My introduction

Welcome to the forum. Not many Python fans here but you will find a few. Welcome to the forum.

Posted by: @marcj

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I'm currently tying to learn Python

I have a grand love-hate relationship with Python.

It comes in two parts - Arduino type embedded boards and Linux.

I keep having a dabble on ESP32 but because Arduino C has been around so long I usually hit a wall with unsupported Python libraries. It's also so inefficient being interpreted.

To a C programmer Python is horrible in not, natively, having types and arrays. Weird.

For simpler programs ( I have a GPS speedometer in mind ) Python plus Thonny or Geany is a pretty slick environment which is very fast because it bypasses the chip burn stage. Using Rpi Pico with Python is pleasant enough because it's bee around quite a long time so the libraries are there..

Using Linux it's a whole different ball game, for a GUI interface to, say, an Arduino project I find Qt5 is a good way of getting a nice user program on screen. Many of the library gaps found in ESP32 are filled in Linux. The size and speed problem is hardly noticed on a PC. Though I did try a video editor written in Python and found it pathetically slow.

Brian.

@hilldweller The PICO is fairly new, so I don't understand the following

Using Rpi Pico with Python is pleasant enough because it's bee around quite a long time so the libraries are there..

Posted by: @zander

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@hilldweller The PICO is fairly new, so I don't understand the following

Using Rpi Pico with Python is pleasant enough because it's bee around quite a long time so the libraries are there..

You are right. It feels like it has been around forever. The thing is, with the RPi community it was so well supported from day one. Their C environment looked too much like hard work so I dabbled in Python from the start. Also British schools picked up on it and I was helping my grandson with it. We cobbled together a "useless box" but without the box so the mechanism was exposed. It was a good introduction to micro controls.

I think that what might have confused me was I first introduced him to the BBC Micro:bit a few years before. Looking back to that, is that where UNO got the inspiration to dump a load of LEDs on board. The Mirco:bit had a library to scroll text even if it was only one char at a time. They were given to schools in big numbers.

But now, in the AI age, programmers are in a similar place to the street gas light lighters were when electricity was introduced.

@hilldweller Does this mean you think AI will write real business programs of tens and hundreds of thousands of lines of code?

But now, in the AI age, programmers are in a similar place to the street gas light lighters were when electricity was introduced.

I have played with AI enough to know it hardly ever gives the same answer twice, so why is that? Also, the reports I am hearing are that when AI is asked questions that have a known correct answer, it is still roughly only 50% correct.

I heard that nonsense in the mid-'70s, and I am still waiting.

I'm taking good note of all the comments received. I don't consider myself as a programmer but as a hobbyist. And at 75 my real goal in learning Python is simply to keep my brain active and learning while challenging myself with odd projects. So reading post in this forum will be most interesting and will possibly allow me to avoid cerain traps.

Thanks you all.

Marc

Posted by: @zander

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@hilldweller Does this mean you think AI will write real business programs of tens and hundreds of thousands of lines of code?

I have played with AI enough to know it hardly ever gives the same answer twice, so why is that?

You have me at an advantage, I've never touched AI but I am a good observer. I observe Tesla ( and the rest of self driving vehicles ). What they have achieved is almost miraculous. The hardware capabilities are increasing at an incredible rate, you surely have seen the latest Nvidia presentation. I've seen the Samsung claims of AI in their phone "improving" pictures so the buyers will look even more glorious when they send them to their friends. I came across a bit of information on how Harrison Ford was de-aged for his last film.

You may play with AI but Microsoft and Google take it very seriously. Have you seen how much Microsoft has recently spent on AI hardware ?

So I have no trouble in believing that within a few years AI will completely change everything connected to "computers". "Siri explain it to him will you".

Posted by: @marcj

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And at 75 my real goal in learning Python is simply to keep my brain active

Thanks you all.

Marc

I see your 75 and raise you 79 for exactly the same reasons.

I like the idea of the pistol targets, I was a keen 0.22 pistol target shooter but about 20 years ago they were banned from private ownership in the UK because some lunatic, whom the Police knew was a lunatic, went on a shooting spree. The confiscation was of course quite deliberate to minimise private weapons in the UK. They are now going after shotguns. Meanwhile the criminals seem to get hold of firearms easily enough.

@hilldweller Have you ever been part of a team that was tasked to produce payroll, AP, AR, GAS, and numerous inventory systems? Some of those had a staff of dozens, lines of code in the millions. The AI I have used and observed can barely turn on a LED. There is a HUGE difference between writing a simple sketch to manipulate a sensor or two versus a fairly simple payroll system. What Tesla does is impressive but not even close to the complexity of a business system. I have Siri, Alexa, Google, MSFT and Apple AI, and I might have forgotten a few, but these are tiny compared to what a business system entails. I am still covered by NDAs and security which precludes me from going further, but it's a different class of problem with much more complex thinking processes.

Posted by: @zander

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@hilldweller Have you ever been part of a team that was tasked to produce payroll, AP, AR, GAS, and numerous inventory systems? Some of those had a staff of dozens, lines of code in the millions.

You are living in the past Ron. The dinosaurs never saw it coming. "Oh shit, what's that ?" they said.

@hilldweller Ok, I see we have another one from the UK. Seems to be no shortage.

Posted by: @zander

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@hilldweller Ok, I see we have another one from the UK. Seems to be no shortage.

It's only a little island. Long past it's sell by date. Allegedly The United Kingdom but that is the exact opposite of the truth.

Someone has just kicked off a neural network thread, it could get very interesting. I'm sure I'll see you there.

Posted by: @marcj

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I'm taking good note of all the comments received. I don't consider myself as a programmer but as a hobbyist. And at 75 my real goal in learning Python is simply to keep my brain active and learning while challenging myself with odd projects. So reading post in this forum will be most interesting and will possibly allow me to avoid cerain traps.

Thanks you all.

Marc

Welcome to the forum @marcj!

Indeed, you and I are somewhat of the same mindset with regards to learning new things.

at 76, I'm still learning my lifelong hobby and profession..namely electronics and computer science. I too started with the Tandy TRS80 in 1977, a 16K, level II with out a DOS system, but used a cassette recorder to store the programs in basic using zilog 8080 processor. It would be several years until they came out with DOS and floppy drives.

I taught myself assembly language so I could run a pseudo- real time clock..it really didn't work that well because when it ran a for-next loop, the clock would stop...then start again when the loop completed..lol  Never did figure out how to get around that bit of "house keeping" in the IRQ's.. but it was fun learning..I was an industrial electrical-Instrumentation tech for 39 years before retiring in 2014.. that pulse 4 yrs. in the U.S. Navy as a FT ( fire control tech.  EWS, Electronics Weapons Systems)

I'm now working on a project to use a HUSKYLENS AI camera as a security camera to take a screenshot, load it onto the on board SD card, then send it to my smart phone via wifi.

see link for HUSKYLENS : https://wiki.dfrobot.com/HUSKYLENS_V1.0_SKU_SEN0305_SEN0336

It's going to be quite a challenge for me,but it'll be fun trying!

again, welcome!

Regards,

LouisR

@hilldweller Ok, I figured you were one of those. Nope, no interest in neural whatever and any participation I would have is to debunk it. I worked for IBM when we first looked at it in the 70's. I passed on it then and still do.