Watched a 2 hour Python tutorial and still got a syntax error on line 1

Spent my whole Sunday afternoon following this free Python course on YouTube, typing every line exactly as the guy did, and my very first print statement threw a syntax error because I used single quotes instead of double quotes. Turns out the video was made on Python 2 and I had Python 3 installed, so half the commands were outdated anyway. Has anyone else gotten burned by following old tutorials, and how do you check if a guide is still current before you invest hours into it?

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sandra6931mo ago

Funny you mention this, because I used to be all "just watch the video, follow along, who cares about versions." Then I hit the exact same wall with a Django tutorial from 2019, spent two hours fighting with urls.py and then realized the whole project structure had changed. Now I check the upload date, then look at the comments for people complaining about errors, and I always peek at the description for any "this is Python 2" disclaimers. Your mileage may vary, but I've had way better luck with written docs or tutorials that explicitly say what version they're using in the first minute. Also, if the guy is wearing a shirt from a conference that happened more than three years ago, I move on.