"**Note**: Click on \"*Kernel*\" > \"*Restart Kernel and Clear All Outputs*\" in [JupyterLab](https://jupyterlab.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) *before* reading this notebook to reset its output. If you cannot run this file on your machine, you may want to open it [in the cloud <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_mb.png\">](https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/webartifex/intro-to-python/main?urlpath=lab/tree/00_intro/00_content.ipynb)."
"This book is a *thorough* introduction to programming in [Python <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://www.python.org/).\n",
"\n",
"It teaches the concepts behind and the syntax of the core Python language as defined by the [Python Software Foundation <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://www.python.org/psf/) in the official [language reference <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://docs.python.org/3/reference/index.html). Furthermore, it introduces commonly used functionalities from the [standard library <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://docs.python.org/3/library/index.html) and popular third-party libraries like [numpy <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://www.numpy.org/), [pandas <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://pandas.pydata.org/), [matplotlib <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://matplotlib.org/), and others."
"The term **[data science <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_science)** is rather vague and does *not* refer to an academic discipline. Instead, the term was popularized by the tech industry, who also coined non-meaningful job titles such as \"[rockstar](https://www.quora.com/Why-are-engineers-called-rockstars-and-ninjas)\" or \"[ninja developers](https://www.quora.com/Why-are-engineers-called-rockstars-and-ninjas).\" Most *serious* definitions describe the field as being **multi-disciplinary** *integrating* scientific methods, algorithms, and systems thinking to extract knowledge from structured and unstructured data, *and* also emphasize the importance of **[domain knowledge <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_knowledge)**.\n",
"\n",
"Recently, this integration aspect feeds back into the academic world. The [MIT](https://www.mit.edu/), for example, created the new [Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing](http://computing.mit.edu) for [artificial intelligence <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence) with a 1 billion dollar initial investment where students undergo a \"bilingual\" curriculum with half the classes in quantitative and method-centric fields and the other half in domains such as biology, business, chemistry, politics, (art) history, or linguistics (cf., the [official Q&As](http://computing.mit.edu/faq/) or this [NYT article](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/mit-college-artificial-intelligence.html)). Their strategists see a future where programming skills are just as naturally embedded into students' curricula as are nowadays subjects like calculus, statistics, or academic writing. Then, programming literacy is not just another \"nice to have\" skill but a prerequisite, or an enabler, to understanding more advanced topics in the actual domains studied."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"## Installation"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"To \"read\" this book in the most meaningful way, a working installation of **Python 3.8** with [JupyterLab](https://jupyterlab.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) is needed.\n",
"For a tutorial on how to install Python on your computer, follow the instructions in the [README.md](https://github.com/webartifex/intro-to-python/blob/main/README.md#installation) file in the project's [GitHub repository <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_gh.png\">](https://github.com/webartifex/intro-to-python). If you cannot install Python on your own machine, you may open the book interactively in the cloud with [Binder <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_mb.png\">](https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/webartifex/intro-to-python/main?urlpath=lab)."
"The document you are viewing is a so-called [Jupyter notebook](https://jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io/en/stable/notebook.html), a file format introduced by the [Jupyter Project](https://jupyter.org/).\n",
"\n",
"\"Jupyter\" is an [acronym <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym) derived from the names of the three major programming languages **[Julia](https://julialang.org/)**, **[Python <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://www.python.org)**, and **[R](https://www.r-project.org/)**, all of which play significant roles in the world of data science. The Jupyter Project's idea is to serve as an integrating platform such that different programming languages and software packages can be used together within the same project.\n",
"Jupyter notebooks have become a de-facto standard for communicating and exchanging results in the data science community - both in academia and business - and provide an alternative to command-line interface (CLI or \"terminal\") based ways of running Python code. As an example for the latter case, we could start the default [Python interpreter <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/interpreter.html) that comes with every installation by typing the `python` command into a CLI (or `poetry run python` if the project is managed with the [poetry](https://python-poetry.org/docs/) CLI tool as explained in the [README.md](https://github.com/webartifex/intro-to-python/blob/main/README.md#alternative-installation-for-instructors) file). Then, as the screenshot below shows, we could execute Python code like `1 + 2` or `print(\"Hello World\")` line by line simply by typing it following the `>>>` **prompt** and pressing the **Enter** key. For an introductory course, however, this would be rather tedious and probably scare off many beginners."
