An Introduction to Programming with Python

Getting started with Python

• Discover what Python is, how to install it, and what it's useful for.

• History of Python

• Python's strengths and weaknesses; what is Python good for?

• Interpreted vs Compiled Languages

• Choosing an IDE

• What is a Jupyter Notebook?

Getting user input and printing messages

• Writing some simple programs that print out messages to screen

• Writing programs that respond to user input.

Conditional Statements

• Building Python programs that branch based upon a condition.

• We'll use the keywords: if, elif, else

Data Types

• Learn how Python differs from some other languages when dealing with different data types.

• Write programs that perform calculations

• Working with Strings to include:

  • Slicing strings

  • Formatting strings

Basic Data Structures

• Learn how to manage data with Lists, Dictionaries, Sets and Tuples

For Loops and While Loops

Programming with style

• Guido van Rossum, the author of Python, had a great eye for programming style. Learn how to write code that's easy to read, understand, and follows the conventions defined by Guido and the Python community at large.

Functions

• Learn how to write modular code that's easy to read and easy to maintain, using functions

• Understand the importance of naming functions well.

• Write functions that accept a parameter

• Yielding a result; and understanding what a generator function is

Importing Libraries

• Use built-in libraries: maths and random.

• Know the difference between "import random" and "from random import *"

• Learn how to do more complex tasks in Python by importing additional libraries.

• Use pip to download and install additional libraries.

Jupyter Notebooks

• Try out Jupyter Notebooks.

• By the end of this section, you should understand when an IDE is appropriate and when a Jupyter Notebook is the better choice.