Re: can you improve this text-only beginner copy program?

On 8/27/2025 1:45 PM, Stefan Ram wrote:
> Ethan Carter <[email protected]> wrote or quoted:
>> You're right.  There's no written statement.  The exercise was suggested
>> by the teacher while in class.  It was something like ``write a program
>> that copies text files by getting source and destination via the
>> command-line.''
> 
>    Well then, I'd think about using "shutil", e.g., "shutil.copy".
>    Check it out in "The Python Library Reference"; it's 11.10.1 in
>    release 3.13.0a0.

It sounds like the main point of the exercise may have been to use 
command line arguments. The Original Post tried to do this in a 
complicated and clumsy (non-Pythonic) way.

Easier and more Pythonic would be to delete the def main() block and then:

if __name__ == '__main__':
     import sys  # could import this at start of file
     if len(sys.argv) == 3:
         copy(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2])
     else:
         print(usage(sys.argv[0]))

or perhaps easier to read:

if __name__ == '__main__':
     import sys  # could import this at start of file
     try:
         prog, src, dest = sys.argv
     except:
         print(usage(sys.argv[0]))
         sys.exit(1)  # or some other error code
     copy(src, dest)


>> But, yeah, if the Python community doesn't do that, it's all what you
>> say.
> 
>    Community or no community, in Python, you can have:
> 
> def f( s, S ):
>      return 2*s+S
> 
>    . Should the docs then say, "returns 2*S+S"?
> 
>> PS.  Is it just me or there's just us in this used-to-be-very-active
>> group?  Thanks for being my teacher here.  Have a good day!
> 
>    Thanks, you too!
> 
>    On one hand, many people seem to prefer websites for discussions
>    nowadays. On the other hand, if I had not responded, probably
>    someone else would have.
>