Ubuntu: Day 7 - Hello World! with Python, Django, and Eclipse Completed

I still do not have a full grasp of Eclipse, but I finally got to start programming in Python and publishing a Python Django site. A very simple "Hello World" page but this should basically be the last major barrier to starting the web application. Although it took me about a week, I probably put in about 16 hours of reading, preparing, installing, and learning some very basic stuff including Linux so I think I did a decent job of getting started.

Ubuntu Eclipse

My experience with the install was a little disappointing. I am still not quite sure what I did wrong the first time through. It may have to do with Django not being compatible with Python 3, but the article I read was rather old. I figured it would be by now. I could probably read up on that, but this just adds more complexity to the users who just wants to get something up and running.

Microsoft Visual Studio builds practically all the starting files so that you could run the application right after creating the project. I thought it was much easier to figure out which files I had to update without watching tutorials.

Keyboard Shortcuts

I am also having issues with the keyboard shortcuts. I dislike that I have to go to the bottom window to end the virtual web server, then go back to the top to restart. I found a keyboard shortcut, CTRL+F2, that should end when debugging. I am not quite sure what it means by debugging but I couldn't find option that says to just stop whenever. I am assuming that setting is what is preventing it to work even when I tried to run in debug mode (at least I think I was from clicking on the bug button). I can change the shortcut key to other key combinations and CTRL+F2, so it is not another application has some sort of higher priority to the key binding.

Intellisense

This feature is always nice. I probably need to spend some more time familiarizing myself with libraries but there are a lot of functions that I do not think I always need to see. There's a lot of properties or functions that are surrounded by sub-scores like '__someName__' which from what I understand so far are more internal use (but technically available). I think this makes it more difficult to learn some of these classes.

There are also some nuisances in getting the intellisense to pop-up. I still need a bit more experience in how the import portion works. I am not quite sure why I have to reference a library then import a "class" or is it a library(?). Anyhow, I figure I will get more exposure to this as I program a bit more.

Conclusion

I am happy that I've gotten to this point. I do not enjoy having to learn all the little nuances just to get this up and running, but then if this was exactly like VS then I suppose there wouldn't be a need to have Eclipse. I wonder at what point when I feel comfortable to put this on my resume.

I also have noticed that for some reason when I want to type python, I sometimes type pythong instead. I am wondering if this is because it is similar to 'anything.' Anyways, I may occasionally misspell this word in my post so just know that I mean python. Hopefully my muscle memory will correct this soon.

There is at least one big obstacle that I still need to work on which is publish the website to Apache. Currently, running out of Eclipse is sufficient for hobby purposes. I definitely will not be looking into the till later in January at the earliest. I need to give my brain some time to connect a bunch of the new dots.