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Discussion on: Welcome Thread - v39

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thr37425 profile image
THR37425

Hello, my name is Ted.

I have just started learning computer programming as a freshman at Tulsa Community College. I am starting with Python. I am handicapped, so I'm not as fast at typing as someone who can use both hands, but I am not going to let that stop me from learning how to code. Some of the questions I'm going to ask may sound simple to an experienced person, but at this point, I'm going to need all the help I can get.

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geekreflex profile image
Jerry Nwosu

Hi Ted!👋 Welcome to the community. It's awesome to have you here.

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Chris Achard

Welcome! DEV is great for getting help :) Good to have you

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Pablo Navarro

Welcome to party! Glad to see you here! And never be afraid of asking what you don't know yet. We all have been there.

I'm willing to help if you want on anything :)

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thr37425 profile image
THR37425

Hello,
I'm having trouble with the same type of question I ask for help last week. The instructor isn't any help, and I hope you can help me figure this out. After you read the question they expect us to figure out the solution to the code. There are no examples that help to solve this question, and I have no idea where to start.

Write a single statement that assigns avg_sales with the average of num_sales1, num_sales2, and num_sales3.

Sample output with inputs: 3 4 8
Average sales: 5.00

  1. avg_sales = 0 2.
  2. num_sales1 = int(input())
  3. num_sales2 = int(input())
  4. num_sales3 = int(input()) 6.
  5. ''' Your solution goes here ''' 8.
  6. print('Average sales: {:.2f}'.format(avg_sales))

When you have a minute can you help me figure this out, please?

Thank you,

Theodore Rahm

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Kit Plummer

Hey Ted. Having spent some time being one-handed, and knowing a few devers, have some insight. Maybe you've already figured it out, maybe not...

Laptops and their trackpads are way more efficient than a keyboard and mouse. IDEs and their "macros" can help you a lot. Most of the new-breed editors (Atom, VSCode, et al) have good support for hot-keys and language-specific stuff, on top of their contextual menus.

I think you'll find out that coding is as much about thinking as it is typing. You'll optimize the time between the two, as well as figuring out how to context-switch.

Invest as much time in learning to test your code as learning the language. I know for me, I was prone to more syntax (read spelling) issues when I was traveling the whole keyboard with one hand.

I didn't have much luck with speech-to-text tooling, but this was a while back for me. I know some developers who use it pretty well now. I don't know the toolchain but they've figured out how to wire up macros and hot-keys to voice actions.

Good luck to ya!