Plutonic Rainbows

Panic's Coda 2 is an expensive piece of software when you are only writing in Python. I recently moved over to Sublime Text. It's actually free, if for the occasionally prompt to buy it. If you're on a budget, I totally recommend it.

A simple script that just checks the file size and copies the file to a target destination that you specify. That's done when you pass in script, file_from, file_to = argv at the very beginning.

from sys import argv

script, file_from, file_to = argv

file_in = open(file_from)
indata = file_in.read()

print "The file called '%s'is %r bytes in length" % (file_from, len(indata))

file_out = open(file_to, 'w')
file_out.write(indata)

file_in.close()
file_out.close()

I've been looking again at functions and how they work. They are great for simple math but can do a lot more besides. With that in mind, here is a simple way of multiplying numbers with user input. Remember to tell Python to use float when handling numbers.

def calc(value1, value2):
    return value1 * value2

print "\nLet's multiply two numbers.\n" 

value1 = (float(raw_input("Enter a number: ")))
value2 = (float(raw_input("Enter another number: ")))


answer = calc(value1, value2)

print "\nThe answer is {0:.2f}.\n".format (answer)

A great tutorial provided by @iamtrask. It teaches back propagation using a very simple toy example written in Python. You can follow the lessons here.

As the title says, just another while loop for practice.

i = 0

numbers = []

while i < 7:
    print "The number at the top is now: %d" % i
    numbers.append(i)

    i = i + 1
    print "Numbers are now", numbers
    print "The number at the bottom is now: %d" % i

print "The numbers:"

for num in numbers:
    print num

Part of the Python Data Science Guide, this is a great introduction to Cryptocurrency. Recommended reading, if a little difficult to follow.

Patrick Triest:

The goal of this article is to provide an easy introduction to cryptocurrency analysis using Python. We will walk through a simple Python script to retrieve, analyze, and visualize data on different cryptocurrencies. In the process, we will uncover an interesting trend in how these volatile markets behave, and how they are evolving.

Article in the Independent relating how text appears to be written in Hebrew with letters rearranged, according to algorithms employed by Canadian researchers.

Artificial intelligence has allowed scientists to make significant progress in cracking a mysterious ancient text, the meaning of which has eluded scholars for centuries.

Dated to the 15th century, the Voynich manuscript is a hand-written text in an unknown script, accompanied by pictures of plants, astronomical observations and nude figures.

Since its discovery in the 19th century, many historians and cryptographers have attempted to unravel its meaning - including code breakers during the Second World War - but none have been successful.

While some have written the Voynich manuscript off as a hoax, use of modern techniques has previously suggested the presence of “a genuine message” inside the book.

Some more math functions in Python. Make sure you use your # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- or the formatting will not work correctly.

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
def add(a, b, c):
    print "\nADDING %d + %d + %d" % (a, b, c)
    return a + b + c

price = add(12, 12, 12);print "The price is £{0:.2f}\n".format (price)

def multiply(a, b):
    print "MULTIPLYING %d * %d" % (a, b)
    return a * b

multiply_price = multiply(10, 10);print "The price is £{0:.2f}\n".format (multiply_price)

def subtracting(a, b):
    print "SUBTRACTING %d - %d" % (a, b)
    return a - b

subtract_price = subtracting(100, 50);print "The price is £{0:.2f}\n".format (subtract_price)

def division(a, b):
    print "DIVIDING %d / %d" % (a, b)
    return a / b

division_price = division(90, 2);print "The price is £{0:.2f}\n".format (division_price)

Michele Baker gives a list of recommended books on Artificial Intelligence.