Are you turning into a developer?
A colleague I respect asked me if I was learning to code because of fear/money/jobs. That is a very valid question. I'm working on a project that I'm more effective at testing with more scripts. I am a tester. This means I do my best to use all of the skills and tools that apply to do the best testing I possibly can. I also continue to grow as a tester. I am not a naturally talented coder, and as a creative person at times I've wanted to give up. Luckily, I've had some patient mentors willing to talk me down from the ledge at those moments. I'm proud of the work I'm doing because it is right for this project and also because I feel like what I am learning is making me a better tester. It is not making me a developer.

Since I've been working more with Python I can now understand Java better! I can read other people's code and follow it more often. I'm pleased that I can get test ideas from what I think is missing in the code, not just what I see that is there. I see why peer reviews work because when I code my focus is on making it work. Being good at testing does not mean you automatically test your own code. It is hard to learn good practices even when writing small test scripts. The good news is a CAN test my code, I just need to set aside a different time to do it and focus all of my energy on that. The trick to wearing multiple hats is to not try to wear them all at once. It makes your head overheat and looks silly.

In the past month I've gone from putting together scripts other people wrote and making a few edits to making some of my own scripts and pairing with other people so that I can collaborate on scripts. I'm at the point where I can make a function, then write a small test that uses that function. Later I can hook them all together without getting lost as easily as I was before. I am not making custom classes yet, but I can follow scripts that do without much trouble. Lists and arrays are making more sense to me. I am understanding appending lists and I can handle some strings now. I also am doing a bit of using numbers as strings and I can keep track of them now without a headache. I am at the point where I giggle at jokes from Pycon about lingerie because I remember typing Pythong at the command line on accident. I'm still early on in my script writing, but it has been an intense and productive month for me.

Numbers
Math in Python is easy to read, easy to do, and generally has been a joy!
Example:
def passFailResults(builds):
    if len(completed) > 0:
        myNum = len(completed)/len(sentBuild)
        perCom=myNum*100
        print "%.2f" % perCom, "%"
    else:
        print "No builds have a job status of completed."

Rounding
Rounding sucks so much. It confuses me and I never ever want to do it again. In fact, I hope to avoid it for my next project if I can at all. Deciding when you need to round and when you can just use the real number and only SHOW the rounded part is confusing to me still. It took me way too much time to figure out I wanted %.2f and not to really round.

Documentation
I wish that there was a line in the documentation or a warning that said: "This is possible. We include it because Python can do this. However, if you read it it will confuse you right now and it isn't likely you need this in MOST situations. It could be a photo of a girl in glasses with crossed eyes and her tongue hanging out in exhaustion. The "stay away" sign. Some of my worst mistakes have been making things too complicated and trying things I didn't need to do myself. Python isn't a big problem, but I certainly am. I can take something easy and over think it without much encouragement.

What Now?
Well, I'm working on some testing. I did coding for about 4 weeks straight with very little testing and I gained some new skills. I am glad I did so and I hope to work on some more evenly paced projects. I'd like to leave feeling like it was fun instead of beaten down and glad to survive. Sort of like singing and dancing though, you have to have some skills and know the basics before it starts to be fun. I realize this and if you don't practice you'll never be good enough to join the group in song, let alone contribute a memorable solo. I'm getting better at naming and keeping track of variables and scope. The key to me learning is having a real project that adds value to my testing. I'm learning only because I don't give up when it gets difficult.