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Asked: 2026-06-05T23:44:44+00:00

It will probably astound you how basic these questions are, but please bear with

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It will probably astound you how basic these questions are, but please bear with me! And if there is a better place to ask, I would be appreciative for a migration.

I am looking at two Python tutorials, one of which is “Learn Python the hard way”. I am in no condition to evaluate the quality of the tutorials, so I have a few questions. (I have only just started LPTHW so I apologize if the answer comes 20 exercises later.)

  1. In LPTHW, the exercises so far have been coding into Notepad++ and executing the txt document from a command line. In the other one, it was an “enter commands one by one into Python” tutorial. Question: which is more practical for a learner? “Both” is an acceptable answer.

  2. In LPTHW, the first explanation of variables, the format character commands %s %d and %r are used. The exercise says “search the web to learn about all of them.” I did a websearch and found someone saying “Don’t use those, use the new ones.” Question: is LPTHW out of date in this way, and should I be using “new ones”?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team
    1. I’d say “both”. When you write “real programs” you’re going to edit them in text files and run them from the command line, but the interactive environment is a great way to learn, explore, and test. I keep an interactive python session around as I’m coding as a place to check my assumptions.
    2. You should absolutely learn the old formatting syntax. It’s based on the C language’s formatted print facilities, and many programming languages have adopted similar systems, so it’s important to know. It can’t hurt to learn the new stuff as well, and it’s a good exercise to try writing the same formatting functionality in both the old and the new style.
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