Two basic Python programming questions
<p>It will probably astound you how basic these questions are, but please bear with me! And if there is a better place to ask, I would be appreciative for a migration.</p>

<p>I am looking at two Python tutorials, one of which is "Learn Python the hard way". I am in no condition to evaluate the quality of the tutorials, so I have a few questions. (I have only just started LPTHW so I apologize if the answer comes 20 exercises later.)</p>

<ol>
<li><p>In LPTHW, the exercises so far have been coding into Notepad++ and executing the txt document from a command line. In the other one, it was an "enter commands one by one into Python" tutorial. Question: which is more practical for a learner? "Both" is an acceptable answer.</p></li>
<li><p>In LPTHW, the first explanation of variables, the format character commands %s %d and %r are used. The exercise says "search the web to learn about all of them." I did a websearch and  found someone saying "Don't use those, use the new ones." Question: is LPTHW out of date in this way, and should I be using "new ones"?</p></li>
</ol>
