Herdcat, second version
I'm dog-sitting my landlady's puppy, a half-spaniel/half-coton named Lola. Lola is so young she couldn't even walk a few days ago. In the Python programming language, the object "lola" is in the class Dog and has methods such as "lola.eat" and "lola.white". Bruce Webber explained this to me last night when we continued my instruction in Python. We completed all the steps I had planned out for what to do in my program Herdcat. Then he taught me the basics of Functions and Objects.
#!/usr/bin/python
import datetime
class Contact:
def __init__(self, name, projects, interval, reminder):
self.name = name
self.projects = projects
self.interval = datetime.timedelta(int(interval))
datepart = reminder.split('/')
self.reminder = datetime.date(int(datepart[2]), int(datepart[0]), int(datepart[1]))
def isdue(self):
if self.reminder < datetime.date.today():
return True
else:
return False
def readrolodex():
#'r' stands for 'read'
herdcatfile = file('herdcat.txt','r')
rolodex = []
source = herdcatfile.readlines()
herdcatfile.close()
for row in source:
contactpart = row.strip().split('|')
rolodex.append(Contact(contactpart[0], contactpart[1], contactpart[2], contactpart[3]))
return rolodex
def writerolodex(rolodex):
#'w' stands for 'write'
herdcatfile = file('herdcat.txt', 'w')
for contact in rolodex:
herdcatfile.write('%s|%s|%s|%s\n' % (contact.name,
contact.projects, contact.interval.days, contact.reminder.strftime('%m/%d/%Y')))
herdcatfile.close()
rolodex = readrolodex()
for contact in rolodex:
if contact.isdue():
print 'Has %s responded to you about %s since the last Reminder?' % (contact.name, contact.projects)
smartass = True
while smartass:
response = raw_input('Y/N:')
if response.upper() == 'Y':
#int() stands for 'make this string an integer'
contact.interval = contact.interval + datetime.timedelta(2)
smartass = False
elif response.upper() == 'N':
contact.interval = contact.interval - datetime.timedelta(1)
smartass = False
else:
print 'You did not type Y or N, please try again:'
contact.reminder = contact.reminder + contact.interval
print 'Name: %s\nProjects: %s\nInterval: %s\nReminder: %s' % (contact.name,
contact.projects, contact.interval, contact.reminder.strftime('%m/%d/%Y'))
writerolodex(rolodex)
The current contents of herdcat.txt:
Bruce Webber|Python, Lojban, Penguicon, hanging out|7|07/17/07
Tim Schmidt|Penguicon, Stepmania rig, RepRap|7|07/18/07
Gerald Gentry|Subgenius at Penguicon, Budget for Stepmania, next SMOS Party|7|07/18/07
Chris DiBona|Inviting software guests|7|07/16/07
Frank Hayes|Getting my article published in a Linux magazine|7|04/20/07
Comments
atropis on Jul. 26, 2007 6:04 PM
in computer context, lola is only one letter away from lol. i guess that mkaes it an unusually happy name?
matt-arnold on Jul. 26, 2007 6:34 PM
That's appropriate! She's an unusually happy dog!
eilrahc on Jul. 29, 2007 4:49 PM
Weeeelll, technically lola.white would be an object property rather than a method. :) This sounds like a fun first project. I'm currently writing a personal address book to teach myself (more of) PHP.
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