"One reason for the popularity of Jupyter notebooks is that they allow mixing text with code in the same document. Text may be formatted with the [Markdown <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_gh.png\">](https://guides.github.com/features/mastering-markdown/) language and mathematical formulas typeset with [LaTeX](https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Free_online_introduction_to_LaTeX_%28part_1%29). Moreover, we may include pictures, plots, and even videos. Because of these features, the notebooks developed for this book come in a self-contained \"tutorial\" style enabling students to simply read them from top to bottom while executing the code snippets.\n",
"\n",
"Other ways of running Python code are to use the [IPython <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://ipython.org/) CLI tool instead of the default interpreter or a full-fledged [Integrated Development Environment <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_development_environment) (e.g., the commercial [PyCharm](https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/) or the free [Spyder <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_gh.png\">](https://github.com/spyder-ide/spyder) that comes with the Anaconda Distribution)."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"### Markdown Cells vs. Code Cells"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"A Jupyter notebook consists of cells that have a type associated with them. So far, only cells of type \"Markdown\" have been used, which is the default way to present formatted text.\n",
"\n",
"The cells below are examples of \"Code\" cells containing actual Python code: They calculate the sum of `1` and `2` and print out `\"Hello World\"` when executed, respectively. To edit an existing code cell, enter into it with a mouse click. You are \"in\" a code cell if its frame is highlighted in blue. We call that the **edit mode**.\n",
"\n",
"There is also a **command mode** that you reach by hitting the **Escape** key. That un-highlights the frame. You are now \"out\" of but still \"on\" the cell. If you were already in command mode, hitting the Escape key does *nothing*.\n",
"\n",
"Using the **Enter** and **Escape** keys, you can now switch between the two modes.\n",
"\n",
"To **execute**, or \"run,\" a code cell, hold down the **Control** key and press **Enter**. Note how you do *not* go to the subsequent cell if you keep re-executing the cell you are on. Alternatively, you can hold the **Shift** key and press **Enter**, which executes a cell *and* places your focus on the subsequent cell or creates a new one if there is none."
"Similarly, a Markdown cell is also in either edit or command mode. For example, double-click on the text you are reading: This puts you into edit mode. Now, you could change the formatting (e.g., print a word in *italics* or **bold**) and \"execute\" the cell to render the text as specified.\n",
"\n",
"To change a cell's type, choose either \"Code\" or \"Markdown\" in the navigation bar at the top. Alternatively, you can press either the **Y** or **M** key in command mode.\n",
"\n",
"Sometimes, a code cell starts with an exclamation mark `!`. Then, the Jupyter notebook behaves as if the following command were typed directly into a terminal. The cell below asks the `python` CLI to show its version number and is *not* Python code but a command in the [Shell <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_%28computing%29) language. The `!` is useful to execute short CLI commands without leaving a Jupyter notebook."
"- by *expressing* the steps of a *computation* or *process*\n",
"- and thereby *documenting* the process in a formal way.\n",
"\n",
"Programming is always *concrete* and based on a *particular case*. It exhibits elements of an *art* or a *craft* as we hear programmers call code \"beautiful\" or \"ugly\" or talk about the \"expressive\" power of an application."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"That is different from **computer science**, which is\n",
"- a field of study comparable to applied *mathematics* that\n",
"- asks *abstract* questions (e.g., \"Is something computable at all?\"),\n",
"- develops and analyses *algorithms* and *data structures*,\n",
"- and *proves* the *correctness* of a program.\n",
"\n",
"In a sense, a computer scientist does not need to know a programming language to work, and many computer scientists only know how to produce \"ugly\" looking code in the eyes of professional programmers."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"**IT** or **information technology** is a term that has many meanings to different people. Often, it has something to do with hardware or physical devices, both of which are out of scope for programmers and computer scientists. Sometimes, it refers to a [support function](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_chain#Support_activities) within a company. Many computer scientists and programmers are more than happy if their printer and internet connection work as they often do not know a lot more about that than \"non-technical\" people."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"## Why Python?"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"### What is Python?"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"Here is a brief history of and some background on Python (cf., also this [TechRepublic article](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/python-is-eating-the-world-how-one-developers-side-project-became-the-hottest-programming-language-on-the-planet/) for a more elaborate story):\n",
"\n",
"- [Guido van Rossum <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_van_Rossum) (Python’s **[Benevolent Dictator for Life <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_dictator_for_life)**) was bored during a week around Christmas 1989 and started Python as a hobby project \"that would keep \\[him\\] occupied\" for some days\n",
"- the idea was to create a **general-purpose** scripting **language** that would allow fast *prototyping* and would *run on every operating system*\n",
"- Python grew through the 90s as van Rossum promoted it via his \"Computer Programming for Everybody\" initiative that had the *goal to encourage a basic level of coding literacy* as an equal knowledge alongside English literacy and math skills\n",
