Learning python Updated

[vite]

Coming from this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265921.0

Im am still crawling like a baby when it comes to programming, but I got bored and decided to try to code something out.
And it seems to be popular to use github so I published it over there.

https://github.com/vitepython/askbid

Well, now to continue to learn.

[jackjack]

Suggestions to increase your pythonicness

0. Use this AS MUCH AS YOU CAN
Also reachable with Google: https://google.com/search?q=python+doc+types, https://google.com/search?q=python+doc+dictionary, https://google.com/search?q=python+doc+string

1. You can change

Code:

    choice = float (raw_input("Enter Choice: "))
    if choice == 1:
        usd2btc()
    if choice == 2:
        btc2usd()

to

Code:

    fcts={1:usd2btc, 2:btc2usd}
    choice = None   #Unlikely you would ever have None as a key in a dictionary 
    while choice not in fcts.keys():
        choice = int (raw_input("Enter Choice: "))
    fcts[choice]()

2. No ';' needed, and here your returns are not necessary

Code:

def btc2usd():
    ...
    print "Youre new asking price should be %s" % buy
    return main();

would become

Code:

def btc2usd():
    ...
    print "Youre new asking price should be %s" % buy
    main()

3. A better way to do the loop:

Code:

def btc2usd():
    ...
    print "Youre new asking price should be %s" % buy
    #No main() at the end, but...

while True:    #This, instead of just main()
    main()

Ask if anything is unclear
BTW, buy = ((price * afee) - price) * -1 is buy=price*(1-afee)

[vite]

jackjack thanks for the input

what exactly does fcts do?

[jackjack]

fcts is a dictionary
This explains how it works: http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/datastructures.html#dictionaries

[vite]

Did I misunderstand the point of the drill #3 from http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ex13.html

I can't figure out how to get it to work.

http://pastebin.com/CE3PfLF1

[jackjack]

I'm not sure I understand it either...

You should understand why your script crashes though:

Code:

baby = raw_input("Baby is behaving? ")
mother = raw_input("Mom if feeling? ")
dad = raw_input("dad's mood is? ")
brother = raw_input("brother's is? ")
 
from sys import argv
baby, mother, dad, brother = argv

First, it's not why it crashes but you may misunderstand things:
You first define baby,... with raw_inputs
But then the "baby,mother,...=argv" redefine them as if the first four lines didn't exist

Second, the "variables separated by ',' = list" command assigns the items in the list to the variables
This REQUIRES to have as many variables as items in the list
Thus, you NEED to have 4 items in argv
As sys.argv[0] is the name of your script, you need to call your script with 3 arguments
Example:

Code:

python script.py a b c

Problem
You will see

Code:

The baby is: script.py
The mom is: a
...

Solution
Put 4 arguments in the call (thus argv will have 5 items)
And either

Code:

_, baby, mother, dad, brother = argv

or

Code:

baby, mother, dad, brother = argv[1:]

As for the meaning of the drill...
Maybe they want you to write a script that needs exactly 6 values, and if there are not enough arguments passed through the call then you should ask them with raw_inputs