Python Course:

Introduction

box Python has become one of the most popular programming languages among developers and programmers. They praise it for its clean syntax and code readability. Python is a general-purpose high-level programming language. Python is both object oriented and imperative and it can be even used in a functional style as well. Python programs are portable, i.e. the can pe ported to other operating systems like Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac OS X, and the can be run on the Java and .NET virtual machines.
Guido van Rossum, the author of Python, began work on Python at the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the Netherlands (Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica, CWI).
When asked, what features of Python he is most pleased with, Guido van Rossum said in an interview with Linux Journal: "The feel of the whole system suits my style of programming well, for obvious reasons. The ability to run the interpreter interactively and the ability to write code from the bottom up and test it piecemeal combine to let me write code quickly. Other people find that it makes them more productive, too." (LJ, no 55)

Python is very fast. The source code is compiled into bytecode, so that executing the same file will be faster if the script will be executed again. The bytecode is an "intermediate language" which is said to run on a virtual machine that executes the machine code corresponding to each bytecode.

Comparing Python with Java, Perl and other Programming Languages

Prof. Lutz Prechelt from the University of Karlsruhe compared Python with other programming languages. He summarises his results: "80 implementations of the same set of requirements are compared for several properties, such as run time, memory consumption, source text length, comment density, program structure, reliability, and the amount of effort required for writing them. The results indicate that, for the given programming problem, which regards string manipulation and search in a dictionary, 'scripting languages' (Perl, Python, Rexx, Tcl) are more productive than 'conventional languages' (C, C++, Java). In terms of run time and memory consumption, they often turn out better than Java and not much worse than C or C++. In general, the differences between languages tend to be smaller than the typical differences due to different programmers within the same language. (see Lutz Prechelt, An empirical comparison of C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Rexx, and Tcl, IEEE Computer, Vol. 30, (10), p. 23-29, Oct 2000.)

Other Advantages of Python

It's surprisingly easy to embed Python, or better the Python interpreter into C programs. By doing this you can add features from Python that could take months to code them in C. Vice versa, it's possible to extend the Python interpreter by adding a module written in C. One reason to do this is if a C library exists that does something which Python doesn't. Another good reason is if you need something to run faster than you can manage in Python.

The Python Standard Library contains an enorous number of useful modules and is part of every standard Python installation. After having learnt the essentials of Python, it is necessary to become familiar with the Python Standard Library because many problems can be solved quickly and easily if you are acquainted with the possibilities that these libraries offer.

Online Course

You will find a complete introduction into Python in our online tutorial:

In our first chapter you learn how to use the Python Interactive Interpreter
You will see how easy it is to Execute a Script in Python.
Python differs from other programming languages in many ways, but the most striking one is obviously it's "Structuring with Indentation"
Variables are easier to be used than in many other programming languages but still there are some things to point out about "Data Types and Variables".
Though operators are more or less the same as in other languages, we have to cover them anyway.
Assignments can be quite tricky in Python. When will an object be copied and when will we just have a reference? What's the difference between a shallow and a deep copy?
Conditional statements are straightforward in Python
The same is true for the while loops, but there is this special "else" part.
The for loops seem to be quite strange if you are used to C but easy if you know the bash shell

Further Topics

In this chapter of our course we will have a closer look at sequential data types
Dictionaries are one of the best things Python has to offer
Programming without functions would be like cooking without salt and spices.
To understand functions properly, you need a thorough understanding of arguments and parameter passing.
In the next chapter of our seminar you will find all you have to know about namespaces.
Global and local variables is a topic, which can be different for beginners.
A language without the ability to read and write data files would be. So we will introduce you in our course to the essentials of file management.
A program, especially a large one, shouldn't be called a program, if it isn't written in a modular way.
Something very controversial in Python: Lambda Operator

Examples:

A simple example illustrating a while loop. It calculates the sum of the first 100 numbers:

n = 100

sum = 0
i = 1
while i <= n:
    sum = sum + i
    i = i + 1

print "Sum of 1 to %d: %d" % (n,sum)

The faculty funtion in Python:

def fac(x):
    if x > 1:  
        return x * fac(x - 1)
    else:  
        return 1

Python Course

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Python Courses