cameronwp/intro-to-python

An advanced, practical intro to Python - Momentum Lecture IAP 2022

An Advanced, Practical Intro to Python - Momentum Lecture IAP 2022

Lecture slides on G docs

Introduction

Additional Resources

• https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/

Development Environment - Installation

1. Install Visual Studio Code aka VS Code aka VSCode aka Code: https://code.visualstudio.com
2. Make sure you have Python 3 installed: download here a. MacOS/Linux: which python (you probably already have it installed). If you get Python 2, try which python3 and then use python3 for the rest of this lecture b. Windows: try python --version from PowerShell or Windows Terminal

Development Environment - virtual env

A Python virtual environment (venv) makes it easy to manage dependencies across projects. Dependencies will be installed within the project directory, instead of globally, allowing different projects to independently track different versions of dependencies

1. Go to your project directory: cd your/project/directory
2. Create a virtual environment: python -m venv .venv
3. Activate the virtual environment:

• MacOS/Linux: ./.venv/bin/activate
• Windows: .\.venv\Scripts\activate (if you run into a permissions error, try this ))

4. If you want to leave your virtual environment: deactivate

For the future, any time you want to use your venv, just use steps 1 and 3.

venv in a little more detail

You'll notice a new directory, .venv, that includes symlinks to python and pip

Calling .venv/bin/activate modifies your Python environment in your current shell session. deactivate undoes the modifications

When you pip install package, the package is installed to the .venv directory

When you import package, it will first check your .venv directory

How to Run Python

1. Call python against a Python file: python path/to/python/file.py

• Runs your code all in one shot

2. Use the Python interpreter by itself: python

• Runs your code line-by-line as you press enter

3. Jupyter notebook. This is out of scope for this lecture, but it's a great way to tell a story with Python

I will be using VS Code with its integrated terminal from now on.

To get started, head over to part-1-hello-world.md.

More Practice

Want to keep practicing Python? Here's an incomplete list of some great resources.

Challenges

1. Advent of Code - a coding competition every December (but available year round) with holiday themed challenges
2. Code Kata
3. Project Euler
4. Codewars

Books and Courses

1. Think Python
2. 6.001 on MIT OCW