An example solution for A1 Q2

carmen.py

# COMP1117 A1Q2 sample solution
# By Raghu Saxena

result = []
previous_letter = 'a'
input_letter = input()
count = 0

while input_letter != '!':
    if input_letter == previous_letter:
        count += 1
    else:
        #If the count is zero, then we should not append it! 
        # (E.g. we type first letter as b, 'b' != 'a', but we never typed 'a')
        # So we do not append 'a' and 0 to our result.
        if count != 0: 
            result.append(previous_letter)
            result.append(count)
            count = 0

        count += 1
        previous_letter = input_letter
    
    input_letter = input()

# Again, we check if count is not zero before appending the final letter
if count != 0:
    result.append(previous_letter)
    result.append(count)

print(result)