Friendbot2000 wrote:As many of you know, Renpy is made from Python code with smatterings of Pygame intermixed with it. I first learned Python several years ago and I fell in love with it the first time I started a program. I know quite a few languages: C++, Java, HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Visual Basic (and several variants of all those listed, yeah I was a programming geek in high school. Strangely I never took a Computer Science class). Out of all the ones I know, Python definitely comes out on top as my all time favorite. It is very simple and easy for the nonprogrammer to learn because it is basically like speaking. It isn't as complicated as C++ or Java, it is simple and REALLY easy to debug. For instance, if you compare a program made in Java and C++ to a program made with Python that does the exact same thing, you will find that the Python code is 30-50% shorter than the C++ or Java. This makes debugging much much easier, which saves you headaches. Anyways, the point of this post was to give you all an excellent resource if you are interested in learning Python. It will be useful in your games as well because you can interject Python code into your games to add greater functionality for things you want to do. Here is a linky to the resource:
http://www.diveintopython.net/
This resource is a book that will give you a hands on approach to learning Python and it will explain step by step all the programs you will create. It shows you what everything does and even has sample programs that come with it so you can check your work. The book is an open source collaborative work by the Python community, just remember that the book only covers the 2.0 Python version (this includes updates ranging from 2.1-2.7, you will be wanting to use 2.7). The book is very easy to read and explains things perfectly and even provides links to other resources so you can get a better idea of what they are talking about if you need another source. This is the book I used to become fluent in Python (I am still working on learning Renpy, so used to more complicated programming structures. Pytom really did a great job of streamlining Renpy so it is accessible to mainstream users.) It is a great resource to learn and I want to share it with you all
Also, feel free to ask any questions if you get stuck on something. I have bookmarked this thread so I should get back to you pretty quickly, I kind of stalk this forum >.>
Well, thanks for posting this...
I just saw this thread, but I'm definitely going to try the tutorial. If it is as good as you say, it could help me a lot!
(Since, you know, my prof just thinks we all are able to program in python by some magic. Note: We did have a computer science lecture last semester, but it was all about learning C++. Yeah, and now we are supposed to use python without any kind of introduction to it. It is possible though, because most things we do only use a lot of numpy arrays... But still, I'd like to approach this differently, it's kinda unsatisfying.)
Do you know numpy and scipy by any chance? (Especially, scipy.sparse?) - If so, I think I will come back on your offer to answer questions
Edit: I started reading it now...
There's text.
Explanations.
Not only examples.
It says to document your functions. (I sometimes want to kill the guy who writes the templates, that are supposed to help us, for not doing this! If only I knew who is this person...)
It's written in a way that feels like someone explaining things to you.
=> I love it. (Though I only read one chapter (2) yet. But until now, it is great.)
