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chuckablack edited this page Dec 14, 2020 · 18 revisions

Welcome to the python-52-weeks wiki, in which I attempt to describe what this course is all about, and how to develop code as I have done, in the videos you may be viewing.

Introduction

Let me begin by pointing out a few important things:

  • Goal My goal with "52 Weeks of Python" is to create a lesson per week, for an entire year, each between 30 and 45 minutes, teaching how to write code, specifically in the Python programming language.

  • Timing The general cadence for these 52 lessons appearing, is one per week. However, I have already recorded about 9 lessons, so those are available now, as of this writing on Nov. 16, 2020. I am splitting time between writing "quokka" code, and doing these lessons, but I'm hoping to juggle these while staying at one lesson per week.

  • Work in progress... As I write this, the code here is complete and has been recorded for the first 9 lessons, and that means that the code up through and including "m01_basics/l_06_comparisons" has been completed. There is other code for later lessons that I've written, but those are still in progress, and may change, as I continue to write the teaching code, and record the lessons.

Development Environment

Every software development effort will involve a development environment. If you've done small Python scripts before, then you may have just used a text editor like notepad, nano, vi, or whatever. As you become more of a "real" developer, you will want to use tools which make your life so much easier. These tools often:

  • Syntax-check your code to find errors
  • Color-code your Python statements to show keywords, strings, built-in functions, etc.
  • Highlight code blocks, functions, words, etc.
  • Help you search or search/replace strings in your code
  • Run and debug your code

There are a number of free and for-fee tools, some of which are advanced and fall into the "IDE" (Integrated Development Environment) category. I use PyCharm, Community Edition, which is free, and which seems to be preferred by many Python projects these days.

You can choose whatever you like, and you feel comfortable with. But in the lessons, you will see me using PyCharm.

Getting Started With PyCharm

If you do choose PyCharm, but are unsure how exactly to install it and get it up and running, here are a few steps:

  • Download "PyCharm Community Edition". A quick google search should take you to the page for downloading it.
  • Note that you can run PyCharm on whatever platform you choose - Mac, Windows, Linux.

You'll see me developing on Linux, because that's where I'm writing quokka and on which I've installed the open source stuff quokka and "52 weeks" have been installed. But if you just want to get started in your most comfortable environment, you can install and write your beginning code on whichever OS you prefer.

  • Open PyCharm. When you do this for the first time, you will be asked if you want to open an existing project, or create a new one. If you just want to start writing code, you can create a new one.
  • Once inside PyCharm, you should be able to find your way around, creating a new python file, writing some code, etc.
  • You'll want to run your program - you can do this from within PyCharm - the green right-facing triangle that looks like a "play" button is how you do this.

I'm not going to be able to give you a detailed description and tutorial on PyCharm, but good news - PyCharm has that kind of information. A quick google search for something similar to "writing your first python program pycharm" should get you going quite nicely.

Here are some other topics that may be of interest:

Here is a link to the tentative lesson plan for this course, which I will (hopefully) keep maintained and updated. But be aware that it is subject to change - thanks!)

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