macolyte.net » Python

I’m a little scared…

a.j. — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 13:12:20 +0000

For the past week+ I’ve been reading Programming in Objective-C. That’s not the scary part. The scary part is that I’m thoroughly enjoying it and I might actually like Objective-C better than I like Python. At least so far. “How can that be?” you may ask. “Python’s syntax is so much nicer. And you can do so much with so little typing. And don’t even get me started on memory management. Are you insane???” Perhaps I am. The long and the short of it is I grok Obj-C’s object model better, even though it requires more typing and having explicit getters and setters. And if I use Obj-C, I can use Xcode [yes, I know about PyObjC]. I haven’t gotten to working with files or strings or lists yet, so my opinion my change at a later date [you really can't beat list comprehensions].

Python Playing

a.j. — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 14:55:04 +0000

The other day in IRC, I was having fun with typing things backwards. I decided to write a Python script to automate my silliness. I came up with this one-liner:

print ''.join([x for x in reversed(raw_input("String here: "))])

Josh came up with this one-liner:

print "stringtoreverse"[::-1]

The main problem with my script is that it uses “reversed()”, which is a feature available only in Python 2.4.x, so it doesn’t work with my IRC client [it uses the Mac system Python which is 2.3.5]. Plus MacIrssi didn’t like the raw_input(). Josh’s is much simpler and works with all versions of Python. But I think mine looks cooler.

A Google of Pythons

a.j. — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 23:28:11 +0000

I wish I were talented enough to work at Google and sit around having conversations like this one, which Guido recounted on python-dev:

Over lunch with Alex Martelli, he proposed that a subclass of dict with this behavior (but implemented in C) would be a good addition to the language. It looks like it wouldn’t be hard to implement. It could be a builtin named defaultdict. The first, required, argument to the constructor should be the default value. Remaining arguments (even keyword args) are passed unchanged to the dict constructor.

Python Challenge

a.j. — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 18:40:04 +0000

In an effort to find something to focus my efforts on, I decided to revisit the Python Challenge. I was able to make it through three of the challenges yesterday, bringing me up to Level 12. In solving those 3 levels, I was reminded of why I gave up in the first place. There’s one thing I completely despise in these challanges, and that is the fact that quite a few of them require you to do some kind of image manipulation [usually using PIL]. While I can see the value in exposing people to 3rd party modules, I don’t see the value in relying on them as heavily as the challenges do. The task for Level 12 includes doing manipulation on a binary file, which I have never done and probably never will. The hints point at using a hex editor, again something with which I have no experience. So I’m stuck here on Level 12, with no ideas on what to do, or even what to Google for. Overall, I like the idea of the Python Challenge, I just wish it weren’t so challenging for a n00b like me.