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Beginning Python programming.

start

No knowledge of computer programming at all required. Just the will to learn an awesome, modern and popular programming language.

goals

Understand how the Python interpreter works in a basic manner. Create small useful Python scripts.

Introduction

The aim of this Lpath is to guide the student through a series of videos showing how to get started with python, search for resources, program in python, and prepare for more advanced python subjects.

Study skills

Regardless of what you are studying, this Lpath should help you find your own study method in order to successfully achieve your career goals.

A Private Note

Create learning path of Studying skills for programming.

Have the required resources handy

These video screencasts will teach you how to find resource for learning python and stay updated.

Resources for Python Newbies

by Ian Ozsvald added 02/07
A short introduction to the on-line world of resources for Python programmers, targetted at newbies but probably useful for anyone in the Python world.

The basics

Syntax

python syntax is all about simplicity. Let Ian Ozsvald guide you through python 2.x syntax and introduction to the language's features.

Python Beginners - What Does Python Look Like?

by Ian Ozsvald added 06/08
If you're coming to Python from a different language then you'll want to know how the syntax looks. If you're new to programming then you'll probably want an idea of what to expect too! Here I give you a high-level view of Python's code and common functions and I link to examples from Java, C and C++ to provide comparisons.

python terminology is similar but half different from compiled programming languages like C. Gasto introduces python terminology in order to build the base of vocabulary necessary to begin reading documents about python programming.

Python Terminology - introduction -

by gasto added 03/09
Python Terminology (bite-sized chunks). Is a series of videos that show specific terminology in bite-sized chunks. Being a beginner, you might find yourself hindered to learn from articles and screencasts that already expect you to understand Python programming terminology. The tutor might use a word that might confuse you if you haven't heard it before. This video series helps in acquiring that [...]

Flow control

Being able to control the flow of the program depending on weather a state on a variable is true or false, or weather a container has or not any elements left is useful bifurcating the program and founding the building blocks for complex applications.

Python Beginners - the 'if' statement

by Ian Ozsvald added 01/09
This short series introduces logic in Python by showing you the 'if' statement. Logical control is fundamental to your control of Python programs, this series will quickly introduce you to the basics.

Python Beginners - Loops and Iteration

by Ian Ozsvald added 07/08
Iterating over a block of code is a very common operation when programming. Here I show you the 'for' and 'while' commands in Python, they let you iterate over a sequence of items and repeat blocks of code under a truth condition. I'll show you how to use the 'for' loop on a list, set and dictionary whilst using iteration, range and enumerate. For the 'while' loop I'll show you an example of ge [...]

Containers

a feature of high-level programming languages, containers are place holders of items(objects) of different functionality. Getting acquainted with these is of utter importance in a very high-level language such as python.

Join Club ShowMeDo to Learn Python!

This series is a part of Club ShowMeDo. Click to learn why you should join our club with a simple monthly subscription.

  • We teach Python and all the cool modules
  • Topics include beginner Python, GUIs, Web and Desktop Apps
  • Long, specially crafted video tutorials just for you
  • Club video tutorials extend our normal Free content
  • Save your time - we've done the research for you
  • Keep your skills up-to-date
  • Learn at your own pace, everything you need is shown to you
  • Over 12 hours of archived material are waiting for you in the club
list

list

by Ian Ozsvald added 07/08
Lists are a container type. Unlike in some languages you don't need to pre-declare them (this is true for all datatypes in Python) and you can manipulate them (e.g. changing their size) on the fly. Lists can hold multiple copies of the same item, they can hold different datatypes at the same time and they can be sorted very efficiently. I show you how to build up a list, sort it, reverse it and [...]

Join Club ShowMeDo to Learn Python!

This series is a part of Club ShowMeDo. Click to learn why you should join our club with a simple monthly subscription.

  • We teach Python and all the cool modules
  • Topics include beginner Python, GUIs, Web and Desktop Apps
  • Long, specially crafted video tutorials just for you
  • Club video tutorials extend our normal Free content
  • Save your time - we've done the research for you
  • Keep your skills up-to-date
  • Learn at your own pace, everything you need is shown to you
  • Over 12 hours of archived material are waiting for you in the club
set

set

by Ian Ozsvald added 07/08
Sets (wikipedia) are used to hold a set of unique items - you can't have more than one of an item at once. Sets became standard datatype in Python 2.4 (before they were included but you had to import them). You can do set-like operations such as get the union or difference of two sets. One difference to a list is that you can't index into a set - nothing has a 'position' in a set so you can't a [...]

Join Club ShowMeDo to Learn Python!

This series is a part of Club ShowMeDo. Click to learn why you should join our club with a simple monthly subscription.

