Module 4 - Review of Python Syntax

Greetings fellow Argonauts,

This week’s assignment was a very good overview of some of the critical Python skills we will need to improve to (eventually) become GIS Development Masterminds.  I am lucky enough to have a background in programming and can imagine that if you had never programmed before, that these exercises might be difficult and frustrating.   All I can do is to tell you to hang in there !   Completing a project (in the real world as in a class) is all about iterative problem solving.   Rarely will something work the first time and it usually will take some research time to solve the problem (Thanks Google!).  Trust me, your programming skills WILL improve with each problem that is placed before you.   Your mind may not be used to thinking like the computer so it is almost like a workout at the gym for your brain.   At first you won’t be able to do much, but with persistence, you will amaze yourself (and your coworkers).   So hang in there, use the message board, use the Internet, talk to others you know that might be struggling with similar problems.

Now on to what I learned this week:

1.      I REALLY prefer Python WIN over IDLE.    I leaned on the copy/paste and find/replace functionality heavily, especially during the 4th assignment

2.      You should familiarize yourself with some of the basic Python functions.  One of the things I’ll do when I learn a new language is look for a Python Quick Reference or Cheat Sheet that gives me a list of the basics.

3.      Lists are a very useful data type that I wasn’t really familiar with from my other programming languages.  I can foresee them being very useful in ArcGIS when we start thing about layers, features, etc...

4.      Some of the skills you are learning in this class are going to help you learn other languages (if you choose to go that path).   The “import module” for example and the “.” Hierarchy of functions is in several languages

5.      You WILL see CSV files in the real world quite a bit, so that lesson is very useful.

6.      Reading and Writing to text files is also a very valuable skill that will come up quite a bit in your development duties.

7.      Loops are another great place to use a cheat sheet to remember the format (although the indentation format Is kind of growing on me)