Ok, so I'm writing a program for my work to automate some of my tasks, and have been bouncing around on what to use, (which language and how to handle the data). I work in the office of a construction company. I have some Js/Ts experience, so I figured it's best to go with what you know, but I know that for what I'm doing Py also has some good support, I just don't have any exp with Py, but am happy to learn.

Anyways, what I'm trying to do is automate our invoice intake process. Currently they get sorted and separated automatically in outlook (thanks, me) into their own folder. I have to go in every day and download them to the appropriate folder they go to, depending on which job they are for.

There are some slight exceptions, ofc, one or two companies send their invoices as excel spreadsheets, but 99% of the time it's a pdf, so I figure I can include logic that includes only pdfs. Also, one other exception is some invoices are for job Change Orders, essentially certain jobs realized "oh shit, we can't run this that way, we need to change it, but doing so costs extra T&M, so we have to bill separately. The way we handle that now is in the naming convention of the files, but I'll get back to that later, as it's a bit of a sticking point.

So, my current logic train is that I have to write something that follows these steps:

1. Download invoice from Outlook
2. Have OCR read invoice
   1. Return string for Job Number
   2. Return string for invoice number
3. Pull the string for the invoice # and what job it is for
4. Rename the File according to the info pulled via OCR
5. Move file to folder with matching job number

AFAICT number 1 is easy peasy. Number 2 seems not too unreasonable (I just today learned about Tesseract.js, and just last week heard of Tesseract.py . It's numbers 4 & 5 which seem a bit harder to me.

Basically, our Invoices go to a folder in our shared server directory labelled "Invoices" and then in that are a bunch of subfolders for each active job we have going. For example:

1. \Invoices
   1. 11111 - Washington HS
   2. 11112 - Adams MS
   3. 11113 - Jefferson HS

Our invoices get labelled according to their Company name and Invoice number, however, they come (usually) as pdfs labelled as just their invoice number. I have to add in the company name, and also replace and "-" with "." along with some other minor formatting things. Example:

1. 154873-005 ->
2. Porter - 154873.005

So Filepath looks something like this:

1. \Invoices
   1. Invoices\11111 - Washinton HS
      1. Acme - 154873.005
      2. Acme - 158762.001
      3. etc
   2. Invoices\11112 - Adams MS
      1. Porter - 178962.001
      2. etc

So, I was thinking if I'm doing this with Js, I could have a JSON file linking each job number to the filepath for its associated job, however I would like this to hopefully be a bit more dynamic than that. Seeing as the jobs in the invoices folders change, infrequently, but they do change, and I don't think it would be super practical for somebody nontechnical to maintain that, as I may not always be in office to do this when these jobs get added or subtracted.

So, where this gets a bit more difficult is Change Orders, essentially when we order material for a job, we tell them it's for job number 11111. If we have a change order, and are ordering material for that change order, we tell them it's for job number 11111x01, or 11111x02 and so on, depending on which change order number we are on. Although now that I think about it a bit more, it may just be handled by the OCR??

Anyways, sorry this is so long, but I wanted to make sure I covered everything, and think I got just about most of it. Any, and I mean any, help is appreciated and thank you so much for even reading this. Also, sorry if this is a bit all over the place.

The main things I'm hoping to get are more/better tools to accomplish this task, and more understanding of the data-stream here.

Hello everyone.

I would like to create a program that recieves product weights from an industrial weighing scale, store inventory into a database and ultimately store info into excel spreadsheets. I haven't coded in a while and will have to do a bit of relearning.

Our weighing scale is able to send info via FTP.

I would like suggestions on how you guys would go about making this program and what language you would use. Thanks.

Hi, so I don't have any idea what my career would be. I am a teenager who just got off HS and I still dont kbow what course to take, so I'm planning to try everything beforehand. I really wanna try coding, is there a way to learn it without ai or taking a course? I've checked tutorials, everything I see is with AI.

I want to know which YouTube tutorials will help me understand the topics best. I am trying to learn MERN stack but i am a complete beginner.

I'm a junior in this world of programming and code. Recently I watched a video talking about programmers and how AI is doing everything and is changing completely the role, from write or review code to supervise AI but not taking an important role. In the video, the youtuber said that the role of software engineer is like a fabric. The programmer just supervise the AI, touch a few buttons and make sure that everything is going well. Basically, AI is taking our jobs.

I am a little concern about this situation, because I am studying Informatic Engineer and learning new skills to become a Backend Engineer or Cloud Engineer. I'm passionate about this world of computers and code.

