Early retirement project?

[xeys...@gmail.com]

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.

xeysxeys

[Devin Jeanpierre]

Congrats on the early retirement! It takes guts to decide to do that. :)

Python can run on a mac 10.4. In the worst case you may have to
download xcode and build Python from source, if there are no powerpc
binaries available. That's pretty simple, though (./configure && make
&& make install).

-- Devin

On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 12:00 AM, <xeys...@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.
>
> xeysxeys

> --
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

[Gregory Ewing]

xeys...@gmail.com wrote:
> I am using an old mac as my
> main computer, and it runs os x 10.4 is this too old?

Not at all! It's plenty powerful enough to run Python
for educational purposes, and for some quite serious
purposes as well.

Also, Python is an excellent choice for learning
programming. There's hardly any extraneous crud to
learn before you can get started -- you just get
right down to business.

--
Greg

[Gregory Ewing]

Devin Jeanpierre wrote:

> Python can run on a mac 10.4. In the worst case you may have to
> download xcode and build Python from source,

There's even a Python that already comes with the system,
although it's an oldish version (somewhere around 2.5,
I think).

--
Greg

[Tim Chase]

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

-tkc

[Larry Martell]

On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 1:30 AM, Devin Jeanpierre
<jeanpi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Congrats on the early retirement! It takes guts to decide to do that. :)

I thought it took money.

[Grant Edwards]

One or the other. If you've got money, it doesn't take guts.

--
Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! I feel better about
at world problems now!
gmail.com

[Terry Reedy]

On 1/21/2014 6:38 AM, Tim Chase wrote:
> On 2014-01-21 00:00, xeys...@gmail.com wrote:

> 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

[wxjm...@gmail.com]

In fact, Python just becomes the last tool I (would)
recommend, especially for non-ascii users.

jmf

[Mark Lawrence]

On 22/01/2014 08:18, wxjm...@gmail.com wrote:

To my knowledge you are one of only two people who refuse to remove
double line spacing from google. Just how bloody minded are you?

--
My fellow Pythonistas, ask not what our language can do for you, ask
what you can do for our language.

Mark Lawrence

[Neil Cerutti]

On 2014-01-22, wxjm...@gmail.com <wxjm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In fact, Python just becomes the last tool I (would)
> recommend, especially for non-ascii users.

Have a care, jmf. People unfamiliar with your opinions might take
that seriously.

--
Neil Cerutti

[Larry Martell]

On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 1:18 AM, <wxjm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In fact, Python just becomes the last tool I (would)
> recommend, especially for non-ascii users.

That's right - only Americans should use Python!

[Rustom Mody]

On Wednesday, January 22, 2014 7:15:34 PM UTC+5:30, Larry wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 1:18 AM, wrote:
> > In fact, Python just becomes the last tool I (would)
> > recommend, especially for non-ascii users.

> That's right - only Americans should use Python!

Of whom the firstest and worstest is Guido v Rossum

[Mark Lawrence]

On 22/01/2014 08:18, wxjm...@gmail.com wrote:
>

> In fact, Python just becomes the last tool I (would)
> recommend, especially for non-ascii users.
>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aItpjF5vXc dedicated to jmf and his
knowledge of unicode and Python.

[Piet van Oostrum]

wxjm...@gmail.com writes:


> In fact, Python just becomes the last tool I (would)
> recommend, especially for non-ascii users.
>
> jmf

In fact, Python 3 is one of the best programming tools for non-ASCII users.

--
Piet van Oostrum <pi...@vanoostrum.org>
WWW: http://pietvanoostrum.com/
PGP key: [8DAE142BE17999C4]

[Gregory Ewing]

wxjm...@gmail.com wrote:

> In fact, Python just becomes the last tool I (would)
> recommend, especially for non-ascii users.

To the OP: Ignore wxjmfauth, he's our resident nutcase.

--
Greg