Python: Introduction for Absolute Beginners

Python: Introduction

for Absolute Beginners

Bob Dowling

University Computing Service

Scientific computing support email address:

scientific-computing@ucs.cam.ac.uk

These course notes:

www-uxsup.csx.cam.ac.uk/courses/PythonAB/

1

This is the UCS three afternoon course on Python for people who have no experience

of programming at all. We warn all those people who do have some programming

experience and who are here just to add the Python notch to their bed post that they

will be excruciatingly bored in this course. Those people who do already know how to

program in another language and want to learn Python are better off attending the

UCS ¡°Python: Introduction for Programmers¡± one day course. For details of this

course, see

Note that the UCS Python courses cover Python 2.4 to 2.6, which are the most

common versions currently in use ¨C it does NOT cover the recently released Python

3.0 since that version of Python is so new. In some places Python 3.0 is significantly

different to Python 2.x, and this course will be updated to cover it as it becomes more

widely used.

The official UCS e-mail address for all scientific computing support queries, including

any questions about this course, is: scientific-computing@ucs.cam.ac.uk

Course outline ¡ª 1

Introduction

Who uses Python?

What is Python?

Launching Python

Using Python like

a calculator

Types of value

Numbers

Text

Truth and Falsehood

Python values

2

So what will this course cover?

We will start with a brief introduction to Python, looking briefly at what it is used for and

how we launch it on the systems being used for this course.

Once we have it running we will start by using it as a glorified calculator to get us used

to its features. We will examine how it handles numbers, text and the concept of a

statement being true or false.

Course outline ¡ª 2

Using Python like

a programming

language

We will do

lots with lists.

Variables

if¡­then¡­else¡­

while¡­ loops

Comments

Lists

for¡­ loops

Functions

Tuples

Modules

3

But Python is there for us to use as a programming language so, after spending a

while using it as a manually operated calculator, we will start to use it as a fully-fledged

programming language.

As part ofd this we will look at how Python stores values and assigns names to these

stored values. We will look at the three fundamental constructs that will allow us to

build programs that actually do something. (¡°if¡­then¡­else¡­¡±, ¡°while¡­ loops¡±, and

¡°for¡­ loops¡±)

We will also spend a lot of time looking at how Python handles lists. There are two

reasons for this. First, Python uses lists a lot so we need to understand them. Second,

Python lists are the first example of a computer data structure that doesn't have any

analogue in the usual arithmetics.

Then we will look at writing our own functions that use what we have learnt. Functions

permit us to structure our code in a more maintainable fashion. We will look at how

Python groups related functions together and what groups of functions is provides

ready-made. These groups are called ¡°modules¡± in Pythonic language.

Course outline ¡ª 3

Interacting with

the outside world

Built-in modules

The ¡°sys¡± module

Reading input

Files

Storing data

in programs

Dictionaries

4

Once we know the rudiments of programming in Python we will look at the support

functions offered by the base Python system. These will let us access the system

outside of Python. The main example of this will be accessing the file system.

Finally we will look at one last, very powerful mechanism for storing data, the

¡°dictionary¡±.

What is Python used for?

Network services

Web applications

GUI applications

CLI applications

/usr/bin/command-not-found

Scientific libraries

Instrument control

Embedded systems

5

I want to start by convincing you that learning Python is worthwhile. Python is used for

every scale of operation. Here is a spectrum of examples running from the largest to

the smallest.

The Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) ¡°Eve Online¡±

supports over 300,000 users with a Python back end.



Two very common frameworks for web applications are Django (general purpose) and

Plone (content management). Both are implemented in Python.





On the desktop itself there are frameworks to build graphical applications in Python.

The two standard Unix desktop environments are called GNOME and Qt. Both have

Python support. There is similar support under Windows and MacOS.







There are plenty of command line programs written in Python. Some Unixes

(e.g. OpenSUSE) have a helper program they call when the user asks for a command

the shell doesn't know. That helper program is written in Python.

Within programs there are support libraries for almost every purpose including a very

powerful scientific python library called ¡°SciPy¡± (¡°Sigh-Pie¡±) and an underlying

numerical library called ¡°NumPy¡±.



Python is also used to control instruments (a simple robot is featured in the slide) and

is also used in embedded systems. The card shown is ¡°¡°¡­IEEE802.15.4 based, autoforming, multi-hop, instant-on, mesh network stack combined with an embedded

Python interpreter for running application code.¡±

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