"- to become more independent from its creator, the next major version **Python 2** - released in 2000 and still in heavy use as of today - was **open-source** from the get-go which attracted a *large and global community of programmers* that *contributed* their expertise and best practices in their free time to make Python even better\n",
"- **Python 3** resulted from a significant overhaul of the language in 2008 taking into account the *learnings from almost two decades*, streamlining the language, and getting ready for the age of **big data**\n",
"- the language is named after the sketch comedy group [Monty Python <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python)"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"#### Summary"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"Python is a **general-purpose** programming **language** that allows for *fast development*, is *easy to read*, **open-source**, long-established, unifies the knowledge of *hundreds of thousands of experts* around the world, runs on basically every machine, and can handle the complexities of applications involving **big data**."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"### Why open-source?"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"Couldn't a company like Google, Facebook, or Microsoft come up with a better programming language? The following is an argument on why this can likely not be the case.\n",
"\n",
"Wouldn't it be weird if professors and scholars of English literature and language studies dictated how we'd have to speak in day-to-day casual conversations or how authors of poesy and novels should use language constructs to achieve a particular type of mood? If you agree with that premise, it makes sense to assume that even programming languages should evolve in a \"natural\" way as users *use* the language over time and in *new* and *unpredictable* contexts creating new conventions."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"Loose *communities* are the primary building block around which open-source software projects are built. Someone - like Guido - starts a project and makes it free to use for anybody (e.g., on a code-sharing platform like [GitHub <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_gh.png\">](https://github.com/)). People find it useful enough to solve one of their daily problems and start using it. They see how a project could be improved and provide new use cases (e.g., via the popularized concept of a [pull request <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_gh.png\">](https://help.github.com/articles/about-pull-requests/)). The project grows both in lines of code and people using it. After a while, people start local user groups to share their same interests and meet regularly (e.g., this is a big market for companies like [Meetup](https://www.meetup.com/) or non-profits like [PyData <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://pydata.org/)). Out of these local and usually monthly meetups grow yearly conferences on the country or even continental level (e.g., the original [PyCon <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://us.pycon.org/) in the US, [EuroPython <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://europython.eu/), or [PyCon.DE <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://de.pycon.org/)). The content presented at these conferences is made publicly available via GitHub and YouTube (e.g., [PyCon 2019 <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxs2IIVXaEHHA4BtTiWZ2mQ) or [EuroPython <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](http://europython.tv/)) and serves as references on what people are working on and introductions to the endless number of specialized fields."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"While these communities are somewhat loose and continuously changing, smaller in-groups, often democratically organized and elected (e.g., the [Python Software Foundation <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://www.python.org/psf/)), take care of, for example, the development of the \"core\" Python language itself.\n",
"\n",
"Python itself is just a specification (i.e., a set of rules) as to what is allowed and what not: It must first be implemented (c.f., next section below). The current version of Python can always be looked up in the [Python Language Reference <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://docs.python.org/3/reference/index.html). To make changes to that, anyone can make a so-called **[Python Enhancement Proposal <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/)**, or **PEP** for short, where it needs to be specified what exact changes are to be made and argued why that is a good thing to do. These PEPs are reviewed by the [core developers <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://devguide.python.org/coredev/) and interested people and are then either accepted, modified, or rejected if, for example, the change introduces internal inconsistencies. This process is similar to the **double-blind peer review** established in academia, just a lot more transparent. Many of the contributors even held or hold positions in academia, one more indicator of the high quality standards in the Python community. To learn more about PEPs, check out [PEP 1 <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0001/) that describes the entire process.\n",
"\n",
"In total, no one single entity can control how the language evolves, and the users' needs and ideas always feed back to the language specification via a quality controlled and \"democratic\" process."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"Besides being **free** as in \"free beer,\" a major benefit of open-source is that one can always *look up how something works in detail*: That is the literal meaning of *open* source and a difference to commercial languages (e.g., [MATLAB](https://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab.html)) as a programmer can always continue to *study best practices* or find out how things are implemented. Along this way, many *errors are uncovered*, as well. Furthermore, if one runs an open-source application, one can be reasonably sure that no bad people built in a \"backdoor.\" [Free software <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software) is consequently free of charge but brings *many other freedoms* with it, most notably the freedom to change the code."
