Learning Python As You Go
A co-worker asked how global/class variable scoping worked in python today. Specifically, how to access globals/class variables from within a class method. I told him what I knew (global keyword.. yadda yadda.. self.. yadda yadda..) and he was satisfied. Then he asked, "where did you read that?" I thought for a second and realized that I had not really ever read much formal documentation on variable scoping and that I must have picked most of what I knew up from looking at code or just playing around. “What do you mean “playing around”?” he wants to know. “Well,” I said, “I just try different stuff and see what happens.” It occured to me that Python is excessively easy to pick up as you go because it is easy to try things quickly, measure results, and draw conclussions. Some people call this “The Scientific Method”. The conversation ended shortly after but I didn't get the feeling he took me seriously on the trial and error thing. Do most programmers feel that formal documentation is a requirement for learning? I sure don't. I'm positive I learn as much, if not more, scientifically than I do reading documentation. My python-fanboy column for today will thus be on how python lends itself well to those that prefer to learn scientifically.