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Re: Early retirement project?

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On 1/21/2014 6:38 AM, Tim Chase wrote:
> On 2014-01-21 00:00, xeysxeys@gmail.com wrote:
>> Well, I retired early, and I guess now I've got some spare time to
>> learn about programming, which always seemed rather mysterious. I
>> am using an old mac as my main computer, and it runs os x 10.4 is
>> this too old? It fills my needs, and I am on a fixed income and
>> can't really afford to buy another. I think python would be a good
>> starter language, based on what I've read on the net.
>
> It's certainly a great way to consume lots of hours :)
>
> Mac OS X 10.4 should come with an older version of Python
> out-of-the-box.

Someone else said that it comes with 2.5. That will be fine for many 
purposed. If you do use that, always make any classes you define a 
subclass of 'object' if nothing else. In other words,

class MyClass(object): ...
# instead of
class MyClass: ...

In Python 2, the second gives you an 'old-style' or 'classic' class. You 
do not need to learn about those. In Python 3, both forms give you 
new-style classes, which is what you should learn.

There are a few other obsolete features to avoid, such as using strings 
for exceptions.

> The install media should also include XCode if you
> want to download the latest & greatest version of Python and install
> that from source instead.

If you can do that easily, I recommend starting with the latest Python 
3, especially if you want to work with non-English (non-ascii) characters.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy

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Early retirement project? xeysxeys@gmail.com - 2014-01-21 00:00 -0800
  Re: Early retirement project? Devin Jeanpierre <jeanpierreda@gmail.com> - 2014-01-21 00:30 -0800
    Re: Early retirement project? Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2014-01-22 00:25 +1300
  Re: Early retirement project? Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2014-01-22 00:20 +1300
  Re: Early retirement project? Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2014-01-21 05:38 -0600
  Re: Early retirement project? Larry Martell <larry.martell@gmail.com> - 2014-01-21 05:22 -0700
    Re: Early retirement project? Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2014-01-21 15:25 +0000
  Re: Early retirement project? Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2014-01-21 12:34 -0500
    Re: Early retirement project? wxjmfauth@gmail.com - 2014-01-22 00:18 -0800
      Re: Early retirement project? Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-01-22 10:10 +0000
      Re: Early retirement project? Neil Cerutti <neilc@norwich.edu> - 2014-01-22 13:39 +0000
      Re: Early retirement project? Larry Martell <larry.martell@gmail.com> - 2014-01-22 06:45 -0700
        Re: Early retirement project? Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2014-01-22 05:56 -0800
      Re: Early retirement project? Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-01-22 14:28 +0000
      Re: Early retirement project? Piet van Oostrum <piet@vanoostrum.org> - 2014-01-22 19:28 +0100
      Re: Early retirement project? Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2014-01-23 10:54 +1300

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