Large language models (LLMs), the generative AIs that respond to text-based questions, can be a useful resource for learning to program. This blog post is a simple list of LLM services that are free, do not require a credit card to use, and have a web interface. I'll update this blog post from time to time. Assume that free services may have daily usage limits, and that sites that don't require registration may limit how much you can use them before signing up for a free account.

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I created a Python terminal program that displays an ASCII art moon at the current moon phase. There are several command line arguments for changing the size, phase, or other properties. You can install it with pip install ascii_moon_phase and explore the source in the git repo. I used LLMs to port it to Rust for a static binary.

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An often ignored part of teaching people to code is also getting them comfortable with text editors. This is different from word processors; it's more than typing and more than learning keyboard shortcuts. One thing I found while live streaming code and narrating what I was doing was that I spent a lot of time moving text around: copy/paste, multiple cursors, using regular expressiosn with find-and-replace. These are skills that programmers kind of pick up over time, unless they stay permanently in a blind spot. So I made a silly little web game to practice these skills: Clipboardle.

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Tutorial hell is the frustrating cycle where people go through tutorial after tutorial, sampling different languages, tools, and frameworks, yet never feeling like they know how to write a program themselves. Programming never seems to click. This problem is made worse by AI-generated slop tutorials that copy the same vague, shallow text found in every other mediocre coding guide. Learners are left with what I call blank editor syndrome: the paralysis that occurs when you’re confronted with an empty file in a code editor and have no idea where to start. There are two pieces of advice commonly given to beginners: “Work on your own projects” and “Contribute to open source projects.” These aren’t bad pieces of advice, but they are certainly not without caveats. Here’s how to actually escape tutorial hell.

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The workbook of practice exercises for the 3rd edition of Automate the Boring Stuff with Python is now out. I've also put the questions and answers into flashcard format using my TSOFA flashcard app. Links to the flashcards for each chapter are below.

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As an elaborate joke, I created a program to play tic-tac-toe (also called “noughts and crosses” or “Xs and Os”) against the computer made up of nothing but if statements. Every possible move the computer could make in response to the player is hard coded into the source code of the program. While a normal tic-tac-toe Python program can be under 100 lines of code, this program is over 5,100 lines long. I gave it the humorous name My First Tic-Tac-Toe Program because this is exactly how someone with limited experience (but a lot of spare time) would make it. Download the source code.

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And now for something completely different... One of my hobbies is picking up trash. I never know if my code or my book writing is as good as it can be. Maybe there's some slight change that could make it run ten times faster or sell ten times as many copies. But an hour spent picking up trash is roughly as optimized as it can be, and there's always trash that needs to be picked up. It's meditative and it gets me outside while I catch up on podcasts. Anyway, here's a poem about eating garbage.

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PyAutoGUI is a GUI automation Python package I created and maintain. It allows your Python scripts to control the mouse and keyboard on Windows, macOS, and Linux. PyAutoGUI is featured in my book, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python (available for free online) and gained a toehold of popularity. With the rise of RPA (robotic process automation, which has nothing to do with robots and as far as I can tell is just another term for scripts that control the mouse and keyboard) I've been meaning to bring PyAutoGUI up to mature standards of features and documentation. As a first step in that direction, I decided to take a look at academics use of PyAutoGUI according to Google Scholar search results and write up my findings in this blog post.

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Anki, Quizlet, Brainscape... I dislike all these overcomplicated flashcard apps. I just want the software equivalent of index cards, so I created TSOFA - The Simple, Offline, Flashcard App. It's exists entirely in a single HTML file you can view in the browser. You can edit the flashcards directly in the file, using just text or HTML tags. Check out this demo. It also supports a CSV string for the flashcard content so you can import flashcards from other apps. Otherwise, it's just a simple, free flashcard app: No server, no ads, no registration, no premium features to pay for, no dependencies, no build process, no cloud sync. There are more details on the TSOFA webpage. You can suggest improvements or report bugs on the GitHub repo.

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I created an online video course that follows the first edition of my book, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. Here are all the ways to access the 50 videos of this course it for the lowest price possible:

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