"[C <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_%28programming_language%29) and [C++ <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B) (cf., this [introduction](https://www.learncpp.com/)) are wide-spread and long-established (i.e., since the 1970s) programming languages employed in many mission-critical software systems (e.g., operating systems themselves, low latency databases and web servers, nuclear reactor control systems, airplanes, ...). They are fast, mainly because the programmer not only needs to come up with the **business logic** but also manage the computer's memory.\n",
"\n",
"In contrast, Python automatically manages the memory for the programmer. So, speed here is a trade-off between application run time and engineering/development time. Often, the program's run time is not that important: For example, what if C needs 0.001 seconds in a case where Python needs 0.1 seconds to do the same thing? When the requirements change and computing speed becomes an issue, the Python community offers many third-party libraries - usually also written in C - where specific problems can be solved in near-C time."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"#### Summary"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"While it is true that a language like C is a lot faster than Python when it comes to *pure* **computation time**, this does not matter in many cases as the *significantly shorter* **development cycles** are the more significant cost factor in a rapidly changing world."
"While ad-hominem arguments are usually not the best kind of reasoning, we briefly look at some examples of who uses Python and leave it up to the reader to decide if this is convincing or not:\n",
"\n",
"- **[Massachusetts Institute of Technology](https://www.mit.edu/)**\n",
" - teaches Python in its [introductory course](https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-0001-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-in-python-fall-2016/) to computer science independent of the student's major\n",
" - replaced the infamous course on the [Scheme](https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/projects/scheme/) language (cf., [source <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_hn.png\">](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=602307))\n",
"- **[Google](https://www.google.com/)**\n",
" - used the strategy \"Python where we can, C++ where we must\" from its early days on to stay flexible in a rapidly changing environment (cf., [source <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_so.png\">](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2560310/heavy-usage-of-python-at-google))\n",
" - the very first web-crawler was written in Java and so difficult to maintain that it was rewritten in Python right away (cf., [source](https://www.amazon.com/Plex-Google-Thinks-Works-Shapes/dp/1416596585/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539101827&sr=8-1&keywords=in+the+plex))\n",
" - Guido van Rossom was hired by Google from 2005 to 2012 to advance the language there\n",
"- **[NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/)** open-sources many of its projects, often written in Python and regarding analyses with big data (cf., [source](https://code.nasa.gov/language/python/))\n",
"- **[Facebook](https://facebook.com/)** uses Python besides C++ and its legacy PHP (a language for building websites; the \"cool kid\" from the early 2000s)\n",
"- **[Instagram](https://instagram.com/)** operates the largest installation of the popular **web framework [Django](https://www.djangoproject.com/)** (cf., [source](https://instagram-engineering.com/web-service-efficiency-at-instagram-with-python-4976d078e366))\n",
"- **[Spotify](https://spotify.com/)** bases its data science on Python (cf., [source](https://labs.spotify.com/2013/03/20/how-we-use-python-at-spotify/))\n",
"- **[Netflix](https://netflix.com/)** also runs its predictive models on Python (cf., [source](https://medium.com/netflix-techblog/python-at-netflix-86b6028b3b3e))\n",
"- **[Dropbox](https://dropbox.com/)** \"stole\" Guido van Rossom from Google to help scale the platform (cf., [source](https://medium.com/dropbox-makers/guido-van-rossum-on-finding-his-way-e018e8b5f6b1))\n",
"- **[JPMorgan Chase](https://www.jpmorganchase.com/)** requires new employees to learn Python as part of the onboarding process starting with the 2018 intake (cf., [source](https://www.ft.com/content/4c17d6ce-c8b2-11e8-ba8f-ee390057b8c9?segmentId=a7371401-027d-d8bf-8a7f-2a746e767d56))"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"As images tell more than words, here are two plots of popular languages' \"market shares\" based on the number of questions asked on [Stack Overflow <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_so.png\">](https://stackoverflow.blog/2017/09/06/incredible-growth-python/), the most relevant platform for answering programming-related questions: As of late 2017, Python surpassed [Java](https://www.java.com/en/), heavily used in big corporates, and [JavaScript](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript), the \"language of the internet\" that does everything in web browsers, in popularity. Two blog posts from \"technical\" people explain this in more depth to the layman: [Stack Overflow <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_so.png\">](https://stackoverflow.blog/2017/09/14/python-growing-quickly/) and [DataCamp](https://www.datacamp.com/community/blog/python-scientific-computing-case)."
"As the graph below shows, neither Google's very own language **[Go](https://golang.org/)** nor **[R](https://www.r-project.org/)**, a domain-specific language in the niche of statistics, can compete with Python's year-to-year growth."
