Free Ebook Computer Programming in Python: Josh Cogliati--Non-Programmers Tutorial For Python.pdf

Non-Programmers Tutorial For Python is a tutorial designed to be a introduction to the Python programming language. This guide is for someone with no programming experience.

1.1 First things first

So, you've never programmed before. As we go through this tutorial I will attempt to teach you how to program. There really is only one way to learn to program. You must read code and write code. I'm going to show you lots of code. You should type in code that I show you to see what happens. Play around with it and make changes. The worst that can happen is that it won't work. When I type in code it will be formatted like this:

##Python is easy to learn
print "Hello, World!"

That's so it is easy to distinguish from the other text. To make it confusing I will also print what the computer outputs in that same font.

Now, on to more important things. In order to program in Python you need the Python software. If you don't already have the Python software go to http://www.python.org/download/ and get the proper version for your platform. Download it, read the instructions and get it installed.........more

1.2 Installing Python

First you need to download the appropriate file for your computer from http://www.python.org/download. Go to the 2.0 link (or newer) and then get the windows installer if you use Windows or the rpm or source if you use Unix. TheWindows installer will download to file. The file can then be run by double clicking on the icon that is downloaded. The installation will then proceed.

If you get the Unix source make sure you compile in the tk extension if you want to use IDLE.

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