Working with Python - Introductory Level

Learn to think like a computer scientist with of one of the world's most popular programming languages

Course Summary

Who Is This Course For

  • This course is perfect for absolute beginners with no previous programming experience. 
  • It's also great if you know an existing programming language and want to become skilled in Python.

Requirements

  • No programming experience required 
  • A Windows, Linux, or Macintosh computer 

What You Will Learn

  • Learn the basics of Python, one of the most popular programming languages in use today
  • Learn about the difference between Object-oriented and procedural programming
  • Learn best practices when writing Python code
  • Learn how to create a virtual environment to isolate your program and make it easy to install
  • Learn the syntax of the Python language by writing a text-based adventure game
  • Learn to think like a computer scientist: making decisions, looping logic, and performing calculations
  • Learn how to build a terminal-based Python program

Description

Python is one of the world's most popular programming languages, and with good reason: it is extremely flexible, easy to learn, and runs on a wide variety of devices and platforms. In fact, Python recently moved to first place in the TIOBE programming community index, which is a remarkable achievement.

This course is an introduction to Python, version 3.10. Unlike many introductory courses, we will not spend hours surveying the basics of the language; personally, I see no point in doing that, since there are already many, many free resources online that do precisely that. Instead, we'll learn the language in the way that I have long preferred: we'll actually build something.

The bulk of this course will be focused on building a simple text adventure game, where the player explores a labyrinth, encounters monsters, engages in combat, finds items, and that sort of thing. It's a bit of a throwback to the early days of computer games, but the important thing here is not the quality of the game that we'll build, but rather that we'll cover all of the things you need to get started programming in Python, including:

  • Python's primitive data types: integer, float, string, and boolean 
  •  Python's aggregate data types: tuple, set, dictionary and list 
  •  How to make decisions in Python: if/elif/else  
  • How to loop in Python: for and while loops  
  • How to write functions  
  • How to import from the standard library, and third party packages  
  • How to structure a Python program  
  • How to perform mathematical operations in Python  
  • How to manipulate strings in Python  
  • How to work with classes in Python

And, as the saying goes, much more. Periodically, I'll include "aside" lectures, which focus on a particular aspect of Python in more detail, with simple code examples that are not part of the main project.

 This course requires no previous programming experience.  

Course Pricing

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$11.99 CAD

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Course Curriculum

Trevor Sawler

Trevor has more than twenty years of experience in professional software development, and over 30 years of experience as a university professor. As an entrepreneur, he has worked with a broad range of clients, including Thomson Nelson, Hewlett Packard, the Royal Bank of Canada, Keybank, Sprint, and many, many others. He also has extensive management and project management experience. He has led teams of fifty developers and artists on multi-million dollar projects, and much smaller teams on much smaller projects. Trevor continues to work projects for a variety of clients every day. As a professor, he has taught in a wide variety of course areas, including Computer Science, English, Irish, and American literature, and a number of "crossover" courses that bridge the liberal arts and technological fields. He has won regional, national, and international awards for his work in the IT field, and has also won awards for his teaching and research as a University professor.