Merge in "repo-instructions"
Merge branch "repo-instructions" into "develop" Summary of the merged in commits: *33d6d91: Add course info to README.md *318a5a8: Add a requirements.txt file
This commit is contained in:
commit
3839a08335
2 changed files with 196 additions and 0 deletions
140
README.md
140
README.md
|
|
@ -1 +1,141 @@
|
|||
# An Introduction to Python and Programming
|
||||
|
||||
The purpose of this repository is to serve as an interactive "book" for a
|
||||
thorough introductory course on programming in the
|
||||
**[Python](https://www.python.org/)** language.
|
||||
|
||||
The course's **main goal** is to **prepare** the student for **further
|
||||
studies** in the "field" of **data science**.
|
||||
|
||||
The "chapters" are written in [Jupyter notebooks](https://jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io/en/stable/)
|
||||
which are a de-facto standard for exchanging code and results among data
|
||||
science professionals and researchers.
|
||||
As such they can be viewed in a plain web browser:
|
||||
|
||||
- [00 - Start up](https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/webartifex/intro-to-python/blob/master/00_start_up.ipynb)
|
||||
|
||||
However, it is recommended that students **install Python and Jupyter
|
||||
locally** and run the code in the notebooks on their own.
|
||||
This way, the student can play with the code and learn more efficiently.
|
||||
Precise **installation instructions** are either in the [00th notebook](
|
||||
https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/webartifex/intro-to-python/blob/master/00_start_up.ipynb)
|
||||
or further below.
|
||||
|
||||
Feedback is encouraged and will be incorporated.
|
||||
Open an issue in the [issues tracker](https://github.com/webartifex/intro-to-python/issues)
|
||||
or initiate a [pull request](https://help.github.com/en/articles/about-pull-requests)
|
||||
if you are familiar with the concept.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Prerequisites
|
||||
|
||||
To be suitable for *total beginners*, there are *no* formal prerequisites.
|
||||
It is only expected that the student has:
|
||||
|
||||
- a *solid* understanding of the **English language**,
|
||||
- knowledge of **basic mathematics** from high school,
|
||||
- the ability to **think conceptually** and **reason logically**, and
|
||||
- the willingness to **invest 2-4 hours a day for a month**.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Installation
|
||||
|
||||
To follow this course, a working installation of **Python 3.6** or higher is
|
||||
expected.
|
||||
|
||||
A popular and beginner friendly way is to install the [Anaconda Distribution](
|
||||
https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/) that not only ships Python but comes
|
||||
pre-packaged with a lot of third-party libraries from the so-called
|
||||
"scientific stack".
|
||||
Just go to the [download](https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/#download-section)
|
||||
section and install the latest version (i.e., *2019-07* with Python 3.7 at the
|
||||
time of this writing) for your operating system.
|
||||
|
||||
Then, among others, you will find an entry "Jupyter Notebook" in your start
|
||||
menu like below.
|
||||
Click on it and a new tab in your web browser will open where you can switch
|
||||
between folders as you could in your computer's default file browser.
|
||||
|
||||
<img src="static/anaconda.png" width="50%">
|
||||
|
||||
To download the course's materials as a ZIP file, click on the green "Clone or
|
||||
download" button on the top right on this website.
|
||||
Then, unpack the ZIP file into a folder of your choosing (ideally somewhere
|
||||
within your personal user folder so that the files show up right away).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Alternative Installation
|
||||
|
||||
Python can also be installed in a "pure" way as obtained from its core
|
||||
development team (i.e., without any third-party packages installed).
|
||||
However, this is somewhat too "advanced" for a beginner as it involves working
|
||||
with a terminal emulator, which looks similar to the picture below and is
|
||||
used without a mouse by typing commands into it.
|
||||
|
||||
<img src="static/terminal.png" width="50%" align="center">
|
||||
|
||||
Assuming that you already have a working version of Python 3.6 or higher
|
||||
installed (cf., the official [download page](https://www.python.org/downloads/)),
|
||||
the following summarizes the commands to be typed into a terminal emulator to
|
||||
get the course materials up and running on a local machine without Anaconda.
|
||||
You are then responsible for understanding the concepts behind them.
|
||||
|
||||
First, the [git](https://git-scm.com/) command line tool is a more professional
|
||||
way of "cloning" the course materials as compared to downloading them in a ZIP
|
||||
file.
|
||||
|
||||
- `git clone https://github.com/webartifex/intro-to-python.git`
|
||||
|
||||
This creates a new folder *intro-to-python* with all the materials of this
|
||||
repository in it.
|
||||
|
||||
Inside this folder, it is recommended to create a so-called **virtual
|
||||
environment** with Python's [venv](https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html)
|
||||
module.
|
||||
This must only be done the first time.
