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Replacing keystrokes using Python

I use a multilingual keyboard. Sometimes I write something in one language, forgetting to switch the keyboard layout (e.g. Alt+Shift in Windows) and getting gibberish, which I then erase, switch languauges and rewrite.
I thought of writing a script that replaces highlighted text automatically and assign a keyboard shortcut to it (in Linux). This is intended as a recreational project, and I'm a programming noob, so I don't yet know how to do most of it and I don't have code to share.
My concrete question is (assuming Python, but I haven't started yet so willing to consider alternatives):
Is there an efficient way to map keystrokes in one layout with keystrokes in another layout?
Right now my default idea is to create an explicit table of replacements, e.g. a<->ש, b<->נ etc.
But this would be neither pleasant nor elegant.
Any suggestions?
EDIT: I'll emphasize that I'm not asking about how to perform the actual replacement (e.g. via a dicitionary if using Python), but rather if there is a way to avoid writing an explicit table (dictionary or whatever) for each character in my keyboard.
For example, if there is a way to say "given the layout ENG (US), the letter 'a' corresponds to this phyiscal key right here on the left side of the keyboard, and this physical key, when using the HEB layout, corresponds to the letter ש".
If there's a way to do such a thing, I can write something like keyID = GetKeyID(char,layout) followed by altchar = GetChar(keyID,altlayout).
I hope this makes sense. Note this was only an example of what I might hope for, I'd be happy to hear other ideas!

Under spf13-vim, how to jump to next item in the loop

I am new to spf13-vim configuration. I have a basic problem; for example, when I am writing a python script, if I type "for" in vim console, I could see:
1 for item in <`2:items`>:
2 <`0`>
Then I can type any variable on "item", but I couldn't figure out how to jump to the next item, "<2:items>". How could I do that?

The direct answer to your question is: press Tab.
This feature is most certainly not provided by spf13 itself: it is provided by a snippet-expansion plugin that comes with spf13. Maybe it's SnipMate? Maybe it's UltiSnips? Maybe another one? Who even knows? You could simply look up up the documentation of that plugin but you can't, because you don't know what plugins you have.
Well, you are supposed to know what the plugins you add to your config that you manage yourself do and do not. But you don't, because you gave away that responsibility to someone else and you end up with a black box that contains and does things you have no idea about.
And the best part is that you don't even ask for help to the author/maintainer of that crappy distribution. They lured you into installing their stuff and giving control up, they are the ones who should help their poor, misled, users.
If you are serious about using Vim, drop spf13 immediately and take care of your configuration yourself.
If you don't care about doing things the right way, use another editor.

Press Ctrl+k to jump to the next item.

How to add a track to an iTunes playlist using Python and Scripting Bridge

I learned how to create a playlist in a previous question, but now I can't figure out how to add tracks to it. Right now I have:
tracks.sort(key=lambda tup: tup[0])
i = 0
for trackList in generatePlaylists(tracks,10):
i += 1
playlistname = str(i)
p = {'name': playlistname}
playlist = iTunes.classForScriptingClass_("playlist").alloc().initWithProperties_(p)
iTunes.sources()[0].playlists().insertObject_atIndex_(playlist, 0)
# Find the playlist I just made
for playlist in iTunes.sources()[0].playlists():
if playlist.name() == playlistname:
newPlaylist = playlist
# Add the tracks to it
for track in trackList:
print track[1].name()
iTunes.add_to_(track[1],newPlaylist)
My tracks are in a list of tuples tracks, where the first element of the tuple is a score and the second is the actual track object. generatePlaylists is an iterator which splits all library tracks into 10 lists.
The above code runs without error, but in iTunes the playlists are empty.

First, here's the short answer:
track.duplicateTo_(newPlaylist)
The problem is that iTunes.add_to_ sends the add command, which takes a file (alias) and imports it into a playlist; you want to send the duplicate command, which takes any object and makes another copy of the object. You don't have a file, you have a track. (You could get a file via track.location(), but you don't want to re-import the file, just copy the track over.)
Also, in this case, you need to call the method on the track, rather than calling it on the app and passing it the track.
The first half of this is hard to explain without a solid understanding of the iTunes object model (and the AE model underneath it). But you don't really need to understand it. In most cases, by looking over the iTunes scripting dictionary (in AppleScript Editor) and trial and error (in AppleScript Editor or with py-appscript) you can figure it out what you want. (Just make sure you're working on a scrap library, or have a backup…) In this case, the only commands it could possibly be are add, copy, duplicate, or move, so just try them all and see what they do. Or, alternatively, go to dougscripts and download a bunch of samples and find one that does what you want.
The second half of this, figuring out how to translate to ScriptingBridge… well, I can't explain it without going into a long rant on SB (which hhas does much better than me, if you want to read one). But the basics are this: As far as iTunes is concerned, duplicate is a command. If you give it a direct object (tell application "iTunes" to duplicate theTrack to thePlaylist) it'll use that; if not, you're asking the subject to duplicate itself (tell theTrack to duplicate to thePlaylist). It works exactly like English. But SB insists on an object-oriented model, where duplicate is a method on some object. So, only one of those two forms is going to work. In general, you can figure out which by just looking at dir(iTunes) and dir(track) to see which one has a method that looks like the command you want.
As you can tell from the above, you've got a lot of trial and error ahead of you if you're trying to do anything complicated. Good luck, and keep asking.
PS, I have no idea why your code fails silently. The obvious way the add_to_ method should translate into a command should raise a -1708 error (as appscript iTunes.add(track, to=newPlaylist) or AppleScript add theTrack to newPlaylist both do…).

Dynamic key binding in python

I am making a drawing program in python with pygame right now. The interface is supposed to be vimesque, allowing the user to control most things with key presses and entering commands. I want to allow live binding of the buttons; the user should be able to change which keycode corresponds to which function. In my current structure, all bindings are stored in a dictionary of functions to keycodes, 'bindingsDict.' Whenever the main loop receives a KEY_DOWN event, I execute:
bindingDictkeyCode
Where keyCode is stored as an integer.
This works, but it seems to be taking a lot of time and I am having trouble thinking of ways I could optimize.
Does anyone know the big O run time of dict look ups? I assumed because it hashed it would run in ln(n) but there's a huge difference in performance between this solution and just writing a list of if statements in the mainloop (which does not allow for dynamic binding).

It is rather unlikely that dictionary search for response to a user event would cause any noticeable delay on the program. There is something going wrong in your code.
Btw, dict and set search in Python is O(log(1)) - but for 105 keys, or even, if you count modifiers applied, about 1000 different keybindngs could be searched in linearly (that is, if the search was O(N) ) without a noticeable delay, even on a 5 year old (desktop) CPU.
So, just post some of your code if you want a solution for your problem. (reading the comments I've noticed you found something else that seems to be responsible already)

How do you make it possible to make accounts? Python

I want to make a simple game on python, all text based. Sort of an interactive story with puzzles etc. but it is likely to be long. I want to be able to it possible for poeple to sort of, 'Save Progress'. Perhaps assign them selves a name etc? I am new to Python and am wondering if it is possible to set up a bank containing details of game play that can be accessed by entering a username and so will load the correct area of the code to allow the player to pick up where they left of.
Say they decided to quit the game just after... say, finding a clue to a murder. The computer would store the line of code they were on and get them to enter their name. Next time they could select 'Load' from the start up menu and then enter their name. The computer would then search for their name and pull up the peice of code they were at and continue as normal from there.
I am new at this so please try and explain simply. I can make a menu etc. no problems with the if's etc and make the story it's self. It is just the loading I want to add.
I hope this isn't tooooo complicated!? Please help me!

You should check out the pickle module. It allows you to store/retrieve any python object. One way to do this would be to have your game take place in a class, where all of the states/etc were members of that class (or derived classes). When they wanted to save you would just pickle your class!
You are pretty new to python, I would recommend reading the documentation provided here: http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ .
Python tries to be both easy to learn and comprehensive. Most questions answer themselves!

Depends on how you create your game...
Do you follow the tree of decisions that the user took in the game? If so you save the decisions in a file, that you save to a location (for example "saves/{username}/{name_of_save}.sav or just "saves/{username.sav} if every username should have only one save, but this is just a example it all depends on you). You could then allow them to select their save file and then simulate the actions from the file till you reach the point where the last decision took place.
If you would like to easily save the data to the file(s) you could also use a format like JSON, which python has built-in support for - read more at http://docs.python.org/library/json.html . This will allow you to easily create objects that you want to save/read from the file and use for processing.
Hope that helps...
Just a Idea, I have not actually tried anything like this

Take a look at http://www.sqlite.org/ or use plain text files for the beginning:) you could use the username:bitfield to encode you progress. Or use the ConfigParser module for Python and create a scetion for each user:) have fun learning:)