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Building an activity planner

• To add mystery and magic to the plan begin in a new repo in github.
• Create a file code_activities_we_like.lst
• Brainstorm a list one item per line no spaces

codecombat
scratch
tynker
codeacademy

10fastfingers.com
typing.lk
typing.com/games
typingclub.com

• Commit the file.
• Navigate to codeskulptor.
• Select all the inner welcome code and delete it.
• Template out the steps to a new activity_picker.py application.

activity_picker.py

# import the magic random picker

# list of things to pick from

# find a way to pick something

# a way to tell the user what to do

• Each of the stubbed out comments represents a logical aspect of the application.
• Now step through each section and implement the simplest possible example highlighting programming concepts along the way.

activity_picker.py

# import the magic random picker

# list of things to pick from
activities_to_do = []

# find a way to pick something

# a way to tell the user what to do

In programming the = is not treated as equality like we are trained for in math, instead = means assignment. The mantra when reading something_on_the_left = 'a value' is: something_on_the_left gets 'a value'

• Start simple with an empty list.
• Run the program.
• Getting no output is the big 'it didn't fail' success!

activity_picker.py

# import the magic random picker

# list of things to pick from
activities_to_do = ['a','b','c']

# find a way to pick something

# a way to tell the user what to do

• Add a few items to the list.
• Next print the list and enjoy some output.

activity_picker.py

# import the magic random picker

# list of things to pick from
activities_to_do = ['a','b','c']

# find a way to pick something

# a way to tell the user what to do
print activities_to_do

• Plugging in the final piece of the equation.
• Assign going_to_do an element from the list.

activity_picker.py

# import the magic random picker

# list of things to pick from
activities_to_do = ['a','b','c']

# find a way to pick something
going_to_do = activities_to_do[2]

# a way to tell the user what to do
print "The things we can do: " + str(activities_to_do)
print "The thing we are going to do: " + going_to_do

• At this point the problem is multiple runs of the program yield activity 'c'.
• To spice things up use random to pick any activity.

activity_picker.py

# import the magic random picker
import random

# list of things to pick from
activities_to_do = ['a','b','c']

# find a way to pick something
going_to_do = random.choice(activities_to_do)

# a way to tell the user what to do
print "The things we can do: " + str(activities_to_do)
print "The thing we are going to do: " + going_to_do

• Ok buckle up!
• Reference link
• Next up,
  • import urllib2
  • GET request to copy the list from github raw.
  • str.split() to convert string of activities into a list.
• Navigate back to github and click on the 'code_activities_we_like.lst' file.
• Click on the 'raw' button.
• Copy the url out of the address bar.
• Paste the url into a new string and pass it to the library.

activity_picker.py

# import the magic random picker
import random, urllib2

# list of things to pick from
code_activities_we_like = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bellcodo/potential-octo-chainsaw/15142655a8f4faa26d381ca00458fa4fcd8c2423/code_activities_we_like.lst'
activities_to_do = urllib2.urlopen(code_activities_we_like).read()

# find a way to pick something
going_to_do = random.choice(activities_to_do)

# a way to tell the user what to do
print "The things we can do: " + str(activities_to_do)
print "The thing we are going to do: " + going_to_do

• Run it.
• Try and understand what the print "The thing we are going to do:" + activities_to_do returned.
• Now split the result and assign it back to activities_to_do.

activity_picker.py

# import the magic random picker
import random, urllib2

# list of things to pick from
code_activities_we_like = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bellcodo/potential-octo-chainsaw/15142655a8f4faa26d381ca00458fa4fcd8c2423/code_activities_we_like.lst'
activities_to_do = urllib2.urlopen(code_activities_we_like).read()
activities_to_do = activities_to_do.split()

# find a way to pick something
going_to_do = random.choice(activities_to_do)

# a way to tell the user what to do
print "The things we can do: " + str(activities_to_do)
print "The thing we are going to do: " + going_to_do

• Running the application multiple times should result in different activities.
• Give it a try to decide what to do next.