means, but I've built some pretty neat looking things
without being able to create dynamic experiences/sites.

8 months ago, I couldn't write a single snippet of Python. I had a simple site
I wanted to build just for experimental purposes, and kept asking my friends
for help, until I realized that it just wasn't going to happen.

I initially started with Ruby with the intent of learning Rails shortly after.
However, I had read enough posts on HN to have me switch to Python with LPTHW
by Zed A. Shaw. I got all the way up to the exercises for building your own
game, and, frankly, I just quit. I felt I was ready to dive into Django. Boy
was I wrong. There were a lot of things that I didn't understand and I had
done the simple exercise on the Django Project site three times!

Anyway, I kept at it. I continued to Google topics I didn't understand. I went
through two Django books and numerous YouTube and videos slowly gripping some
of the ideas before I found my saving grace written by, none other than, one
of the creators himself. After that, I was able to push out a nice looking
site in two days with a lot of help from Twitter Bootstrap.

I just want to say that learning by doing is the way to go. It took me far
more than 30 days to learn everything that I know, but this is because I had
to learn these along the way, too: command line, working with Linux, using a
more powerful editor (Vim - can't go back to notepad), version control with
Git, and then deploying, which can be a beast of its own.

Keep at it!

~~~
FireBeyond
"found my holy grail Django books"

Curious - what are these?

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timee
I'm curious what problems you ran into with Python on Windows. I develop with
Python on both a Windows desktop and a Macbook. I found moving between the two
platforms pretty easy with the exception of certain database python packages
like psycopg2.

The command line and a file editor is all you really need. If you want to keep
your file editor consistent, you can work off vim on both. Granted, I prefer
Visual Studios if I'm on a Windows machine.

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rodriguezcommaj
I am sure that a lot of it is specific to me and what I am used to, so many
other people probably have a good experience working with Python on Windows.
The main thing is that I am just not comfortable using Powershell and the
directory structure on Windows. While I am still somewhat new to using the
command line on a unix environment, I feel that a lot of commands are almost
muscle memory, so I was quickly frustrated when things didn't work correctly
using Powershell.

I know there are a ton of arguments for Visual Studio, and I actually use it
at work on a daily basis (I am a front-end designer and am usually split 50/50
between VS and Photoshop/Illustrator), but I honestly just don't like it. It
always feels too bloated and the stuff I do code, I usually do by hand anyways
so I don't rely on intellisense or any code-completion. I do use Sublime Text
cross-platform as well - but like I said in my article, I prefer using vim on
a linux box via ssh from my iPad. It is familiar and portable, which is what I
want at this point.

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ZanderEarth32
I went through the LPTHW program a few months back and it was definitely the
best system or book I found on the subject. To be honest, I need to go back
through now and do it again, using your advice to do each lesson twice.

My first go through, I kind of rushed through parts because I had an idea I
wanted to try out and just wanted to learn enough to get it done (which I did
:D)but I think I cheated myself out on some essential Python knowledge.

~~~
rodriguezcommaj
Yeah, I am definitely glad that I am sticking to some sort of system when
doing the exercises, but I admit to not doing every extra credit and glancing
over some parts. I could see myself going back through a lot of exercises a
year from now as a refresher.

I am hoping that going through it will lay a good foundation for programming,
though. With any luck, I will find myself in a position of knowing a fair
amount about programming and being able to build up that knowledge by tackling
harder material and tutorials while building programs that I am interested in.

Thanks for reading and commenting, by the way. I appreciate any feedback and
it's a great motivator when doing an experiment like this.

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rjv
Sublime Text 2 + Cygwin on Windows works just fine.

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ilconsigliere
Did you build that Wordpress theme on Starkers? I love it!

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rodriguezcommaj
I did, and thank you. Just heard that Keir Whitaker and Elliot Jay Stocks
released an updated version -
<http://viewportindustries.com/products/starkers/>

Mine is pretty damned basic, very stripped down. I've had other incarnations
of personal sites before under a variety of domain names, with some pretty
complex themes, but in the end I wanted something very simple, relatively
light weight, and dead easy to maintain. My goal is to be able to focus on
writing and posting content over maintaining or styling a theme.

Plus, with a simple style like that, it allows the content to style the page
when I post images, not have the page overwhelm any content.

Thanks again!