"[IEEE Sprectrum](https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/the-top-programming-languages-2019) provides a more recent comparison of programming language's popularity. Even news and media outlets notice the recent popularity of Python: [Economist](https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/07/26/python-is-becoming-the-worlds-most-popular-coding-language), [Huffington Post](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-python-is-the-best-programming-language-with-which_us_59ef8f62e4b04809c05011b9), [TechRepublic](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-python-is-so-popular-with-developers-3-reasons-the-language-has-exploded/), and [QZ](https://qz.com/1408660/the-rise-of-python-as-seen-through-a-decade-of-stack-overflow/)."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "slide"
}
},
"source": [
"## How to learn Programming"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "fragment"
}
},
"source": [
"### ABC Rule"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"**A**lways **b**e **c**oding.\n",
"\n",
"Programming is more than just writing code into a text file. It means reading through parts of the [documentation <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_py.png\">](https://docs.python.org/), blogs with best practices, and tutorials, or researching problems on [Stack Overflow <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_so.png\">](https://stackoverflow.com/) while trying to implement features in the application at hand. Also, it means using command-line tools to automate some part of the work or manage different versions of a program, for example, with **[git](https://git-scm.com/)**. In short, programming involves a lot of \"muscle memory,\" which can only be built and kept up through near-daily usage.\n",
"\n",
"Further, many aspects of software architecture and best practices can only be understood after having implemented some requirements for the very first time. Coding also means \"breaking\" things to find out what makes them work in the first place.\n",
"\n",
"Therefore, coding is learned best by just doing it for some time on a daily or at least a regular basis and not right before some task is due, just like learning a \"real\" language."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "fragment"
}
},
"source": [
"### The Maker's Schedule"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"[Y Combinator <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_hn.png\">](https://www.ycombinator.com/) co-founder [Paul Graham <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_wiki.png\">](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_%28programmer%29) wrote a very popular and often cited [article](http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html) where he divides every person into belonging to one of two groups:\n",
"\n",
"- **Managers**: People that need to organize things and command others (e.g., a \"boss\" or manager). Their schedule is usually organized by the hour or even 30-minute intervals.\n",
"- **Makers**: People that create things (e.g., programmers, artists, or writers). Such people think in half days or full days.\n",
"\n",
"Have you ever wondered why so many tech people work during nights and sleep at \"weird\" times? The reason is that many programming-related tasks require a \"flow\" state in one's mind that is hard to achieve when one can get interrupted, even if it is only for one short question. Graham describes that only knowing that one has an appointment in three hours can cause a programmer to not get into a flow state.\n",
"\n",
"As a result, do not set aside a certain amount of time for learning something but rather plan in an *entire evening* or a *rainy Sunday* where you can work on a problem in an *open end* setting. And do not be surprised anymore to hear \"I looked at it over the weekend\" from a programmer."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "fragment"
}
},
"source": [
"### Phase Iteration"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"When being asked the above question, most programmers answer something that can be classified into one of two broader groups.\n",
"\n",
"**1) Toy Problem, Case Study, or Prototype**: Pick some problem, break it down into smaller sub-problems, and solve them with an end in mind.\n",
"\n",
"**2) Books, Video Tutorials, and Courses**: Research the best book, blog, video, or tutorial for something and work it through from start to end.\n",
"\n",
"The truth is that you need to iterate between these two phases.\n",
"\n",
"Building a prototype always reveals issues no book or tutorial can think of before. Data is never as clean as it should be. An algorithm from a textbook must be adapted to a peculiar aspect of a case study. It is essential to learn to \"ship a product\" because only then will one have looked at all the aspects.\n",
"\n",
"The major downside of this approach is that one likely learns bad \"patterns\" overfitted to the case at hand, and one does not get the big picture or mental concepts behind a solution. This gap can be filled in by well-written books: For example, check the Python/programming books offered by [Packt](https://www.packtpub.com/packt/offers/free-learning/) or [O’Reilly](https://www.oreilly.com/)."
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"## Contents"
]
},
{
"cell_type": "markdown",
"metadata": {
"slideshow": {
"slide_type": "skip"
}
},
"source": [
"**Part A: Expressing Logic**\n",
"\n",
"- What is a programming language? What kind of words exist?\n",
" - *Chapter 1*: [Elements of a Program <img height=\"12\" style=\"display: inline-block\" src=\"../static/link/to_nb.png\">](https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/webartifex/intro-to-python/blob/main/01_elements/00_content.ipynb)\n",
