Connecting the Basics— a Simple Python Calculator

Welcome.

This week as part of my mini Python programming series, I program a basic calculator to help choose an adequate name for myself in a game.

This project was short, and connective taking about thirty minutes to complete. This project demonstrates the use of:

• Dict Objects
• Conditional flow
• List comprehensions
• ord() function for transforming alphanumeric characters

and more…

Photo by Robert Katzki on Unsplash

This project is inspired by the 20th Anniversary of my favorite game Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II. I have been building basic programs to aid the quality of life in the game such as a timer. Use these links to see more about the timer program: article and video tutorial.

This calculator program was special to make, it went much faster than the timer program and was really fun to build. I really enjoyed how it connects many of the concepts of programming that are crucial to know as a beginner. It also makes use of pythonic programming constructs such as list comprehensions over traditional for loops. You can check out the Youtube recording here. If you prefer the live coding session where we learned how to build the program use this link.

I have skipped explaining details about GitHub and connecting the remote repository to the local one. If you are interested in instructions on how to do that, the above tutorial video for the basic timer does explain how to do that in detail. Link in references also. Below is the Simple calculator tutorial video.

Feature List

The projects I make also go into detail about how to keep a feature list and how to keep track of what needs to be programmed along the way. Below is the feature list used for this calculator program:

• [ ] Asks for Input name
• [ ] Calculates Section id based on name input
• [ ] Returns Section id
• [ ] Simple Calculator Program

These are what I consider to be the core features of this program. Anything more than this would exceed a minimum viable product specification and fall into the extra categories.

Recording and streaming live coding sessions is a passion of mine. I am glad to have the ability to learn alongside you as we develop our understanding of code! If you haven’t seen this in action check me out live on Twitch where I stream live coding sessions throughout the week. You can also find the basic python program playlist on my Youtube.

References

1. Basic timer — Python program
2. Youtube tutorial — Basic timer
3. Basic programs playlist — Youtube
4. Algakovic Twitch — Live coding sessions
5. My Youtube — Tutorials and more