What do you think? AI is taking our jobs and programmers are going to disappear?

laid off in july after eleven years in logistics coordination. severance plus savings takes me to roughly the end of february if nothing breaks.

i have a partner who works and a five year old. we are not in danger and i want to be clear about that, because i know how these posts read. we are fine. what we are not is able to do this twice.

so i have about six months of full time hours and i am trying to work out whether six months of forty hour weeks is a realistic runway to employable, or whether everyone telling me it is has something to sell me.

i would rather hear it is not enough now than in february. i have handled worse news than that.

I'm heading off to uni in 2 weeks and I've heard personal projects can be pretty important for internships/spring weeks, so I'd love to get some feedback on a football game I've worked on.

I'd especially appreciate feedback on the code structure, readability, organisation and anything you think I should improve as I continue developing it.

https://github.com/willhe7/football-tactics-simulator

i saw this guy on tiktok making a quine code, and i challenged myself to make one too without looking at his solution

i was so happy when i got it to work, just made me realize i could probably use this to fill up the storage of a computer. like a trojan horse

anyways heres the code

x = 'print(f"x = {repr(x)}; {x}")'; print(f"x = {repr(x)}; {x}")

I have learnt python built some basic projects too, but now i want to use this skill to built something useful and what python is useful for so please any ideas.

I've been working at my cousin's company for a month and a half. The business provides chatbot services, builds chatbots, CRM systems, landing pages, and everything else a company with a website needs. I work on the technical side and provide support. Since it’s a relatively new company, we already have several clients: an auto parts distributor, a real estate agency, a cosmetic clinic, and a restaurant. But so far, I haven’t written a single line of code—we do everything with the Cursor agent. I just give it instructions, and it takes care of the rest. The “most difficult” thing I’ve done is securing an e-commerce site with Cloudflare. I want to learn programming well, since I’m a computer science student (seventh semester), and I was taking a Java course, but at the same time, I want to know if it’s actually necessary to be a skilled programmer these days, or if most companies operate this way nowadays.

so i am in need of helped. i got tutor online, who prefer an off hand approach to study. he tasked me to make tictactoe game in python and use elephant slice method, by which he means is to break the project into small steps and report and demo each progress.

i kinda understand how to report the progress, via git hub. however i dont understand how to demo the progress to him. i make the board for the game, push it to git hub, and he said 'too bad, if only i can run it on my pc'.

what should i do to demo my project progress?

Hi everyone,
I’m currently exploring NSDA (National Skills Development Authority) certification in Bangladesh and wanted to know about other people’s experiences.

For those who have completed an NSDA course or certification:

• How useful was it for getting a job?
• Is NSDA certification recognized by employers?
• Does it help with freelancing or career development?
• Which NSDA courses would you recommend for beginners?

I’d really appreciate hearing your genuine experiences and opinions.

I've been a self-taught everything(Woodworker, Chess Player, Programmer, Furniture Repairs...etc) ever since I last went to school. The one secret that kinda helped me learn things efficiently is, learn what you can use now.

See, a programming language is big. You should not try to cram all the syntax at once. You can, but that is not an effective way to go about learning something as deep and wide as a language. It could be a spoken language or any skill whatsoever.

It is important to follow a roadmap or some structure. Especially a structure that breaks what you are trying to learn into small tasks. Each task should consist of 2 main things. A lesson and practice.

In any programming language, there are two main parts. The language specific part and the computer science part. If you read through a programming language book, the computer science part is broken down into concepts that are not specific to any language. They are known as fundamentals.

So, you will learn about data concepts (variables and types) and then program something small that implements what you just learnt. Dont worry about deep concepts, you will get there. Then learn about collection concepts (lists and others). Program something small.

Approaching programming this way has been effective for me since 2017. Dont get me wrong, I did learn about advanced stuff I never implemented before. You will too. It's good to know what exists. But remember, if you want to learn effectively, chop down your skill into smaller tasks, learn and implement. Don't wait to implement after a while.

Today is my day 6 of learning Java and Backend Engineering from First Principles. Time flies and a part of me wants to rush the process... but I know that, that is not efficient for who I want to become.

I have reached the point where I want less learning and more building.

I have been working with JavaScript, Node.js, Express, MongoDB, and now React. I have built a full-stack project, but I still catch myself wanting to watch another tutorial whenever I get stuck.

I am trying to change that.

Instead of immediately looking for a tutorial, I want to get comfortable reading documentation, debugging, breaking things, and figuring them out myself.

For those of you who have made the jump from following tutorials to building your own projects, what helped you the most?

Hey all,

I’m currently working in Japan in the automotive industry, and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about trying to move into AI work.

With the way things are going globally, I’m also hoping to eventually find something in Europe or Australia if that’s realistic.

