Confused as hell

[tim mellis]

Am I suppose to know how to do this stuff without using google? I am on #2 and I don't know "char," "ord," and "map." The challenge homepage says this is for beginners with python. I'm only on number 2! The homepage says try to figure it out yourself. Do the other beginners know char, ord, and map? 

As you can imagine, this challenge stuff is making me believe that I'm not capable of learning python. 

Obviously I can find it by looking up the answers. Do other beginners just know this stuff and work their way through it?

Like: "Oh I know, I'll just use a list and char, then ord, then map, then whatever else. I could have done this challenge #2 a long time ago if I just did it by hand.

Am I the only one who finds it impossible? 

I'm pretty sure that programming isn't for me... and I might as well find out now. Please let me know, if you figured out #2 and the rest in an hour or two.

To me it is impossible.

[Mark B]

I'm a beginner as well (I think further than you though)... for the record, I think it's crazy hard as well, but it's doable. Also, char, ord, or map are not *required* for a solution. There are many ways to do things. Just ask yourself "how would I do this if I had no programming knowledge and was just writing a procedure?" You can always look up how to turn those steps you came up with into code and you don't have to look up the answer.

[Eric Wiessinger]

I'm also a relative beginner to Python. I do a *ton* of googling to solve these problems. At best it's simply a crutch to help me implement an idea that I come up with on my own, at worst I've gotten some direct, spoiler assistance from the internet. I comfort myself in the knowledge that even if I cheat I'm still frequently learning something and expanding my capabilities. The problems vary in difficulty and the requisite knowledge of specific python capabilities, do your best, think it through and then cheat if you have to!

On Friday, November 25, 2016 at 12:09:30 PM UTC-5, tim mellis wrote: