Just keep trying, Python is an awesome programming language
. It would probably help if you focused on reading and learning the
BeautifulSoup documentation first instead of directly trying to write an adapter with it for an existing codebase.
I heard great things about
http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ and it seems to be the way to go if you really want to get into Python programming nowadays. Don't let the name deter you, it's actually aimed at beginners. (And don't be confused by the price tag, it's free for you to read online)
That reminds me: Is there any reason why you are not updating the BeautifulSoup version Jimm? All the changes should be backwards-compatible and the new BeautifulSoup 4 has some new useful features and is more pythonic generally.