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Stage 7: It Knows Things

Course progressStage 7 of 10
~40 min
Build

time, date, dice, and math skills, plus a colorful look

Learn

how Python's built-in modules and the rich package add real powers

Ship

an assistant that knows the real time and looks like a real app

The big idea​

Your assistant tells jokes you wrote, but it can't yet tell you anything real — like the actual time. This stage we plug into Python's toolboxes.

A module is a toolbox of ready-made code you bring in with import. You already used random. Now we add two more that come free with Python: datetime (the real date and time) and math (real calculations). This is the course promise made literal — no supercomputer, just standard libraries that are already on your Mac.

We also bring in our first installed package, rich, to make the terminal colorful. We grab its Console — think of it as the assistant's fancy printer — and use it to print a startup banner and a colored menu, so your program finally looks like an app, not a plain wall of text.

New words
datetime
A built-in module that knows the real current date and time.
math
A built-in module for real calculations, like math.sqrt for square roots.
rich / Console
An installed package for colorful terminal output. console.print() adds color.
Before you start

Make sure you finished Stage 6: It Tells Jokes, and that uv add rich requests ran back in Setup — we use rich for the first time here.

Build it​

Step 1 — Import the new toolboxes​

Add three imports at the top, then create one Console so we can print in color.

Python code task
Update your imports

assistant.py

Where it goes: At the top of the file, add these under your existing imports. Then add the console line below the imports.

datetime and math come with Python. rich was installed by uv in Setup.

import subprocess
import random
import datetime
import math
from rich.console import Console


console = Console()

Step 2 — Add the knowing skills​

Each new skill is a small function, just like before. datetime tells the real time and date; random.randint rolls a die; math.sqrt does a real square root.

Trace it

Trace the time skill

  1. datetime.datetime.now() asks the Mac for the exact moment right now.
  2. .strftime("%I:%M %p") turns that into readable text like "03:45 PM".
  3. speak(...) says it out loud.
Python code task
Add to your file

assistant.py

Where it goes: Add these four functions with your other skill functions, above the loop.

These use the modules you just imported. do_math asks for a number, then takes its square root.

def tell_time():
    now = datetime.datetime.now()
    speak("The time is " + now.strftime("%I:%M %p") + ".")


def tell_date():
    today = datetime.date.today()
    speak("Today is " + today.strftime("%A, %B %d") + ".")


def roll_dice():
    number = random.randint(1, 6)
    speak(f"You rolled a {number}.")


def do_math():
    number = input("Square root of what number? ")
    answer = math.sqrt(float(number))
    speak(f"The square root of {number} is {answer}.")

Step 3 — Give it a colorful look and wire up the skills​

Replace the plain "Hi! My name is Pixel." intro with a rich banner, update show_help to print its menu in color, and add the four new commands to the loop.

Think first

Why a Console?

We print the banner with console.print instead of plain print. What does rich's Console give us that plain print doesn't?

Check your thinking

Color and style. console.print understands tags like [bold green]...[/bold green] and paints the text, so the assistant looks like a real app.

Python code task
Update your file

assistant.py

Where it goes: Replace your show_help function with this colorful version, and replace the single 'Hi! My name is Pixel.' line with the two banner lines plus a spoken hello.

console.print paints the screen; speak still handles the voice.

def show_help():
    console.print("[bold cyan]I can do:[/bold cyan] hello, bye, joke, time, date, roll, math, help, quit")
    speak("Here are my commands. They're on the screen.")
Python code task
Update your file

assistant.py

Where it goes: Replace the old 'Hi! My name is Pixel.' line (just above 'name = input(...)') with these three lines.

Two colored banner lines, then a spoken hello.

console.print("[bold green]==== PIXEL ====[/bold green]")
console.print("[cyan]Your Python assistant is online.[/cyan]")
speak("Hi! I'm Pixel, your assistant.")
Python code task
Update your file

assistant.py

Where it goes: Add these four branches inside the loop, before the help branch.

Four new skills, four tidy calls.

    elif command == "time":
        tell_time()
    elif command == "date":
        tell_date()
    elif command == "roll":
        roll_dice()
    elif command == "math":
        do_math()

Run it. You get a colorful banner, and now time, date, roll, and math all work — with the time and date being the real, actual ones. Your assistant just stopped being pretend and started knowing real things about the world.

