Introduction to Programming

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You've seen some programming in action, and you might already have a good idea of what it is and why you'd want to learn how to do it. But before moving ahead, take a step back and think about this:

• What is programming?
• Why would you care?

What is Programming

On a high level, programming is writing instructions for your computer. Computers are amazingly effective at doing some things and surprisingly ineffective at others. What's exciting about knowing how to instruct your computer to do things for you is that:

• Computers are precise
• Computers are fast
• Computers don't mind repetition

All of these are aspects of work where you, as a human, won't shine like a bright light in the dark night. Humans are imprecise and slow, and while some repetition might be nice, we often become even more imprecise when we have to do the same tasks over and over again.

Photo by https://unsplash.com/@austriannationallibrary Austrian National Library on Unsplash

But as a human, you're great at having ideas and conceptualizing solutions. And as you can see, your computer is great at executing these tasks. Sounds like a match made in heaven? Well, the only thing you need for this symbiosis to work is a common language. That's where learning a programming language comes in.

Procedural Programming With Python

In this first module of your Python course, you'll learn the basics of using such a shared programming language. Python is a great choice for getting started because it has a relatively intuitive syntax that is similar to the English language.

While you'll need to slowly ramp up to make your computer do awesome tasks for you, you'll already build some useful programs in this first module:

• You'll build another text-based computer game
• You'll build a script that automatically moves files of one type to a new location

You'll also get to know a big chunk of the fundamental concepts of programming in general and the fundamentals of Python in particular. Among other things, you'll learn about:

• Code comments and pseudocode
• The print() function
• Declaring variables in Python
• The int, float, None, str, and bool data types
• Working with collections
• Operators in Python
• Conditional statements
• for and while loops
• Loop keywords
• User input
• String formatting
• Modules and packages in Python
• The pathlib() module

You'll get to know these concepts step-by-step as you need them, and you'll use them to build creative and useful projects and automate repetitive tasks.

Summary: Introduction to Programming

• On a high level, programming is writing instructions for your computer. Computers are amazingly effective at doing some things and surprisingly ineffective at others.
  • Computers are precise
  • Computers are fast
  • Computers don't mind repetition
• There are many skills and programming concepts for you to learn in order to become an effective developer, and this course will be a great source of knowledge for you.