Home Original page

Best Beginner's Guide To Python?

Wayne Folta wfolta at netmail.to
Fri Feb 6 13:06:00 EST 2004 
> When you say you must indent every line and then undent every
> line....are you using an editor that knows how to do a block
> shift-right and shift-left?  In emacs, you just grab the code with a

Agreed. Python is more dependent on a reasonable editor than other 
languages, if only for this feature. Depending on the OS you're using, 
you may already have such editors. For example, vi (or better vim) is 
available on all UNIX-based systems. Most IDEs should support block 
indent/undent as well.

Another widely-used editor in MacOS X (if that's what you're using) is 
BBEdit which also supports this.

If nothing else, a reasonable editor also supports syntax coloring 
which I used to scoff at but now find quite useful.

With something like BBEdit, you simply select the lines in question and 
press CMD-] to indent and CMD-[ to undent. It's faster and more 
reliable than killing/adding braces at both ends.

I also agree with the 2nd ed Learning Python recommendations. I've 
programmed for over 20 years, so it might be a little hard to tell what 
a total novice needs, but it is well-written and looks useful for all 
levels.
More information about the Python-list mailing list