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Comment by moribunda | Hacker News Reader

Manipulating csv has become way easier than it was.

You have: 1. Spreadsheets where you can import this data and manipulate it visually 2. CLI tools made especially to work on csv, with fancy colors, shortcuts, examples 3. Visual tools for data analysis like google data studio, power bi etc. Where you basically dragon drop the data and pick charts 4. RStudio where you can load your data using file->open and then copy some simple commands to work on it 5. No-code tools where you can copy paste the data and add functionality by clicking through tutorials 6. All kinds of online notebooks where you don't have to install pandas...

It has not became harder.

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swear to god if one more person talks about the specifics of this illustrative case, and then goes on to explain how they are so silly and should have used tool "xyz" my head is going to explode

You don't need to use any tool, it's a general purpose programming language, so "making a script to analyze csv" requires you to learn the basics of programming and what csv is.

It's not unnecessarily complex, but expecting people to handhold and teach you programming for free when you haven't shown any commitment to learning is silly. If you were to do this, you will essentially be writing programs for clueless people for free and they just move on(they may not learn anything).

If you want to learn programming join a bootcamp or a hacker group or get a formal education(where people will be paid for this).

I'm not sure if you've read my comment.

I was replying to your: > Yes, it's incredibly complex. It doesn't have to be

It's not complex.

Python does not know what a CSV file is. It doesn't know what a JPEG is. If you want to work with these things you have to tell Python what they are. If you want to use a library to do that you need to know how to install a library such that Python knows what it is and where it is.

You can play around in Photoshop because and get decent results because it already knows what a JPEG is. All of the tools are built around working with 2D images and share a set of abstractions. You might do a shitty job but you're not likely to break your image or be unable to do anything.

Python is not "Photoshop for CSV files". It's not Photoshop for anything. So you must learn some basics to use it an Aella decided learning was stupid and she could just copy and paste her way through the process.

A rational person confronts by terms they didn't understand in some instructions would take a step back and realize maybe they were missing some fundamentals.

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