Python part one

This lesson is part one of an introduction to programming in Python for people with little or no previous programming experience. This lesson references the Jupyter Notebook, but can be followed using a regular Python interpreter as well. Please note that this lesson, like all others in the course, uses Python 3 rather than Python 2.

Before you begin

• Check that Python and Jupyter Notebook are installed
• Launch a Jupyter notebook
• Think about the folder (directory) structure you will use for this course. The following structure is recommended: OneDrive -> KD5081_Comp -> Notebooks.

Please see the Setup page for more details.

Lesson outline

Topic	Objective	Quick test
Running python	How can I run Python programs?
Variables and assignment	How can I store data in programs?
Data types and type conversion	What kinds of data do programs store? How can I convert one type to another?
Built-in functions, help and errors	How can I use built-in functions? How can I find out what they do? What kind of errors can occur in programs?
Lists	How can I store multiple values?

Course resources

• Lesson exercises
• Extension exercise
• Presentation

External resources

• There are other tutorials covering Python for scientific computing, including:
  • https://aaltoscicomp.github.io/python-for-scicomp/