RE: Python: A Program I'd Love To Understand

  • From: "Homme, James" <james.homme@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:41:20 -0400

Hi,
Now, here's the whole program.

I think that normally, you would loop from start to finish in the dictionary, 
but it looks like any time one of the functions at the top of the program 
returns the death function, that makes the loop terminate. It seems like this 
code would be easy to break to me. I'd rather make a variable and not go around 
changing stuff, but my computer science knowledge has lots of holes.  I'd maybe 
feel better if I would loop from start to finish and sometimes do nothing. 
Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, which is likely.

# ex41.py

# Bring in the exit function from sys
from sys import exit
# Bring in randint from the random function.
from random import randint

def death():
  """Print a random death message and exit out of the program."""
  print "Top of death function."
# This is a list of strings.
  quips = ["You died.  You kinda suck at this.",
    "Your mom would be proud. if she were smarter.",
    "Such a loser.",
    "I have a small puppy that's better at this."]
# print a random string from the list.
# len gives us the number of items in the list.
# But the last item in the list is one below that.
# So call randint, then subtract one and we will get one of the strings in the 
list.
  print quips[randint(0, len(quips)-1)]
  # Exit with a return code other than 0.
  exit(1)

def princess_lives_here():
  """Princess room."""
  print "Top of princess lives here function."
  print "You see a beautiful Princess with a shiny crown."
  print "She offers you some cake."
  eat_it = raw_input("> ") # Let the user type something.
  if eat_it == "eat it":
    print "You explode like a pinata full of frogs."
    print "The Princess cackles and eats the frogs. Yum!"
    return 'death'  # I'm not sure why there are no parentheses.
  elif eat_it == "do not eat it":
    print "She throws the cake at you and it cuts off your head."
    print "The last thing you see is her munching on your torso. Yum!"
    return 'death'
  elif eat_it == "make her eat it":
    print "The Princess screams as you cram the cake in her mouth."
    print "Then she smiles and cries and thanks you for  saving her."
    print "She points to a tiny door and says, 'The Koi needs cake too.'"
    print "She gives you the very last bit of cake and shoves you in."
    return 'gold_koi_pond'
  else:
    print "The princess looks at you confused and just points at the cake."
    return 'princess_lives_here' # Is this recursion?

def gold_koi_pond():

  print "Top of gold koy [pond function."
  print "There is a garden with a koi pond in the center."
  print "You walk close and see a massive fin poke out."
  print "You peek in and a creepy looking huge Koi stares at you."
  print "It opens its mouth waiting for food."
  feed_it = raw_input("> ")
  if feed_it == "feed it":
    print "The Koi jumps up, and rather than eating the cake, eats your arm."
    print "You fall in and the Koi shrugs than eats you."
    print "You are then pooped out sometime later."
    return 'death'
  elif feed_it == "do not feed it":
    print "The Koi grimaces, then thrashes around for a second."
    print "It rushes to the other end of the pond, braces against the wall..."
    print "then it *lunges* out of the water, up in the air and over your"
    print "entire body, cake and all."
    print "You are then pooped out a week later."
    return 'death'
  elif feed_it == "throw it in":
    print "The Koi wiggles, then leaps into the air to eat the cake."
    print "You can see it's happy, it then grunts, thrashes..."
    print "and finally rolls over and poops a magic diamond into the air"
    print "at your feet."
    return 'bear_with_sword'
  else:
    print "The Koi gets annoyed and wiggles a bit."
    return 'gold_koi_pond'

def bear_with_sword():
  print "Top of bear with sword function."
  print "Puzzled, you are about to pick up the fish poop diamond when"
  print "a bear bearing a load bearing sword walks in."
  print'"Hey! That\' my diamond! Where\'d you get that!?"'
  print "It holds its paw out and looks at you."
  give_it = raw_input("> ")
  if give_it == "give it":
    print "The bear swipes at your hand to grab the diamond and"
    print "rips your hand off in the process.  It then looks at"
    print 'your bloody stump and says, "Oh crap, sorry about that."'
    print "It tries to put your hand back on, but you collapse."
    print "The last thing you see is the bear shrug and eat you."
    return 'death'
  elif give_it == "say no":
    print "The bear looks shocked.  Nobody ever told a bear"
    print "with a broadsword 'no'.  It asks, "
    print '"Is it because it\'s not a katana?  I could go get one!"'
    print "It then runs off and now you notice a big iron gate."
    print '"Where the hell did that come from?" You say.'
    return 'big_iron_gate'
  else:
    print "The bear look puzzled as to why you'd do that."
    return "bear_with_sword"

def big_iron_gate():
  print "Top of big iron gate function."
  print "You walk up to the big iron gate and see there's a handle."
  open_it = raw_input("> ")
  if open_it == 'open it':
    print "You open it and you are free!"
    print "There are mountains.  And berries! And..."
    print "Oh, but then the bear comes with his katana and stabs you."
    print '"Who\'s laughing now!?  Love this katana."'
    return 'death'
  else:
    print "That doesn't seem sensible.  I mean, the door's right there."
    return 'big_iron_gate'

# A dictionary of functions to call.

ROOMS = { 'death': death,
  'princess_lives_here': princess_lives_here,
  'gold_koi_pond': gold_koi_pond,
  'big_iron_gate': big_iron_gate,
  'bear_with_sword': 'bear_with_sword'
  }

def runner(map, start):
  # Loop through the dictionary and call each function.

  print "Top of runner function." # For understanding what's going on. Remove 
later
  # next will be the first function of the dictionary.
  next = start
# I think that the condition will be False once we have no more functions to 
loop through.
  while True:
    print "Top of loop: next is now %s." % next # Remove later.
    room = map[next] # Get the name of the function we are going to call 
further down.
    print "Room is now %s." % room # Remove later.
    print "\n--------"
    next = room() # Call the function and get back what it returns.
    print "Bottom of loop: next is now %s." % next

# Call runner. Give it the dictionary, and which key to start with.
runner(ROOMS, 'princess_lives_here')

From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of R Dinger
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 2:17 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Python: A Program I'd Love To Understand

Jim,

Your dictionary entries are all of the form:
'key': target

Your keys must be immutable like a string, tuple, number and so forth.

Your target can be almost anything like a string, tuple, list, function and so 
forth.  Since your targets are not quoted, they are not strings.  In addition 
each target, like death, must have been defined previously in your current 
module or some module you have already imported.

HTH

Richard

The ----- Original Message -----
From: Homme, James<mailto:james.homme@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 10:59 AM
Subject: Python: A Program I'd Love To Understand

Hi,
I have lots of questions about the current Python exercise I'm working on, so 
I'll just ask one at a time. Hope you have lots of patience.

First question. I think I should be getting a compiler error but I'm not. I 
thought I had to put some sort of quotes around this code after the commas. Why 
is this compiling OK?

ROOMS = { 'death': death,
  'princess_lives_here': princess_lives_here,
  'gold_koi_pond': gold_koi_pond,
  'big_iron_gate': big_iron_gate,
  'bear_with_sword': bear_with_sword
  }

Thanks.

Jim

Jim Homme,
Usability Services,
Phone: 412-544-1810.


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