Python and Rails

Today I worked with Python in the early section of the Code Academy site.  I am finding that to be a kind of review of what I did in Ruby and it is satisfying to understand much of it without having to grip my skull in agony.  I have a solid grasp on if, or, not, else, elif, else, equal, less than, greater, than and most of the basics (sometimes called Control flow).  I am hard at work forming an app that converts words into Pig Latin which is a real challenge since Pig Latin on its own is more confusing to me than it should be.

I also completed Hartl's Chapter 1.  In the intro there is a introductory paragraph singing the tutorial's praises by some brave soul that completed this whole tutorial in 3 days.  I can't imagine anyone who really needs this training completing this in 3 days.  So far, I have completed an app that only displays one line to the world and in that process I have been introduced to a host of programs/websites that I had no clue existed before, memorized a basic directory structure for Rails apps, gotten basic training and a definition of version control, and deployed the app to Heroku (without success, see below).

Good news, everything went slow, but great.  Bad news, my stupid app does not run on Heroku like I desperately wanted it to.  Just as I was about to paste my app's test web address into an email and send it my wife (to demonstrate that I have indeed learned something!) , it failed to work.  I followed up on a few of the Heroku error messages such as putting a Ruby version in the gemfile, but my meager store of knowledge is not yet strong enough to troubleshoot deploying an app.  So, this was kind of bittersweet.  I completed the chapter and the exercises and feel really good, but I was robbed of my small moment of glory! That said, I remain undeterred and will start the "Toy App" tomorrow in chapter 2.



Total hours into Programming: 33 (3 today)
Progress on Hartl's Tutorial 2.0.0
Code Academy Points: 393
Code Academy Badges: 45
Code Academy Skills Finished: 2 (Make a Website, Ruby)