Congrats, that is awesome! for me I know zero python, it's def on my "to learn" list. I estimate it would take me about one week part time to do this. way more if I didn't have the first clue about SQL!

a server: Program that runs all the time, waits and responds to requests, e.g. a web server. can be a program, or server often refers to a heavyweight PC that is dedicated to running some/many such programs

an API: aplication programmer interface - basically functions you can call from an external language, that make whatever it is has the API do something. for example Windows (Win32 API) has api functions to copy pixels to/from the screen, resize /reposition windows and stuff. Excel hhas an api to enter stuff in cells, and such like.

a Library: File containing commonly used functions. kinda like an api, but more "general". e.g python will have a math library (numpy iirc) that contains tons of math functions you can use without having to code them yourself.


This forum welcomes new programmers, don't ever think a question is "too stupid" to ask

numpy = numbers python? seems like a weird name.

Numerical Python.

also, perhaps even more common today, is the web API, or RESTful API. These is simply a series of URLs that you can think of as performing certain functions (as in dave's examples). For example, Mailchimp, a newsletter service, has a web API that allows you to add and remove email addresses from your newsletter list (among other things).

fwiw, i've found (and still find) that orienting yourself among the plethora of terminology like this is probably a harder task than learning a specific programming language, mainly because so much of it is decentralized knowledge you pick up over time, rather than something you can grab a book on.

Weird name or not, it's friggin' awesome.

Unless you actually want to hand-code and debug matching a vector to a matrix to fit a 4th degree polynomial and 5th degree polynomial curve.

http://glowingpython.blogspot.it/201...e-fitting.html

I'm about to start on a project app and I'm sure will have a lot of questions come up over time. Should I try to seek out appropriate threads/start new threads and ask my questions as they arise? Or should I start a single thread and just keep posting questions in it as they come up?

They won't be "please do my coding for me" type questions. I'm guessing most of them will be related to design and architecture.

without any idea what you're doing / coding in - prob all contained in one thread would be better, since responders could more easily get the context of your problem without you having to explain over and again - but whatever is no big deal imo.

did that guy (sorry, forgot ur sn) mean he learned python in 30 min??

I thought he gave the impression it took him a good while to learn the beginnings of python, and make his first working code - and was asking if that sort of project (pull data from googledocs / fill up SQL database) would take like half an hour or so for someone already an expert

dave thanks for the response. your explanation on the serve was particularly helpful.

ryanb, i was asking if it would take a good programmer like 30 minutes to do what i did. i am guessing it would cause now i can do it in like 15 min. but to get to this point with no python or SQL knowledge i have put in 120-150 hours of work.

Ahh okay. I was going to learn python if it only took you 30 minutes lol xD

solid brag

Does anyone here develop iPhone apps on a Windows 7 machine? I have googled around and found these workarounds:

Rogue dev environments
Installing Mac OS on separate partition
VMware

I've read that there can be problems with VMs, and rogue environments may preclude one from having their app listed in the store.

Ye, there have been a whole host of companies offering various ways to develop on a windows machine, but at the end of the day, you need a mac.

A setup for a Windows user that I've often seen recommended for starting off iphone development is to just get a mac mini, since they're perfectly capable, easy enough to integrate into whatever setup you have already and quite cheap (for a mac).

Has anyone here used Mathematica? Comments?

Seems like it could be a neat toy to play around with but comes at a hefty price, I can probabaly get it for free if I make up a good enough excuse :P

okay before i took data column by column and added it to my sqlite DB, now i need to do some work to make python take the entire google doc of 100 rows and7 columns with different datatypes and enter it into sqlit3 DB. i have 100 min. GOGOGOOGOGOG

k got all the values in right data format into a long list. think i have to break it into arrays of 7 items within a big array!!

okay just learned the importance of saving variables it took me a long time to get with a duplicate variable

UK is a joke on tax for electronic goods. We distribute licenses via email. This means we have to pay VAT on ALL our sales (around 14-20% depending on a few things).

The VAT stuff seems to be written for a country in the 90's though. If we sent them a CD by post we don't need to pay VAT on sales outside the EU. If our software costs $100, we save $20 in tax if we post it, so ~+$15 gain to us if it costs $5 to send.

It seems a little grey as to if a letter posted with a 'license certificate' would count as physical goods, from what I am reading though it should be OK.

So, it's all a big joke. It would take only a few minutes to post a letter to each customer, and saves us ~£10 each time (90% of our sales originate from outside the EU). So economiclly makes sense. However the downsides are:
- Wastes our time
- Wastes our money
- Possibly reduced conversion rates if people have to enter their addresses (I consider this solvable though as a lot of transactions carry address I think and there's other ways this can be solved un-obtrusively)
- Customers don't want a stupid ****ing CD or certificate or whatever we're forced to send them

It's unclear (and they conveniently ignored this question) as to if I can send the customer 'a backup license file by email'.

And this is all confirmed after phone calls and letters written to HMRC! Fortunately and coincidentally my local MP is Vince Cable, his surgery is across the road from our offices as well so I've booked in a clinic to talk to him about this. UK government claims they support startups, it's stating to now look VERY cost effective to move our operations to USA!

lol that is frustrating. i just made duplicate variable this time around

all_data2 = all_data

then when i screwed up the all_data variable it automatically screwed up all_data2 in an identical manner. didnt see that coming

and done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hax0razzz yah!!!

Create a shell company in the US to do those sales. Don't actually move the people. It makes 0 profit each year, so you have minimal fees / US taxes.

Yeah, a good accountant seems like the right answer.

By the way, I love the new mac book pro. Just saying.