thondal

trying to write some python on my macbook, but when in idle I cannot make the \. Why? Everywhere else it works. Just not in idle, I can make every other characters even the /, but just not \. Can somebody help me please? Using macbook intel with OS 10.4.9 if that helps you in helping me.


-thondal-

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kurt

i'm a n00b programmer, but i'll try to answer anyway.

Are you trying to print out \ ?

Probably need an escape sequence to print it out, e.g:
\\
\"

Sane

Yes, Python, like almost all other languages, reserves the "\" character for identifying escape sequences. If you want to output a newline you print "\n", a tab is "\t", an alert is "\a", etc, etc...

You can get a complete list on all of the different escape sequences.

To output a slash, you can write, as kurt mentioned:

Escape sequences can also be used to output an apostraphe without closing your print statement:

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thondal

no.... i meant just the \.. at all in idle.. i can´t write it at all.. is this a common problem in idle..

I know enough python to know how to print it out.. problem is, i can´t write it at all when i´m in idle.. i can when i write it in word, and other places, like here.. i know it is the alt+command 7, but it won´t show when I try to write it...

-thondal-

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"die" he screamed at the polygon man. When he was done with him, only four points remained, a quad of what he once was.

DaWei

Hmmm. Are you saying there's not a key for it on your particular keyboard, and that a sequence that normally generates it is not being interpreted properly by Idle?

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thondal

well.. on my norwegian keyboard there is only one way to get it, and that is to do command+shift 7... but where is that button on the ameriac/us/english layout? because if there is a button for it there, then i could just change over to that kind of layout and write code.. got a picture of one?

-thondal-

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"die" he screamed at the polygon man. When he was done with him, only four points remained, a quad of what he once was.

thondal

Okay, so i just changed my keyboard layout to the us layout, and now i can use the \... hurray....

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"die" he screamed at the polygon man. When he was done with him, only four points remained, a quad of what he once was.

DaWei

Great. Incidentally, on a typical US keyboard the '\' is right below the backspace key. I'm mildly surprised that there isn't a dedicated key for it, given its common usage as a path delimiter, as well as (for programming-type users) an escape character.

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Arevos

I believe OS X uses the forward slash character as the standard path delimiter, so perhaps a Norwegian Macbook keyboard doesn't bother with having an easy-to-find backslash, as presumably it's rarely used.

thondal

well, i found it rather difficult to program in python(idle) when i have to use us layout, because i have no idea where the " are, and all the other stuff, it kinda gets upside down. So, think I have to find a norwegian forum for this one. Sorry to bother you guys, and Dawei, thanks for the quick reply.

-thondal-

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"die" he screamed at the polygon man. When he was done with him, only four points remained, a quad of what he once was.