  • We teach Python and all the cool modules
  • Topics include beginner Python, GUIs, Web and Desktop Apps
  • Long, specially crafted video tutorials just for you
  • Club video tutorials extend our normal Free content
  • Save your time - we've done the research for you
  • Keep your skills up-to-date
  • Learn at your own pace, everything you need is shown to you
  • Over 12 hours of archived material are waiting for you in the club
dict

dict

by Ian Ozsvald added 08/08
The dictionary (dict) datatype is also know as an associative array. We use a dictionary to build up a key-value mapping. They are useful for very fast lookups (such as when caching) and for mapping general items together. Keys can be most normal datatypes but they have to be immutable - this means that you can't use a type such as a list as a key. Keys also have to be unique. I show you how t [...]

Join Club ShowMeDo to Learn Python!

This series is a part of Club ShowMeDo. Click to learn why you should join our club with a simple monthly subscription.

  • We teach Python and all the cool modules
  • Topics include beginner Python, GUIs, Web and Desktop Apps
  • Long, specially crafted video tutorials just for you
  • Club video tutorials extend our normal Free content
  • Save your time - we've done the research for you
  • Keep your skills up-to-date
  • Learn at your own pace, everything you need is shown to you
  • Over 12 hours of archived material are waiting for you in the club
tuple

tuple

by Ian Ozsvald added 08/08
Tuples are quite similar to lists (as shown earlier). You can bundle several items together which are passed around under one variable, this can be handy. I'll show you how they work and discuss how they're similar to lists. You might find that you want to ignore them when you're first learning Python and instead focus on using lists, it'll be useful to you to know the syntax for tuples of cour [...]

Paradigms

procedural

object oriented

IPython

Ipython is easy to experiment with, and highly recommended for shortcuts and finding out library functionalities.

Subsection

etc..

Get ready for more advanced subjects

its good to send the user off on a further adventure:

Intermediate Python Programming

by Ian Ozsvald and Horst Jens and Lucas Holland and gasto and John Montgomery and Kyran Dale and Jeff Rush and André Roberge added 04/09
You will understand how to structure larger programs and you'll have some full examples to work through

The RST-script for this Learning-path

The script below was used to generate the learning-path page above. 

===========================================================
Beginning *Python* programming.
===========================================================


.. authors::  71 79 3253 11 8 709 22

.. |Lpath| image:: http://showmedo.com/static/images/ab_path.png

.. |python| image:: http://showmedo.com/static/images/userUploads/24.gif




.. contents::



start
=====
No knowledge of computer programming at all required. Just the will to learn an awesome, modern and popular programming language.

goals
=====
Understand how the Python interpreter works in a basic manner.
Create small useful Python scripts.

Introduction
=================
The aim of this |Lpath| is to guide the student through a series of videos showing how to get started with |python|, search for resources, program in |python|, and prepare for more advanced |python| subjects.

Study skills
===============
.. smd-image:: 23
      :imageclass: float-center

Regardless of what you are studying, this |Lpath| should help you find your own study method in order to successfully achieve your career goals.

.. smd-note:: A Private Note
    :class: private

    Create learning path of Studying skills for programming.

Have the required resources handy
==================================
These video screencasts will teach you how to find resource for learning |python| and stay updated.

.. series:: 27

The basics
================
Syntax
------
|python| syntax is all about simplicity. Let Ian Ozsvald guide you through |python| 2.x syntax and introduction to the language's features.

.. series:: 275

|python| terminology is similar but half different from compiled programming languages like C. Gasto introduces |python| terminology in order to build the base of vocabulary necessary to begin reading documents about |python| programming.

.. series:: 695


Flow control
------------
Being able to control the flow of the program depending on weather a state on a variable is true or false, or weather a container has or not any elements left is useful bifurcating the program and founding the building blocks for complex applications.

.. series:: 405

.. series:: 296

Containers
-----------

a feature of high-level programming languages, containers are place holders of items(objects) of different functionality. Getting acquainted with these is of utter importance in a very high-level language such as |python|.

.. video:: 750
.. video:: 751
.. video:: 752
.. video:: 753

Paradigms
-----------
**procedural**

**object oriented**



IPython
================
Ipython is easy to experiment with, and highly recommended for shortcuts and finding out library functionalities.

Subsection
----------

etc..

Get ready for more advanced subjects
====================================

its good to send the user off on a further adventure:

.. path:: 12

Thank-yous, questions and comments

If this video tutorial was helpful please take some time to say thank-you to the authors for their hard work. Feel free to ask questions. Let the author know why their video tutorial was useful - what are you learning about? Did the video tutorial save you time? Would you like to see more?

You may also want to see our ShowMeDo Google Group to speak to our active users and authors.

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Show some quick comments >>








All comments excluding tick-boxed quick-comments

Josh Sun, 23 May 2010 20:18

I was really excited to start learning to code, but the link never opened. This seemed like the perfect start but... nada


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