Understand it​

The big leap here is that your assistant now uses information it didn't have written into it. The time changes every second, and your code reads it fresh each time you ask. That's the power of modules: datetime is a toolbox the Python team already built and tested, so you get the real time with one line instead of writing a clock from scratch.

We added rich for a reason beyond looking nice: a program that's pleasant to look at is one people actually want to use. We kept rich for the display (banner and menu) and left speak in charge of the voice — each tool doing the one job it's best at. That separation keeps the code clean as it grows.

Try this​

Learning beat

Try this

Three short experiments. Predict before you run, then test your guess.

Predict first

Run the time command, wait one minute, and run it again. Will the answer be different? Predict, then test. Why is this different from a joke?

Compare

Change a banner color from green to magenta or yellow. Compare how the assistant feels with a different color scheme. Pick one that matches its personality.

Connect

Right now time only works if you type exactly time. What if someone types "what time is it?" Your assistant would be stumped. (Stage 8 teaches it to understand messy sentences.)

Test your stage​

Stuck? Compare carefully
Answer check
Debug compare only

assistant.py

Where it goes: Compare this against your whole file. Use it only if your program won't run.

This is the full file at the end of Stage 7.

import subprocess
import random
import datetime
import math
from rich.console import Console


console = Console()


def speak(text):
    print(text)
    subprocess.run(["say", text])


def greet(person):
    speak(f"Hello again, {person}!")


def say_bye():
    speak("See you later!")


def show_help():
    console.print("[bold cyan]I can do:[/bold cyan] hello, bye, joke, time, date, roll, math, help, quit")
    speak("Here are my commands. They're on the screen.")


jokes = [
    "Why did the computer go to the doctor? It caught a virus!",
    "Why was the math book sad? It had too many problems.",
    "What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear!",
    "Why do programmers prefer dark mode? Because light attracts bugs!",
]


def tell_joke():
    joke = random.choice(jokes)
    speak(joke)


def tell_time():
    now = datetime.datetime.now()
    speak("The time is " + now.strftime("%I:%M %p") + ".")


def tell_date():
    today = datetime.date.today()
    speak("Today is " + today.strftime("%A, %B %d") + ".")


def roll_dice():
    number = random.randint(1, 6)
    speak(f"You rolled a {number}.")


def do_math():
    number = input("Square root of what number? ")
    answer = math.sqrt(float(number))
    speak(f"The square root of {number} is {answer}.")


console.print("[bold green]==== PIXEL ====[/bold green]")
console.print("[cyan]Your Python assistant is online.[/cyan]")
speak("Hi! I'm Pixel, your assistant.")

name = input("What is your name? ")
speak(f"Nice to meet you, {name}!")
speak(f"Type commands, {name}. Type help to hear what I can do.")

while True:
    command = input("> ")

    if command == "quit":
        speak("Goodbye for now!")
        break
    elif command == "hello":
        greet(name)
    elif command == "bye":
        say_bye()
    elif command == "joke":
        tell_joke()
    elif command == "time":
        tell_time()
    elif command == "date":
        tell_date()
    elif command == "roll":
        roll_dice()
    elif command == "math":
        do_math()
    elif command == "help":
        show_help()
    else:
        speak("I don't know that one yet. Type help.")
  • A colorful banner appears when the program starts.
  • time and date say the real current time and date.
  • roll gives a number from 1 to 6, and math takes a square root.
  • Design check. Do your banner colors match your assistant's personality? Adjust until they feel right.
  • From memory. Without looking, write the line that gets the current time. Did you use datetime.datetime.now()?

If it breaks​

  • ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'rich'. Two things to check: you ran it with uv run assistant.py (not plain python), and uv add rich requests finished back in Setup. The uv run part is what loads rich.
  • The banner shows the tags like [bold green] instead of color. You used plain print instead of console.print. Only console.print understands the color tags.
  • math crashes with a ValueError. Someone typed words instead of a number. float("hello") can't become a number — try math again and type digits.
  • AttributeError on datetime. Use datetime.datetime.now() for the time and datetime.date.today() for the date — they're slightly different.