Language

We will be using version 3.7 of the Python Programming language.

Webpages

Python.org (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. - Center of the Python Universe
Online Python Tutor (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. - Lets you watch programs execute. Edit theirs, or try your own.
Python Tutorial
Python Standard Library
Python Module of the Week - Well written discussions of various modules. Collected in an excellent book.

Problem Sets

A series of problem sets. My favorites are listed first, but you might want to dip into several to see which suite you.

Exercism A site with a number of language tracks. The Python track has a sequence of problems: you will get mentored on your solutions to key problems on the path. Once you have solved the problem, you can see other solutions and learn from them.
Rosalind A site with Bioinformatics problems. You demonstrate your solution on large data sets. Again, once you have a solution, you can look at other solutions.
Project Euler An online set of mathematical problems.
Daily Coding Problems Just the problem: no provisions to check your solution. You can join for a fee and see solutions.
Python Morsels One problem a week, with a detailed discussion of the solution in Python. The first four problems are free: after that, there is a monthly fee.
CodeWars They send out a weekly problem set, and they also have a suite of problems you can run through interactively.
Hacker Rank Many problems, real time ranking, and they claim to connect you with companies hiring.

Online Books

We will be using the second edition of Allen B. Downey's "Think Python" in class. We start with links to that book

But there are many other online resources

A Byte of Python - get it?
Invent With Python - write computer games with Python
Python Practice Book - Many small problems
Dive Into Python - Many interesting tangents
Python for You and Me - another online resource
Python Tutorial (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
LearnPython the Hard Way (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Zed's Smith's take on life and Python
The Python Standard Library by Example by Doug Hellman, author of PyMOTW
Computing for Biologists An online course with extensive material about useful libraries

Many resources discuss earlier versions of Python. You can move from version 2 to version 3, but there are differences.

There are many books that promise to teach you to program in 24 hours or 21 days. They are for dummies. Here is a nice article (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. by Peter Norvig about mastering the art of programming.

You may find this discouraging: please don't take it that way. Learning any complex skill, such as ballroom dancing or barroom piano takes time, but the intermediate stages can be a lot of fun.

Paper Books

Introducing Python by Bill Lubanovic - Nice discussion of the language - a deeper dive, with more topics, than Downey's book
Programming Python by Mark Lutz - Lutz has a series of books on Python - this is the big kahuna. This may be too fat a book for a beginner to navigate.

Online Courses

There are a number of excellent online courses. There might even be some good online Python courses.

If you do check out any of these courses, please let us know what you think.

Environments

I would like everyone to use Continuum's Anaconda Platform. This has versions for the major Operating Systems, and will give us a consistent platform to work from. Install the Python 3.7 version.

Enthought's Canopy Environment - an alternative to Anaconda. I include it for completeness.
PyCharm - Excellent IDE. I will demonstrate this in class
Eric IDLE - IDLE is the original Python IDE
Wingware IDE - I have purchased this and find it a pleasant environment.
Eclipse - the 800 pound gorilla, can be configured as a Python IDE.
Python Tutor - Allows you to watch your code in action.
Python Anywhere - Host Python in the cloud

Jupiter Notebooks

You can also get a list of keyboard shortcuts by hitting esc to enter "command mode", and typing the letter "h".

Debugger

There are many Python debuggers out there: here is a list of a few

I will use PyCharm IDE in class. Whatever environment you pick, be sure to take some time learning the Debugger. Time spent understanding the debugger will pay off handsomely. Here are my notes on PyCharm and four-up.

Here is an article from Real Python about PyCharm.

I'd advise starting with the Python Tutor, listed above.

A nice tutorial by Doug Hellmann, Mr. Python Module of the Week, for pdf, the Python text based debugger

And here is the pdf manual

While pdb is useful to know, debugging is a place where an IDE really shines. I've prepared a 20 minute discussion of Debugging in general, and the Canopy, Wingware, and pdb environments in particular. Here is a video of that lecture and here are my notes.

Video of debugging with Visual Studio

So you think you can pdb? Video from Clayton Parker (no relation)

Quick Reference Cards

You may wish to make copies of this Reference card. The difference between the version of Python described below and the version that we will be using are small.

Python 3 Reference card

This Cheat Sheet is a bit longer than a reference card

User Groups

BPUG (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. - Boston Python User Group

PyLadies - A National Python group for women. I don't see much activity at the moment - please let me know if you have a better link.

Online Courses

A list (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. of some online courses

Style Guides

PEP 8 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Style guide for Python Code

Code like a Pythonista (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site - Some of this may not make sense the first time you read it. Read it again. I keep a copy in my bag and read it on the subway.

INTERVIEWER

Some people say they can’t understand your writing, even after they read it two or three times. What approach would you suggest for them?

WILLIAM FAULKNER

Read it four times.

Thelonious Monk on style

Monk on playing his music

Please suggest other resources you found useful.