My Distro Chooser [Python]

[Sayers]

Please help me work on my code.


print "Welcome to Distro Chooser 0.01"
print " "

##Here we set up the Distrubution Choices. Since we use numbers + / - to choose which is best the distros must be variables.
#ubuntu
ubuntu = 0
#gentoo
gentoo = 0
#debian
debian = 0

## Lets start the questions

##question 1
print "What do you use your computer for?"
print "Desktop [Non-Programming] (1)"
print "Desktop Programming (2)"
print "Server (3)"
print " "
qone = raw_input("Pick a number:")
if qone == 1: # Non-Desktop
ubuntu += 5 #Makes a wonderfuly easy desktop
gentoo += 1 #Gentoo is good but very hard to setup.
debian += 3 #Easier to setup then Gentoo

if qone == 2:
ubuntu += 2 #Ubuntu is good for programming.
gentoo += 4 #Gentoo lets you compile all the packages which is great for Developers
debian += 3 #Debian is good for programming.

if qone == 3:
ubuntu += 1 # Ubuntu makes great servers for newbs, but most people who assemble servers know what they're doing.
gentoo += 3 #Gentoo makes a decent server. Fast.
debian += 5 #Debian is best known for it's server abbility
## Question 2
print " "
print "What is your knowledge of linux?"
print "Very Low / None (1)"
print "Medium (2)"
print "I know A LOT about linux (3)"
print " "
qtwo = input("Pick a number:")
if qtwo == 1:
ubuntu += 5 #ubuntu is super easy!
gentoo -= 3 #I subtract 3, Gentoo is impossible for a newbie.
# I ignore debian, it isn't hard but it deffentily isn't easy.
if qtwo == 2:
ubuntu += 3 # It's good for medium skill users but some will find it lacking the abbilityu to customize.
gentoo += 2 # It is hard to use
debian += 3 # easy to use easy to customize
if qtwo == 3:
ubuntu += 1
gentoo += 7 # any real hard-core linux user will love Gentoo
debian += 4 # Very good.

[earobinson]

ubuntu += 2 #Ubuntu is good for programming.
gentoo += 4 #Gentoo lets you compile all the packages which is great for Developers
debian += 3 #Debian is good for programming. Im not sure about your comments here you can compile on ubuntu also? I know gentoo makes you compile a lot more but I dont see how that makes it better for devs

[Sayers]

Well I added that because you can customize the dev packages :)

[tht00]

For programming practice, this looks useful. As I learned to program, I mostly did exercises that were mostly useless in the real world.

As an actual 'distro chooser', there are a lot more things to consider as well as a lot more options to look at. Just a heads up there.

[Sayers]

For programming practice, this looks useful. As I learned to program, I mostly did exercises that were mostly useless in the real world.

As an actual 'distro chooser', there are a lot more things to consider as well as a lot more options to look at. Just a heads up there.

Well that's why it's open-source and I need help finishing :)

[Sayers]

For programming practice, this looks useful. As I learned to program, I mostly did exercises that were mostly useless in the real world.

As an actual 'distro chooser', there are a lot more things to consider as well as a lot more options to look at. Just a heads up there.

Oh and, most things to program are already made :-) , it's called either redoing it better or going crazy :p

[smartbei]

I would recommend you structure the program differently, seeing as the way it currently is (while being very readable) is very long. Something like this:


print "Welcome to Distro Chooser 0.01"
distros=("ubuntu","gentoo","debian")
score=[0,0,0]
questions=["What do you use your computer for?\nDesktop Programming (2)\nServer (3)","What is your knowledge of linux?\nVery Low / None (1)\nMedium (2)\nI know A LOT about linux (3)"]
questions_effect=(((5,1,3),(2,4,3),(1,3,5)),((5,-3,0),(3,2,3),(1,7,4)))
for q in range(len(questions)):
print questions[q]
qres = int(raw_input("Pick a number: "))
for s in range(len(distros)):
score[s]+=questions_effect[q][qres-1][s]
for a in range(len(distros)):
print distros[a],score[a]

Does the exact same thing but is much shorter...

Heh, now we are going to have a perl guy come in and do it in a single line :D.

[Sayers]

That looks like great code however, It is a little beyond my range of python at the moment.

[smartbei]

It just looks complicated - once you break it into pieces, it is very simple.


print "Welcome to Distro Chooser 0.01"

## These are startup values - getting everything ready:
# a tuple holding the names of the distros:
distros=("ubuntu","gentoo","debian")

# a list that holds the calculated score:
score=[0,0,0]

#This is a tuple, holding a tuple for each question, with each of this holding a tuple for the effect of each number on each distro.
# (questions_effect)
# _________|_____________
# | |
# (question 1) (question 2)
# ______|_______ ________|________
# | | | | | |
#(u,g,d) (u,g,d) (u,g,d) (u,g,d) (u,g,d) (u,g,d)
# (u,g,d) = the respective effects on (ubuntu, gentoo, debian)
questions_effect=(((5,1,3),(2,4,3),(1,3,5)),((5,-3,0),(3,2,3),(1,7,4)))

#the questions themselves - note that this is exactly what you wrote, except that instead of being on seperate print statements, the strings are put together into a single entry on a list - just for simplicity.
questions=["What do you use your computer for?\nDesktop Programming (2)\nServer (3)","What is your knowledge of linux?\nVery Low / None (1)\nMedium (2)\nI know A LOT about linux (3)"]

#loops through the questions, asks each in turn and receives back user input.
for q in range(len(questions)):
print questions[q]
qres = int(raw_input("Pick a number: "))

#loops through the correct effect on the distro's score based on the user's answer:
for s in range(len(distros)):
score[s]+=questions_effect[q][qres-1][s]

#prints it all out:
for a in range(len(distros)):
print distros[a],score[a]


I hope that makes it clearer - sorry if I went too far, too fast.

[pmasiar]

That looks like great code however, It is a little beyond my range of python at the moment.

Virtues of good programmer (http://www.hhhh.org/wiml/virtues.html) are: Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris (all not in raw form, but properly seasoned).

smartbei was too lazy to write much code: he wrote data structure and code to interpret it instead. Impatience can be used to change it (just change data), Hubris is to think beginner can digest it :-)

[smartbei]

Haha, thanks for the implicit compliment :p.

[engla]

Python triple-quotes can also make that a bit more readable

questions=[
"""What do you use your computer for?
Desktop [Non-Programming] (1)
Desktop Programming (2)
Server (3)""",
"""What is your knowledge of linux?
Very Low / None (1)
Medium (2)
I know A LOT about linux (3)"""
]