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This is so easy, I wonder how it made all the way up to the front page.

I write these kind of mini-scripts all the time

It could be because the author took time to give a detailed explanation of how he implemented it. It shows to a beginner programmer that (s)he could automate simple tasks like this easily and a way to approach it.

Absolutely - I spend a fair bit of time on here, but I'm only a beginning programmer, using Python. This is exactly the sort of thing that inspires me, and also it's well written in terms of understanding for someone of my level. Obviously it's trivial to 99% of HN readers at a technical level, but I think there's room for this sort of thing.

I teach for a living (music technology), and it's incredible how badly a lot of things are explained (in all fields). Clear explanation and worked examples, combined with appropriate progression in difficulty is what makes for good learning, and I think this is a good example.

I would doubt your claim that 99% or HN readers are at a high technical level.

I spend a lot of time here, mostly in awe of the expertise of others and hoping to learn something from them.

Thanks, that makes me happy to hear! My goal with posts like this is to do exactly that, and I hope to post more things like it in the future.

HN isn't populated solely by hackers any more. Personally, I like reading stuff like this because it's "bite-sized" and doesn't take very long. It's also simple and clear enough for someone that doesn't have your god-level scripting skills to implement.

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