GNOME Clock

So, yesterday I worked on GNOME Clocks (https://github.com/gonyere/gnome-prototypes) code for the first time, and was able to get the ‘Cancel’ button to work when you go to add a new clock. Small I know, but its my first contribution and I have to say I’m pretty psyched! Today I spent the last couple hours going through git tutorials, setting up a github account, and finally getting my first commit uploaded, which is almost more exciting than getting the code to work 🙂

Now to decide what to work on next!!

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Python :)

I have to say, I am slightly surprised at how much I enjoy reviewing code, both for the purposes of looking for small typo which cause bugs, and just to try and figure out what everything is actually doing. I’ve been working on Exercise 47 for the last few days and simply could not figure out what was wrong (I kept getting NameError: global name ‘self’ is not defined). I finally went back and looked at every bit of code that I’d written and finally found two tiny misspellings that I had apparently missed the other half dozen times I looked at it. And poof! It works!! Is there anything more fulfilling than finally having code run properly an spit out what you are expecting/hoping for rather than an error message?

In related news, I know I’m not quite all the way through “How to Learn Python the Hard Way” yet (I *AM* 90% done though!! xD), but I have started re-reading the first couple lessons in the Python GTK+ 3 Tutorial, and its making a lot more sense now 🙂 I know, you all told me not to do it till I was totally done, but what can I say? I’m impatient :p

More Python fun!

I think I’m finally, slowly understanding why math is a pr-requisite for computer science classes. Being halfway through my current math class is making Python make a LOT more sense than it did the last time I tried to learn it 8 or 9 months ago. Where all the if, else, range & functions didn’t make much sense, now they do (cause’ they’re basically the same as in math).

Exercise 35 was especially fun for me – I felt like I was building the most basic of MUDs, which was very fun. What made me smile and laugh though was my annoyance with the wording of descriptions, mostly since ‘you’ was in just about everyone, which I was always taught was a big ‘no no’ back when I was learning to build MUDs years ago. But, it was fun none the less and led me to wonder about MUD servers written in Python. A quick google brought up a handful of options: Evennia, GrailMUD, and a couple others which I see references to but don’t appear to actually exist anymore (ie AMC:SW-ERP), which is sad if unsurprising.  Some downloading & playing is definitely in the cards 🙂

Math, Python & GTK+ 3

Today has been, either entirely unproductive or very productive depending on your point of view. My house is still a mess & we certainly didn’t eat ‘well’ today by any stretch of the imagination, so in that respect at least, it was most unproductive. However, I feel like I have been productive today, if only in my head.

This morning I started out reviewing math in anticipation of my 2nd test tomorrow, and figuring out my fancy new TI-83Plus graphing calculator. I’ve never had a graphing calculator before, and thus spent a good couple hours googling & paging through the manual figuring out how to graph stuff, set up tables, find zeros, etc. I still haven’t figured out how to do everything by any stretch of the imagination, but I do feel like I have a decent grasp on the basics at this point which is nice. And, at least tomorrow I won’t be the only one sitting there doing long division & multiplication without a calculator!!

Most of the rest of the day, starting shortly after lunch has involved learning Python. Seif Lotfy got me started a couple days ago reading the Python GTK+ 3 Tutorial and I’ve been messing around with the examples from there without really having any clue what I was doing. Today he sent me over to ‘Learn Python the Hard Way‘ by Zed A. Shaw and I spent most of the afternoon & evening reading & working my way through the first 20 examples (and pestering Seif with questions). At this point, I’m feeling like I have at least some clue of how python actually works, and am trying to decide whether I should finish ‘learn python the hard way’ first or go back and start re-reading the tutorial on GTK+ 3, to see if it makes more sense.