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David Dorward

@HelloAndrew You can also use ls (list) (or sometimes dir (directory)) to list the files in the current directory.

python parser.py

This is the command to run python (a program that executes scripts written in the Python programming language) followed by the name of the script (which will be in the directory you cded into). You will need to install Python to use it.

missing.csail.mit.edu/2020/cou might also be useful.

Hope this helps.

12 comments
Andrew Jon Thomson

@dorward thank you so much for spending so much time trying to help me understand this I think if I could find the time to go through everything you’re saying it would be pretty straightforward. my biggest disappointment with my experience in Mastodon so far has been that the community seems way more technically advanced than I am and I thought I was a very advanced computer user but apparently I’m not. maybe I’m too old to learn the stuff I need to wait for it to be turned into easy websites

David Dorward

@HelloAndrew You’re welcome, it’s helping pass my commute. I’m probably providing more information than you need (I learn better with more context) which might be a bit overwhelming. Don’t let that discourage you. You know your way around a computer, this is just typing your way around instead of pointing.

The minimum to get up and running is:

1 Open the Terminal
2 Type “cd” then drag the folder on top of the terminal window (to enter its name) then press return
3 Run the Python command

@HelloAndrew You’re welcome, it’s helping pass my commute. I’m probably providing more information than you need (I learn better with more context) which might be a bit overwhelming. Don’t let that discourage you. You know your way around a computer, this is just typing your way around instead of pointing.

Liz Loveland

@dorward I tried doing this and it didn't work.I got to step 3 so I think I am not properly running the command but I am not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Tim Böttcher

@HelloAndrew @dorward All that needed to be said in technical terms already got said.

Let me just add that this is a universal experience. I think I'm a programming language polyglot who knows ~10 programming languages well; I'm a confident sysadmin; and yet I often have to fight a sense of impostor syndrome: I feel like I'm just cobbling together things other people have built and those other people are the real magicians.

Andrew Jon Thomson

@Tim_Boettcher @dorward i’m really surprised how much this is affecting me emotionally but for the first time in 40 years I feel like a future shock like I’m too old to learn the basics of the world I live in all of a sudden. It’s really quite emotionally upsetting. So I’m very grateful for people trying to help.

Andrew Jon Thomson

@Tim_Boettcher @dorward we all know Stephen Fry is no technophobe but even he expressed a similar feeling on his first day here overwhelmed by technical aspects that he did not understand.

James

@HelloAndrew @Tim_Boettcher @dorward

Hiya Andrew! I feel like that sometimes as well. And like Tim I feel imposter syndrome all the time. I’ve done some great stuff in Python and yet every time I come back to it I’m pulling out the manual, confused.

If it makes you feel better by flexing a few brain cells, Python is a genuinely fun language to learn. I found Microsofts tutorials a great place to start (learn.microsoft.com/en-us/trai)

(going to get reefed now for suggesting MS as a starting point 😅)

@HelloAndrew @Tim_Boettcher @dorward

Hiya Andrew! I feel like that sometimes as well. And like Tim I feel imposter syndrome all the time. I’ve done some great stuff in Python and yet every time I come back to it I’m pulling out the manual, confused.

If it makes you feel better by flexing a few brain cells, Python is a genuinely fun language to learn. I found Microsofts tutorials a great place to start (learn.microsoft.com/en-us/trai)

Tim Böttcher

@chongliss @dorward @HelloAndrew I took my first (very unsteady) programming steps in Python, too, as a 10 y/o boy. (The programs were terrible in every sense of the word.)

Also, let me emphasise that to use above script, you do not need to learn Python (even if it could be fun to learn). You just need to run the Python installer and then follow the instructions in the repository/above.

David Dorward

@HelloAndrew @Tim_Boettcher Much truth here. The part of my team’s project which needs my specialty isn’t quite ready to have work started on it so I’m working on a different part of the project and have been feeling lost in a forest of new tools that I don’t understand. It’s starting to come together now though.

Andrew Jon Thomson

@dorward like I’m somewhat familiar with the terminal window in macOS but installing python now it seems like this is a project I don’t have time to dig into that I just have to hope and pray someone turns it into a website where I can just enter my credentials and it’ll do the work for me.

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