Learning-python
This is a repo for us to learn Python. It's an open repository, but also a work in progress. Use at your own risk.
Getting started
You'll use a combination of GitHub and CodeSpaces. GitHub is a place to store code, and is the website you're currently on. Create an account.
With your GitHub account, you'll also be able to launch a CodeSpace to do your work.
Why code online?
You can learn to code using your personal computer. The complications that pop-up with coding on a personal computer tend to be too big of a hurdle for most beginning coders. Troubleshooting why an install failed, or a coding component doesn't work can be tricky.
By using GitHub for storage, and GitPod for development, you're saving yourself some of that troubleshooting hassle.
If you would like to code locally, Git, Python, and VScode can be installed locally.
Do I need to know Math to program?
Not really. IF you can add 500 + 60 together, you know enough Math to program. This is the kind of Math use in 99% of programming. Most basic programming is more about staying organized, and and paying close attention to the details.
The other 1% is often falls under the category of Discrete Mathematics or Linear Algebra. This other Math is used to tell how slow an algorithm might be, or how to sort a list of integers the fastest way. It's a niche category of programming, and often these sorts of calculations are things you can look up online.
It's good to eventually be able to do this kind of Math yourself. But, that's also an optional skill that can come later.
Resources
Some of the resources we'll use for Python are listed.
- https://automatetheboringstuff.com/#toc (the main resource)
- https://www.learnbyexample.org/python/
- https://hyperpolyglot.org/scripting
We'll need to learn a little bit about Linux and Git. Linux is the operating system (like Windows). Git is the way we'll save our code.