[XxLegendxX]

I have been programming in python for about three months now, before python i dabbled in a few other languages and with this one i finally feel like a am a competent programmer, but i don't know where to go from here. how do i keep going and get even better? what are some good resources i can use?? are there any websites out there that has python code that i can look at and learn from?? or any python project ideas?? really anything would be helpful thanks in advanced =)

[Martyr2]

Well there are plenty of places to go. Believe me, 3 months won't teach you everything. You can try doing a few things...

1) Participating in helping others on boards like this one.
2) Get involved with Python projects on sites like github or codeplex
3) Read articles from places like dzone.com
4) Work through project ideas like listed in "Martyr2's Mega Project List" or through my ebook "The Programmers Idea Book" which has even more projects along with tips to solving them.
5) Read more books. One book can never cover all the angles so reading other books teaches you more.
6) Just practice and make your own little projects.

It is always advantageous to look at different sources of info and get exposed to different channels of learning a language. Boards and practice through projects are always great for expanding to the next level. I hope you continue to practice and get to the next level!

[Nallo]

You feel like a competent programmer after 3 months *cough* (sorry, no offense meant I know how incompetent I was after 3 months :-) ) Likely you don't know much about algorithms. But being a competent programmer is more about knowing/developing suitable algorithms than knowing a programming language inside out. You may look at udacity.com. You find university style courses and corresponding exercises there. Don't be intimidated it's free of charge, not all courses are advanced level and they use python as their programming language.

Just my 2 cents.

This post has been edited by Nallo: 12 February 2013 - 09:39 AM

[jon.kiparsky]

What does "competent" mean to you? If I asked you to build me a simple text editor, what's the first thing you do? The second? The third? (hint: if any of those involved writing code, there's some things to be learned here)

How long does it take you to deliver a working product? How do you know that, and how sure are you of your estimate? How would you justify it?
When you deliver a product, how can you be sure it works?
What questions do you need to ask me, the client, before you can even start with this?


EDIT:
What I'm getting at here is that "competent" is a lot deeper than simply being able to generate code: a good programmer has to be thinking about engineering, about client requirements, about the development of a program, about schedules and risks, about testing and verification and ensuring correctness. It seems to me that after three months, these are things you're unlikely to have really been exposed to, but they're really much more important than simply writing the code itself. If you want to become a better programmer, perhaps these issues of software development would be worth investigation.

This post has been edited by jon.kiparsky: 12 February 2013 - 11:08 AM
Reason for edit:: Clarification

[darek9576]

I think that in order to get advanced at python, frameworks come to mind. You can start with Numpy and then try SQLAlchemy for some database interaction.

[andrewsw]

darek9576, on 12 February 2013 - 10:33 AM, said:

I think that in order to get advanced at python, frameworks come to mind. You can start with Numpy and then try SQLAlchemy for some database interaction.

I don't understand this statement; how does learning a framework make someone a more advanced Python programmer? It does, however, provide a broader understanding of how, and where, Python is used, and it looks good on a CV.