Right now I’m kind of stuck on what I should focus on first. Would it make more sense to spend more time on the theory side of AI, like algorithms and fundamentals, or should I be focusing more on practical stuff like AI applications, agents, and building projects with current tools?

My Japanese is just okay, and honestly my English isn’t that strong either, so I’m also wondering how much that might limit my options.

If anyone has gone through a similar career switch, or has any advice on what route makes the most sense, I’d really appreciate hearing your thoughts.

Thanks in advance.

For people who have been programming for a while, what mistakes did you make when you were just starting out?

I'm curious about things like:

• Trying to learn too many languages at once
• Watching tutorials without actually practicing
• Spending too much time trying to memorize syntax
• Starting projects that were too difficult
• Avoiding documentation or debugging

What is one mistake you made early on that you wish you had avoided?

Hi everyone,

I built that provides an LSP for intel 8085 microprocessor which is a part of syllabus for most universities, and the most used online editor(atleast, in our uni) was sim8085. But unfortunately, it missed an essential feature, an LSP. So, because of that I've ended up writing an LSP, that you can integrate with your nvim, or soon will be merged into sim8085, so no worries in that part. I'd love if you check it out and give it a star if you find it useful :).

https://github.com/shri-acha/lsp85

I've always been passionate about technollogy since i was a kid, and lately i choose to get inro an IT career (big mistake in the current market but I don't see myself doing anything else), yet my programming skills are very questionable becouse I don't understand the fundamentals of programming yet 100%, is there a language or program to understand programming from scratch without worrying about the syntax?, I want to get ready to start projects asap

So yesterday, i told a friend of mine that i was learning web dev stuff from TOP (the odin project), and well, he was just clowning on me about how i am wasting my time on learning it when AI can do all the work related to it anyway, tho i doubt it can do everything rn, it might just be capable enough in the future and he also suggested me to learn python.

Even though i have no qualms about leaving the web dev stuff, TOP is just too beginner friendly i suppose, they had me install a VM to run linux and code on it, so yeah. Just looking for answers and advice and maybe some free sources to learn python from.

Hey everyone,

I originally started Vermell about 4 years ago to understand how web frameworks actually work under the hood (sockets, routing, request lifecycles) in modern C++. I ended up pausing it for a while mainly because of security concerns with low-level networking and memory.

Recently, I picked it back up and have been auditing/refactoring the codebase with the help of some friends and AI tools to get it into better shape.

It’s lightweight, simple, and still evolving. If you’re learning C++ or want to see how these internals fit together without getting lost in a massive codebase, feel free to check it out.

Contributions of any kind are super welcome from reviewing security and testing edge cases to fixing docs or adding small features:

GitHub: https://github.com/vermellcc/vermell

Site: https://vermell.cc/

Any honest feedback, tips on the architecture, or security pointers would be awesome. Thanks!

What tool do you use to send push notifications in your app🤔? And what bothers you most about it😒?

My school taught us C++ syntax in our first year, but I still don't know how to actually use it to develop projects. Right now, the only development tool I have on my computer is VS Code. Our teachers told us to “put in a little more effort” and teach ourselves, use GitHub more, and ask AI questions. But even after learning the syntax, I still can't understand GitHub projects. I've also asked AI many questions, but I still haven't made much progress because I don't know how to ask questions beyond what I already understand. I feel like I'm still lacking a lot of developer knowledge and tools. What else should I learn? (The courses at my school still feel too theory-oriented. Now that I'm a sophomore, we've switched to Java syntax and web frontend development.) Are there any other developer tools I should learn and set up?

Hello! I am a high school student and I've been interested in programming but never had the motivation to learn how to code. I'm doing a school project where I have to create something. I would like to make a 3d Aim Trainer game but I don't know where to start. My only experience in coding is Roblox lua, but even then I'm mediocre. If anybody can give me tips, it would be very helpful.

how do you deal with resuming work on an older project that you didn't finish , i always forget why i did something even tho comments are available and my level of motivation is always lower than the motivation i initially started the projects with . it's a weird feeling that i think a lot of you have experienced or am i the only one?

do you have any tips dealing with this and how to quickly get back into the mood and focus mode

I need some guidance on how to structure a python snippet to use only specific values in one list of numbers to create an indefinite number of new lists from the first list. Example: baseline = [16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32] #sort out only numbers that = prime * 2^2, or are a power of two... that would leave 16, 20, 28, and 32. These would go into a list. I would like to make a special list per prime * 2^n. This could be a substantial number of new lists. For instance, 64 through 128 would have several tiers of 2^n to sort to separate lists.