Archive for the ‘Python 3.x’ Category
Install PyGame on Fedora
The PyGame library is a wonderful tool for building games with Python. It lets you accomplish a great deal by simply managing events. You need to understand how to use Python functions, modules, and events to build games with this Python library.
You can download and install the PyGame library with the yum utility like this:
yum install -y pygame |
It should generate the following list when you install it as the root user:
Loaded plugins: langpacks, refresh-packagekit Available Packages pygame.x86_64 1.9.1-14.fc20 fedora [root@localhost ~]# yum install -y pygame Loaded plugins: langpacks, refresh-packagekit Resolving Dependencies --> Running transaction check ---> Package pygame.x86_64 0:1.9.1-14.fc20 will be installed --> Processing Dependency: numpy for package: pygame-1.9.1-14.fc20.x86_64 --> Processing Dependency: libportmidi.so.0()(64bit) for package: pygame-1.9.1-14.fc20.x86_64 --> Processing Dependency: libSDL_ttf-2.0.so.0()(64bit) for package: pygame-1.9.1-14.fc20.x86_64 --> Processing Dependency: libSDL_mixer-1.2.so.0()(64bit) for package: pygame-1.9.1-14.fc20.x86_64 --> Processing Dependency: libSDL_image-1.2.so.0()(64bit) for package: pygame-1.9.1-14.fc20.x86_64 --> Running transaction check ---> Package SDL_image.x86_64 0:1.2.12-7.fc20 will be installed ---> Package SDL_mixer.x86_64 0:1.2.12-5.fc20 will be installed --> Processing Dependency: libmikmod for package: SDL_mixer-1.2.12-5.fc20.x86_64 ---> Package SDL_ttf.x86_64 0:2.0.11-4.fc20 will be installed ---> Package numpy.x86_64 1:1.8.2-2.fc20 will be installed --> Processing Dependency: python-nose for package: 1:numpy-1.8.2-2.fc20.x86_64 ---> Package portmidi.x86_64 0:217-9.fc20 will be installed --> Running transaction check ---> Package libmikmod.x86_64 0:3.3.6-3.fc20 will be installed ---> Package python-nose.noarch 0:1.3.0-1.fc20 will be installed --> Finished Dependency Resolution Dependencies Resolved ================================================================================ Package Arch Version Repository Size ================================================================================ Installing: pygame x86_64 1.9.1-14.fc20 fedora 2.1 M Installing for dependencies: SDL_image x86_64 1.2.12-7.fc20 fedora 41 k SDL_mixer x86_64 1.2.12-5.fc20 fedora 91 k SDL_ttf x86_64 2.0.11-4.fc20 fedora 22 k libmikmod x86_64 3.3.6-3.fc20 updates 142 k numpy x86_64 1:1.8.2-2.fc20 updates 3.0 M portmidi x86_64 217-9.fc20 fedora 26 k python-nose noarch 1.3.0-1.fc20 fedora 272 k Transaction Summary ================================================================================ Install 1 Package (+7 Dependent packages) Total download size: 5.7 M Installed size: 21 M Downloading packages: (1/8): SDL_image-1.2.12-7.fc20.x86_64.rpm | 41 kB 00:00 (2/8): SDL_mixer-1.2.12-5.fc20.x86_64.rpm | 91 kB 00:00 (3/8): portmidi-217-9.fc20.x86_64.rpm | 26 kB 00:00 (4/8): SDL_ttf-2.0.11-4.fc20.x86_64.rpm | 22 kB 00:00 (5/8): libmikmod-3.3.6-3.fc20.x86_64.rpm | 142 kB 00:00 (6/8): numpy-1.8.2-2.fc20.x86_64.rpm | 3.0 MB 00:02 (7/8): pygame-1.9.1-14.fc20.x86_64.rpm | 2.1 MB 00:01 (8/8): python-nose-1.3.0-1.fc20.noarch.rpm | 272 kB 00:00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 1.7 MB/s | 5.7 MB 00:03 Running transaction check Running