Book: Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

[mouser]

I've said it before and i'll say it again, there are few better ways to motivate a young kid to learn to program than the promise of being able to create their games.  Here's a python book written with the same idea in mind:

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

http://inventwithpython.com/

from http://www.boingboing.net/

[mnemonic]

This looks like a great find mouser - an intro the python, pygame and the debugger all-in-one.

[Deozaan]

I just downloaded this about a month ago. I thought it was really old so I didn't bother mentioning it here.

[ewemoa]

I noticed the code in the book is black and white.

Does someone know of any (preferably easy) ways one might transform the code content to be syntax-highlighted?  I'd like to carry an offline version on a small device that doesn't have an editor on it so copy-pasting the code to an editor doesn't seem like such a good option.

One rather manual way might be to manually copy-paste into:

 http://colorer.sourceforge.net/php/

and replace the original code with the results.  Oh what fun...

Perhaps trying to apply:

 http://google-code-prettify.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/README.html

would be slightly less work...

[Deozaan]

You could always e-mail Al and ask him to incorporate GeSHI into the HTML version of his site.

[ewemoa]

Thanks for the suggestion.

[ewemoa]

I've thought about the GeSHi suggestion a bit.  IIUC, GeSHi is PHP-based, so I don't think it's likely to work for an off-line version of the book.  Does that sound right?  Silly me

Unfortunately, the formatting of the source for this book seems to be accomplished using list tags instead of pre or code tags, so it doesn't look trivial to convert.

[Deozaan]

Al knows script-fu (he uses something like AHK), and uses a search & replace tool with regex capabilities. With that in mind, the main thing that I think would be hardest in the conversion would be preserving the line numbers, since he often just shows little clips of code from the middle but uses the same line numbers as from the source code. i.e. he'll show a snippet of just lines 9 and 10 but I think GeSHI would just automatically label them 1 and 2.

[ewemoa]

script-fu

Is this something other than the GIMP-related thing?  Or perhaps some other kind of meaning altogether?

...the main thing that I think would be hardest in the conversion would be preserving the line numbers, since he often just shows little clips of code from the middle but uses the same line numbers as from the source code. i.e. he'll show a snippet of just lines 9 and 10 but I think GeSHI would just automatically label them 1 and 2.

Good point.

FWIW, I came across this:

 http://qbnz.com/highlighter/geshi-doc.html#starting-line-numbers

[Deozaan]

script-fu

Is this something other than the GIMP-related thing?  Or perhaps some other kind of meaning altogether?

I'm not sure what script-fu has to do with GIMP. I was just trying to make it sound like martial arts kung-fu.

[ewemoa]

Thanks for the clarification

FWIW, regarding Script-Fu and GIMP:

  http://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-concepts-script-fu.html
  http://www.ve3syb.ca/wiki/doku.php?id=software:sf:start

[daddydave]

I know this is an old thread but that book looks awesome, even for non-10 year olds, and now there's a sequel that delves more into pygame. Being able to dive right into small real-world applications is a great motivator.

I was considering using this book myself except that it is using Python 3 which is not the  "status quo" yet according to python.org, and Python 2 seems to be used for any program I've seen that uses Python as its scripting language (Calibre, Plex, etc.). However that should give the book some nice longevity.

[flamerz]

i want to add this link:

http://www.basic256.org/index_en

very nice basic ide, with text and graphical outputs in the same window.

edit: sorry, i didnt notice about this is in the python subforum, i just wanted to show some tool for kid learning

[daddydave]

edit: sorry, i didnt notice about this is in the python subforum, i just wanted to show some tool for kid learning

No problem, but you're right, a link for a BASIC IDE could easily get lost in the Python forums, I suggest starting a new thread here so no one misses this nice link!

[wraith808]

I know this is an old thread but that book looks awesome, even for non-10 year olds, and now there's a sequel that delves more into pygame. Being able to dive right into small real-world applications is a great motivator.

I was considering using this book myself except that it is using Python 3 which is not the  "status quo" yet according to python.org, and Python 2 seems to be used for any program I've seen that uses Python as its scripting language (Calibre, Plex, etc.). However that should give the book some nice longevity.

If you're trying to learn, I recommend Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and other Beginners by Warren D. Sande and Carter Sande, and The Quick Python Book by Vernon L. Ceder.  I used the Hello World! book for my Brother-in-Law when he was thinking of getting into programming, and it worked wonders.  He's on to more advanced things now, but that grounding in Python helped him prepare for his college classes.  It also delves into pygame, so you might want to look into it.  The other is just a really good reference.