Work

Late start to the day today. Was busy moving a table from mum’s place to mine. This should help my back a lot! Updates: 7p, Getting better with gtypist. 8.15p, Done with Vim 8.20p, No Python Apps tonight 22.33, Just understood the difference between generic sequence operations and methods (my aha for the day!) You can run generic sequence operation across the core object types. For e.g. I can run the len function on strings, or numbers or lists. Methods, are object specific. I can only run numeric methods on numbers and string methods on strings. This probably is why you run generic operations in front of a type, like type(s) and methods as a .whatever like s.isupper. Lutz shows me another quick rule of thumb; when you run the dir function on an object it should list the generic operations with underscores e.g. __len__ and methods just show up as plain attributes later in the listing e.g. swapcase 11.57p, Done with Chapter 4 of the Lutz book. Final big insight for future reference. Polymorphism means that the meaning of an operation (like a +) depends on the objects being operated upon. This turns out to be a key idea (perhaps the key idea) behind using Python well—not censtraining code to specific types makes that code automatically applicable to many types. 

Am really enjoying practicing Vim and Python syntax with my Anki decks. Will start doing 10 mins of touch typing daily. My young friends in the DGPLUG irc channel, all seem to have gained wings with their typing speeds. Given up on the #100daysofcode for now. Current strategy is to … Read theory (Lutz) Practice programs Ask friends to give me more programs. Updates 2p, Restarting the Lutz book. Got lost. 2.15p, Just realised why I love Vim. Vim makes me want to write. 3.20p, Also realised I’d bought myself a beginner Talk Python to Me, course a while back. I could use this for point 2 above. 6.30p, Two baby apps done. 10.45p, Did chapters 1 & 2 of the Lutz Book. 11p, Did 10 minutes of Gtypist. As you can see below, there’s a lo–oong way to go :P 

I’ve been moaning and bitching the past couple of years about how smart I was in my teens and how I could learn any darn thing I set my mind to, then. My school grades did not reflect it though. And these days, my consulting solutions have been top notch, and yet, I struggle to sharpen the saw. What gives? It struck me today, as I finished watching some Python videos along my struggling Python journey, that I was understanding the concepts much better than I had in the past few months. ...

Linode mailed me complaining that average CPU usage was 90% over the past couple of hours! Culprit turned out to be the headless dropbox client I’d installed the day before. Lessson learnt. Switched to periodic rysnc via a cron job. Nothing else done today. Still sick as a dog. Watched a couple of Python tutorials

Learnt a new trick to drive home my Vim skills. I use the Anki Deck, and before I answer, I actually try the question out on a document to see if I got it right. Seems to be building muscle memory much faster than I could by just practicing or by just memorising. I love the immediate feedback loop! Should try this out with my math rote exercises too. Charted out a plan for the Lutz book. 2 Chapters or a 100 pages a day, whichever is less. This should let me finish the book in 20 days. Trying to figure out a way to structurally practice tiny problems too. That #100daysofcode research is still pending. Will hopefully do it tomorrow. Have a full day at work today. ...

Guess I’ll call it a day, learning Vim. Done about 16 hours1 of Vim reading and practice. The rest of the 4 hours will come from daily Vim use now. Have begun to use it for darn near everything. Can move about with slight ease and copy & paste with lots of unease. Practice makes perfect, I suppose. Plan for the day, since I’m home sick? Well I’m a gonna swing for the fences and finish the Lutz book. ...