transaction test Transaction test succeeded Running transaction (shutdown inhibited) Installing : SDL_ttf-2.0.11-4.fc20.x86_64 1/8 Installing : SDL_image-1.2.12-7.fc20.x86_64 2/8 Installing : portmidi-217-9.fc20.x86_64 3/8 Installing : libmikmod-3.3.6-3.fc20.x86_64 4/8 Installing : SDL_mixer-1.2.12-5.fc20.x86_64 5/8 Installing : python-nose-1.3.0-1.fc20.noarch 6/8 Installing : 1:numpy-1.8.2-2.fc20.x86_64 7/8 Installing : pygame-1.9.1-14.fc20.x86_64 8/8 Verifying : pygame-1.9.1-14.fc20.x86_64 1/8 Verifying : SDL_mixer-1.2.12-5.fc20.x86_64 2/8 Verifying : python-nose-1.3.0-1.fc20.noarch 3/8 Verifying : libmikmod-3.3.6-3.fc20.x86_64 4/8 Verifying : 1:numpy-1.8.2-2.fc20.x86_64 5/8 Verifying : portmidi-217-9.fc20.x86_64 6/8 Verifying : SDL_image-1.2.12-7.fc20.x86_64 7/8 Verifying : SDL_ttf-2.0.11-4.fc20.x86_64 8/8 Installed: pygame.x86_64 0:1.9.1-14.fc20 Dependency Installed: SDL_image.x86_64 0:1.2.12-7.fc20 SDL_mixer.x86_64 0:1.2.12-5.fc20 SDL_ttf.x86_64 0:2.0.11-4.fc20 libmikmod.x86_64 0:3.3.6-3.fc20 numpy.x86_64 1:1.8.2-2.fc20 portmidi.x86_64 0:217-9.fc20 python-nose.noarch 0:1.3.0-1.fc20 Complete! |
I hope this helps folks install the software.
Basic Python Object
One of my students wanted a quick example of a Python object with getters and setters. So, I wrote a little example that I’ll share.
You define this file in a physical directory that is in your $PYTHONPATH, like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | # Define Coordinate class. class Coordinate: # The method that initializes the Coordinate class. def __init__ (self, x, y): self.x = x self.y = y # Gets the x value from the instance. def getX (self): return self.x # Gets the y value from the instance. def getY (self): return self.y # Sets the x value in the instance. def setX (self, x): self.x = x # Sets the y value in the instance. def setY (self, y): self.y = y # Prints the coordinate pair. def printCoordinate(self): print (self.x, self.y) |
Assuming the file name is Coordinate.py, you can put it into the Python Idle environment with the following command:
from Coordinate import Coordinate |
You initialize the class, like this:
g = Coordinate(49,49) |
Then, you can access the variables of the class or it’s methods as shown below:
# Print the retrieved value of x from the g instance of the Coordinate class. print g.getX() # Print the formatted and retrieved value of x from the g instance of the Coordinate class. print "[" + str(g.getX()) + "]" # Set the value of x inside the g instance of the Coordinate class. print g.setX(39) # Print the Coordinates as a set. g.printCoordinate() |
You would see the following results:
49 [49] (39,49) |
As always, I hope that helps those looking for a solution.
Create a Python Module
Sometime formal programming documentation is less than clear. At least, it’s less than clear until you’ve written your first solution. The Modules section of the Python language is one of those that takes a few moments to digest.
Chapters 22 and 23 in Learning Python gives some additional details but not a clear step-by-step approach to implementing Python modules. This post is designed to present the steps to write, import, and call a Python module. I figured that it would be helpful to write one for my students, and posting it in the blog seemed like the best idea.
