@timhutton thank you so much for doing this unfortunately I thought I was very technically advanced 30 year Internet user who knows how to code basic html but since I’ve come to mastodon I realized I’m a complete ignorant noob who doesn’t understand computers.

Can you explain the following to me which I don’t understand it’s like it’s a whole new language I’ve never learned before?:
“Open a command-prompt in that folder
python parser.py”

@HelloAndrew Command Prompt

A command prompt is a way of interacting with a computer by typing (and opposed to pointing and clicking).

(More specifically it is the bit where you type commands in a Shell which is displayed by a Terminal).

There are different shells which have various differences but the basics of them are mostly the same. Bash and Zsh are common shells.

How you open one depends on your operating system.

@HelloAndrew On a Mac I use Spotlight and type Terminal. On Linux flavours there will usually by some Terminal app in menu although it might be a little deep by default). On Windows you can use the search feature of the Start menu and look for PowerShell (which has its own flavour of shell).

In That Directory

At the command prompt type “cd” (change directory) followed by a directory name to go down into that directory. Use “..” as the directory name to go up a level.

@HelloAndrew You can also use ls (list) (or sometimes dir (directory)) to list the files in the current directory.

python parser.py

This is the command to run python (a program that executes scripts written in the Python programming language) followed by the name of the script (which will be in the directory you cded into). You will need to install Python to use it.

https://missing.csail.mit.edu/2020/course-shell/ might also be useful.

Hope this helps.

@HelloAndrew You’re welcome, it’s helping pass my commute. I’m probably providing more information than you need (I learn better with more context) which might be a bit overwhelming. Don’t let that discourage you. You know your way around a computer, this is just typing your way around instead of pointing.

The minimum to get up and running is:

1 Open the Terminal
2 Type “cd” then drag the folder on top of the terminal window (to enter its name) then press return
3 Run the Python command

@dorward @lizl_genealogy Hi David. Thanks for this tutorial. I think I'm getting close, but when attempting to run parser.py I'm getting the following error

line 36
f' Error: This script requires Python 3.6 or later.'
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

I just downloaded Python 3.11 so I'm wondering what I should do?