@magurp244,

Thanks for the help.  These are very simple things I'm trying to do just to make sure I'm writing and using them properly.  For example:

from datetime import datetime
now = datetime.now()
print now

Something as simple as that (and even much mor simple) returns errors.  I'm just printing to the screen at this point.  Even without calling to the datetime library, I'm trying to print text which will result in the same outcome.

I find the Codecademy's version is simple, but I like understanding why something works as opposed to just retaining the information.  Some of the vocabulary is outlined in a glossary, but none of those definitions make particular sense unless it is explained in terms of the lessons in the units.

Oh the joys of being a noob.

Thanks,

Luke

I had a hunch it was something as simple as that.

Is there any reason to (or advantages/disadvantages) to using Python 3 over 2?

Thanks,

Luke

I'll stick to Python 2, since I've been learning in 2 anyhow.

I'm finding that I'm not a fan of this Codecademy course.  Thanks for the link to the book, I'll give that a shot.  Understanding more than just simply retaining is how I need to learn something like this.  The Codecademy course covers how to make certain things do what, but with little to no understanding as to why or why not.

Luke

Ahh, I see. Well, if you have any questions regarding things like that, feel free to ask. Regarding indentation, its one of the particular quirks of the Python syntax, its a way of encapsulating blocks of code to determine what to run and where. To be clear, all languages are like this, but have slightly different ways of going about it. In the C language you would use squiggly brackets instead, so for example:

if (button == 1)
{
printf("button pressed");
}

The brackets tells the computer that when the above If statement is true, it should run the code thats beneath it in between the squiggly brackets. The computer doesn't care what indentation you use, just so long as the code you want to run when the if statement is triggered is between those two squiggly brackets. For some people though this way of writing it can get pretty messy and hard to visually understand, especially if people start writing particularly messy code. Python however uses indentation instead of squiggly brackets  to determine what code belongs where and what code to execute when triggered, which is visually cleaner and easier to read. Using the same example above in Python:

if button == 1:
    print "this code is under this if statement, and will only run when the if statement is true"
print "this code is not! under the if statement, and will run whether its true or not"

When the if statement is triggered the computer will run any code thats indented underneath it, and if theres code thats unevenly indented it will throw an indentation error. This can make it easier to keep track of what code is appart of what and helps make it easier to manage.