I wrote the module to parse an Oracle version string into what we’d commonly expect to see, like the release number, an “R”, a release version, and then the full version number. The module name is more or less equivalent to a package name, and the file name is effectively the module name. The file name is strVersionOracle.py, which makes the strVersionOracle the module name.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | # Parse and format Oracle version. def formatVersion(s): # Split string into collection. list = s.split(".") # Iterate through the result set. for i, l in enumerate(list): if i == 0 and list[i] == "11": label = str(l) + "g" elif i == 0 and list[i] == "12": label = label + str(l) + "c" elif i == 1: label = label + "R" + list[i] + " (" + s + ")" # Return the formatted string. return label |
You can put this in any directory as long as you add it to the Python path. There are two Python paths to maintain. One is in the file system and the other is in Python’s interactive IDLE environment. You can check the contents of the IDLE path with the following interactive commands:
import sys print sys.path |
It prints the following:
['', '/usr/lib64/python27.zip', '/usr/lib64/python2.7', '/usr/lib64/python2.7/plat-linux2', '/usr/lib64/python2.7/lib-tk', '/usr/lib64/python2.7/lib-old', '/usr/lib64/python2.7/lib-dynload', '/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages', '/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/gtk-2.0', '/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages'] |
You can append to the IDLE path using the following command:
sys.path.append("/home/student/Code/python") |
After putting the module in the runtime path, you can test the code in the IDLE environment:
1 2 3 | import cx_Oracle db = cx_Oracle.connect("student/student@xe") print strVersionOracle.formatVersion(db.version) |
Line 3 prints the result by calling the formatVersion function inside the strVersionOracle module. It prints the following:
11gR2 (11.2.0.2.0) |
You can test the program outside of the runtime environment with the following oracleConnection.py file. It runs
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | # Import the Oracle library. import cx_Oracle import strVersionOracle try: # Create a connection. db = cx_Oracle.connect("student/student@xe") # Print a message. print "Connected to the Oracle " + strVersionOracle.formatVersion(db.version) + " database." except cx_Oracle.DatabaseError, e: error, = e.args print >> sys.stderr, "Oracle-Error-Code:", error.code print >> sys.stderr, "Oracle-Error-Message:", error.message finally: # Close connection. db.close() |
You can call the formatVersion() function rather than a combination of module and function names when you write a more qualified import statement on line 3, like:
3 | from strVersionOracle import formatVersion |
Then, you can call the formatVersion() function like this on line 10:
10 | print "Connected to the Oracle " + formatVersion(db.version) + " database." |
It works because you told it to import a function from a Python module. The first example imports a module that may contain one to many functions, and that style requires you to qualify the location of functions inside imported modules.
The oracleConnection.py program works when you call it from the Bash shell provided you do so from the same directory where the oracleConnection.py and strVersionOracle.py files (or Python modules) are located. If you call the oracleConnection.py file from a different directory, the reference to the library raises the following error:
Traceback (most recent call last): File "oracleConnection.py", line 3, in <module> import strVersionOracle ImportError: No module named strVersionOracle |
You can fix this error by adding the directory where the strVersionOracle.py file exists, like
export set PYTHONPATH=/home/student/Code/python |
Then, you can call successfully the oracleConnection.py file from any directory:
python oracleConnection.py |
The program will connect to the Oracle database as the student user, and print the following message to the console:
Connected to the Oracle 11gR2 (11.2.0.2.0) database. |
I hope this helps those trying to create and use Python modules.
Python for loops
It’s always interesting to explain a new programming language to students. Python does presents some challenges to that learning process. I think for-loops can be a bit of a challenge until you understand them. Many students are most familiar with the traditional for loop like Java:
for (i = 0; i < 5; i++) { ... } |
Python supports three types of for-loops – a range for loop, a for-each expression, and a for-loop with enumeration. Below are examples of each of these loops.
- A range for-loop goes from a low numerical value to a high numerical value, like:
for i in range(0,3): print i |
It prints the following range values:
0 1 2 |
- A for-each loop goes from the first to the last item while ignoring indexes, like:
list = ['a','b','c'] for i in list: print i |
It prints the following elements of the list:
a b c |
- A for-loop with enumeration goes from the first to the last item while ignoring indexes, like:
list = ['a','b','c'] for i, e in enumerate(list): print "[" + str(i) + "][" + list[i] + "]" |
The i represents the index values and the e represents the elements of a list. The str() function casts the numeric value to a string.
It prints the following:
[0][a] [1][b] [2][c] |
This should help my students and I hope it helps you if you’re trying to sort out how to use for loops in Python.
Subscribe via RSS