script.py

import sys
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from time import sleep
import notify2

def display_notification(title, message):
    notify2.init("Init")
    notice = notify2.Notification(title, message)
    notice.show()
    sleep(4)
    notice.close()
    return

def is_valid_syntax(argv):
    if len(sys.argv) < 2:
        sys.stderr.write('Usage: python script.py <tags with spaces in between> \n')
        sys.stderr.write('Ctrl-C to close the program \n')
        return False
    else:
        return True

def is_valid_tag(tag):
    url = "http://stackoverflow.com/feeds/tag?tagnames=%s&sort=newest" % tag
    r = requests.get(url)
    if r.status_code == 404:
        sys.stderr.write('Please check the tag(s) %s \n' % tag)
        sys.stderr.write('The following url should not return 404: \n')
        sys.stderr.write('http://stackoverflow.com/feeds/tag?tagnames=%s&sort=newest \n' % tag)
        sys.stderr.write('Processing other tag(s)... \n')
        return False
    else:
        return True

def get_question_from_tag(tag, last_ques):
    url = "http://stackoverflow.com/feeds/tag?tagnames=%s&sort=newest" % tag
    r = requests.get(url)
    while r.status_code is not 200:
        r = requests.get(url)
    soup = BeautifulSoup(r.text, "html.parser")
    #Checking for the tag entry
    test = soup.find_all("entry")
    #the title of the question will be stored between the
    #title tag and we will take out that substring
    test_data = test[0].find('title')
    test_data = str(test_data)
    test_data = test_data[19:len(test_data) - 8] 
   
   #checking if the question is not new
    if last_ques[str(tag)] != test_data:
        display_notification("Question %s: " % tag.upper(), test_data)
        last_ques[str(tag)] = test_data

def main(argv):
    if is_valid_syntax(argv):
        try:
            tags = []
            last_ques = {}
            for i in sys.argv[1:]:
                if is_valid_tag(i):
                    tags.append(i)
                    last_ques[str(i)] = ' '
            while True:
                for i in tags:
                    get_question_from_tag(i, last_ques)
                sleep(60)
        except KeyboardInterrupt:
            sys.stderr.write('\nBye \n')
            return True
    else:
        return True

if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(main(sys.argv))