📓1.0: Orientation

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Python Language

What is Python?

🐍 Python is a programming language created by Guido Van Rossum in the late 1980s. Python the language is open source.

Python has a wide variety of real-world applications such as:

  • AI/ML
    • SciPi
    • NumPy
    • Pandas
    • PyTorch
  • Hardware & Micro-controllers
    • Raspberry Pi
    • MicroPython
    • CircuitPython
  • Web Development
    • Django
    • Flask
  • Scripting
    • DevOps Configuration scripts

Python has an incredibly rich fully featured standard library, as well as the PyPI Package Index for 3rd party packages, which as of February 2019 contains 167,107 packages.

Python is considered to be a “batteries included” language, because the standard library contains a majority of the libraries and packages you’ll need in a standard application.

PEP8 STYLE GUIDELINES

PEP8 is a Python coding standard, that sets guidelines for how our Python code should look like.

💬 How does the style guide for the Python language compare to the conventions we learned in Java last year? Or JavaScript from the year before?

GitHub Account Setup

  1. Go to: GitHub Sign Up
  2. Enter your @gbwl.org school email
  3. Create a password that you’ll remember
  4. Enter a username that follows this pattern: FirstName LastInitial GradYear

    For example: KaterinaW2014

    DO NOT include your entire last name (privacy reasons)

  5. After verifying your account, let me know so I can add you to the GitHub Classroom group!
  6. Once everyone is ready, we’ll follow this tutorial: GitHub Workflow

Acknowledgement

Content on this page is adapted from LearnPython - Nina Zakharenko.