When you're ready to learn to program, Python is a great language to start with. It has a straightforward syntax, you'll find it easy to learn, and it's extremely versatile. Once you master the basics, you'll appreciate Python's very strong online community where you can continue learning and tinkering with more advanced programming techniques. All you need is some help to get going. Learning to program with Python doesn't have to be difficult, in fact it can even be fun. This book will get you started!
Learn Programming is an introduction to programming using one of the most popular programming languages. The first few chapters give you a quick background to programming concepts and a hands-on guide to setting up your programming environment. You will then be gently introduced to the basics of programming, building up to writing your first programs! This easy-to-follow tutorial is full of exercises to practice and reinforce each new concept, as well as to give you confidence that you are ready to move on to the next lesson. As you progress, you'll learn programming topics and concepts that are ubiquitous across almost all other programming languages. By the end of the book, you'll have a solid grasp of how to write programs as well as programming best practices.
Unit 0 Python and Your Programming Environment
1. Lesson 1 Why Should You Learn Python?
1.1. Introducing Python
1.2. Why you should care about Python
1.2.1. A general purpose language
1.2.2. Writing in Python is intuitive
1.2.3. Challenges in Using Python
1.3. Where you are now and where you will be
1.4. Our plan for learning Python
1.4.1. First Steps
1.4.2. Practice, practice, practice, practice
1.4.3. Thinking like a programmer
1.5. Summary
2. Lesson 2 Understanding your Programming Environment
2.1. Different Python Versions
2.1.1. Python Version 3.5
2.1.2. Downloading Python Version 3.5
2.1.3. Anaconda Python Distribution
2.1.4. Integrated Development Environments
2.2. Setting up your Workspace
2.2.1. The IPython Console
2.2.2. The File Editor
2.3. Summary
Unit 1 Programming Overview, Objects, and Statements
3. Lesson 3 Basic Principles of Learning a Programming Language
3.1. Programming as a Skill
3.2. A Parallel with Baking
3.2.1. Understand the Task "bake a loaf of bread"
3.2.2. The Recipe
3.2.3. Visualizing the Recipe with Flowcharts
3.2.4. Use an Existing Recipe or Make One Up?
3.3. Think, Code, Test, Debug, Repeat
3.3.1. Understanding the Task
3.3.2. Visualizing the Task
3.3.3. Writing Pseudocode
3.4. Writing Readable Code
3.4.1. Using Descriptive and Meaningful Names
3.4.2. Commenting Your Code
3.5. Summary
4. Lesson 4 Python Variables and Expressions
4.1. Giving Names to Things
4.1.1. Math versus Programming
4.1.2. What the Computer Can and Cannot Do
4.2. Introducing Python Variables
4.2.1. Objects are Things that can be Manipulated
4.2.2. Objects have Names
4.2.3. What Object Names are Allowed?
4.2.4. Creating a Variable
4.2.5. Updating a Variable
4.3. Summary
5. Lesson 5 Object Types and Python Statements
5.1. Types of Things
5.2. Basic Type of Objects in Programming
5.2.1. Integers as Whole Numbers
5.2.2. Floating Point as Decimal Numbers
5.2.3. Booleans as True/False Data
5.2.4. Strings as Sequences of Characters
5.2.5. NoneType as the Absence of a Type
5.3. Working with Basic Types of Data Values
5.3.1. Building Blocks of Expressions
5.3.2. Converting Between Different Types
5.3.3. How Arithmetic Impacts Object Types
5.4. Summary
6. Lesson 6 CAPSTONE PROJECT: Your First Python Program
6.1. What You Know so Far
6.2. Your First Programming Task: Convert Minutes to Hours
6.2.1. Think-Code-Test-Debug
6.2.2. Divide your Task
6.2.3. Implement the Conversion Formula
6.3. Your First Python Program: One Solution
6.4. Your First Python Program: Another Solution
6.5. Checkpoint Exercises
6.6. Summary
Unit 2
7. Lesson 7 String Objects
8. Lesson 8 Simple Error Messages and Tuple Objects
9. Lesson 9 Interacting with the User
10. Lesson 10 CAPSTONE PROJECT: Name Mashup
Unit 3
11. Lesson 11 Introducing Control Flow in Programs
12. Lesson 12 Making More Complicated Decisions
13. Lesson 13 CAPSTONE PROJECT: Choose Your Own Adventure
Unit 4
14. Lesson 14 Repeating Tasks with Loops
15. Lesson 15 Customizing Loops
16. Lesson 16 Repeating Tasks while Conditions Hold
17. Lesson 17 CAPSTONE PROJECT: Escape the Maze
Unit 5
18. Lesson 18 Building Programs to Last
19. Lesson 19 Achieving Modularity and Abstraction with Functions
20. Lesson 20 Advanced Operations with Functions
21. Lesson 21 CAPSTONE PROJECT: Analyze Your Friends
Unit 6
22. Lesson 22 Introducing Collections of Data
23. Lesson 23 Python Lists
24. Lesson 24 Python Dictionaries
25. Lesson 25 Aliasing an Object
26. Lesson 26 CAPSTONE PROJECT: Plagiarism Detector
Unit 7
27. Lesson 27 Introducing Python Objects and Classes
28. Lesson 28 Working with Classes
29. Lesson 29 Object Oriented Programming
30. Lesson 30 CAPSTONE PROJECT: The Solar System
Unit 8
31. Lesson 31 Debugging
32. Lesson 32 Useful Libraries
33. Lesson 33 File Input and Output
34. Lesson 34 What is a GUI
35. Lesson 35 CAPSTONE PROJECT: Traffic Simulator
36. Lesson 36 What's Next?
37. Lesson 37 CAPSTONE PROJECT: Movie Picker
Appendixes
Appendix A: Python Cheat Sheet
Appendix B: Interesting Python Packages
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