|
||||
A virtual environment is a way of *isolating* the third-party packages
|
||||
installed by different projects, which is considered a best practice.
|
||||
|
||||
- `python -m venv venv`
|
||||
|
||||
The second *venv* is the environment's name and by convention often chosen to
|
||||
be *venv*.
|
||||
However, it could be another name as well.
|
||||
|
||||
From then on, each time you want to resume work, go back into the
|
||||
*intro-to-python* folder inside your terminal and "activate" the virtual
|
||||
environment (*venv* is the name chosen before).
|
||||
|
||||
- `source venv/bin/activate`
|
||||
|
||||
This may change how the terminal's [command prompt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command-line_interface#Command_prompt)
|
||||
looks.
|
||||
|
||||
[poetry](https://poetry.eustace.io/docs/) and [virtualenvwrapper](https://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
|
||||
are popular tools to automate the described management of virtual environments.
|
||||
|
||||
After activation for the first time, you must install the project's
|
||||
**dependencies** (= the third-party packages needed to run the code), most
|
||||
notably [Jupyter](https://pypi.org/project/jupyter/) in this project (the
|
||||
"python -m" is often left out; if you have poetry installed, you may just
|
||||
type `poetry install` instead).
|
||||
|
||||
- `python -m pip install -r requirements.txt`
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
With everything installed, you can now do the equivalent of clicking the
|
||||
"Jupyter Notebook" entry in your start menu.
|
||||
|
||||
- `jupyter notebook`
|
||||
|
||||
This opens a new tab in your web browser just as above.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## About the Author
|
||||
|
||||
Alexander Hess is a PhD student at the Chair of Logistics Management at the
|
||||
[WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management](https://www.whu.edu) where he
|
||||
conducts research on urban delivery platforms and teaches an introductory
|
||||
course on Python (cf., [course listing](https://vlv.whu.edu/campus/all/event.asp?objgguid=0xE57C2715B01B441AAFD3E79AA05CACCF&from=vvz&gguid=0x6A2B0ED5B2B949E69957A2099E7DE2F1&mode=own&tguid=0x3980A9BBC3BF4A638E977F2DC163F44B&lang=en)).
|
||||
|
||||
Connect him on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/webartifex).
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
56
requirements.txt
Normal file
56
requirements.txt
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
|
|||
appdirs==1.4.3
|
||||
attrs==19.1.0
|
||||
backcall==0.1.0
|
||||
black==18.9b0
|
||||
blackcellmagic==0.0.2
|
||||
bleach==3.1.0
|
||||
Click==7.0
|
||||
decorator==4.4.0
|
||||
defusedxml==0.6.0
|
||||
entrypoints==0.3
|
||||
ipykernel==5.1.2
|
||||
ipython==7.8.0
|
||||
ipython-genutils==0.2.0
|
||||
ipywidgets==7.5.1
|
||||
jedi==0.15.1
|
||||
Jinja2==2.10.1
|
||||
jsonschema==3.0.2
|
||||
jupyter==1.0.0
|
||||
jupyter-client==5.3.2
|
||||
jupyter-console==6.0.0
|
||||
jupyter-contrib-core==0.3.3
|
||||
jupyter-contrib-nbextensions==0.5.1
|
||||
jupyter-core==4.5.0
|
||||
jupyter-highlight-selected-word==0.2.0
|
||||
jupyter-latex-envs==1.4.6
|
||||
jupyter-nbextensions-configurator==0.4.1
|
||||
lxml==4.4.1
|
||||
MarkupSafe==1.1.1
|
||||
mistune==0.8.4
|
||||
nbconvert==5.6.0
|
||||
nbformat==4.4.0
|
||||
notebook==6.0.1
|
||||
pandocfilters==1.4.2
|
||||
parso==0.5.1
|
||||
pexpect==4.7.0
|
||||
pickleshare==0.7.5
|
||||
prometheus-client==0.7.1
|
||||
prompt-toolkit==2.0.9
|
||||
ptyprocess==0.6.0
|
||||
Pygments==2.4.2
|
||||
pyrsistent==0.15.4
|
||||
python-dateutil==2.8.0
|
||||
PyYAML==5.1.2
|
||||
pyzmq==18.1.0
|
||||
qtconsole==4.5.5
|
||||
rise==5.5.1
|
||||
Send2Trash==1.5.0
|
||||
six==1.12.0
|
||||
terminado==0.8.2
|
||||
testpath==0.4.2
|
||||
toml==0.10.0
|
||||
tornado==6.0.3
|
||||
traitlets==4.3.2
|
||||
wcwidth==0.1.7
|
||||
webencodings==0.5.1
|
||||
widgetsnbextension==3.5.1
|
||||
Loading…
Reference in a new issue