Kyle M. Perkins

Based on a conversation I had earlier today with Keat's brother, I took another whack at Python. I've been working on learning Python for a while, but never really got the hang of it since I'm mainly a PHP guy.

Anyway, based on some tutorials I learned today, I wrote a pretty nice Python script for calculating coin flips and reporting the outcome. Some of my Python-skilled friends may laugh, but I enjoyed writing this and testing my (limited) skills.

 
#!/usr/bin/python
 
import time, random, os
 

 
#clear the screen
 
os.system('clear')
 

 
#define H and T, making them floats
 
H=T=0.0
 

 
#begin input
 

 
max_num = raw_input("How many times do you want to flip a coin? ")
 

 
if len(max_num)==0:
 
	#if no input, make 10 the default
 
	max_num = 10 
 
	print "No number specificed. Defalting to 10"
 

 
max_num = int(max_num) #convert to integer to make the calcualtions work 
 

 
#little helpful tip
 
if max_num >= 300:
 
	unit = str(round((max_num*.2)/60,2))+" minutes"
 
else:
 
	unit = str(round(max_num*.2,2))+" seconds"
 

 
print "It will take "+unit+" to complete"
 

 
#flip the "coin" max_num times
 
for x in range(0,max_num):
 
	coin = random.randrange(2)
 
	if coin == 0:
 
		print "Heads" #report
 
		H+=1 #record
 
	else:
 
		print "Tails" #report
 
		T+=1 #record
 
	time.sleep(.15) #take a small break
 

 
#simple function to calcualte the percentage and report it, 
 
# instead of having to write this out more than once
 
def report(text,side):
 
	perc = round((side/max_num)*100, 2)
 
	print text+": "+str(perc)+"%"
 

 
#debugging
 
#print "Heads: "+str(H)+" | Tails: "+str(T)
 

 
#finalize the reports
 
report("Heads", H)
 
report("Tails", T)
 

 

 
#Print the winning side
 
#print "\n"
 
if H>T:
 
	print '\033[1m'+"Heads Win!"+'\033[0m'
 
elif T>H:
 
	print '\033[1m'+"Tails Win!"+'\033[0m'
 
elif T==H:
 
	print "It's a tie!"
 

I've been trying to work on getting Python to work on the web, but my server doesn't really like WSGI or mod_python. I also tried TurboGears, but that didn't quite work as expected. I may be able to work on that better and get it incoroprated to to some Dynamic programming and offer that to clients.

Also, things may be changing at Shadow Development - could be for the worse or better. Personally, I think it will be for the better because I really enjoyed pushing my skillset and coding practices, so we'll see where it goes.