Learning-python

This is a repo for Los Kinder Guardians (here called Los Kinder Coders) to learn Python. It's an open repository, but a work in progress. Use at your own risk.

Getting started

You'll use a combination of GitHub and GitPod. GitHub is a place to store code, and is the website you're currently on. Create an account.

With your GitHub account, you can head to GitPod.io and sign in using your GitHub login. GitPod is where you will actually write code.

Why code online?

You can learn to code using your personal computer. The complications that pop-up with coding on a personal computer tend to be too big of a hurdle for most beginning coders. Troubleshooting why an install failed, or a coding component doesn't work can be tricky.

By using GitHub for storage, and GitPod for development, you're saving yourself some of that troubleshooting hassle.

If you would like to code locally, Git, Python, and VScode can be installed locally.

Do I need to know Math to program?

Not really. IF you can add 500 + 60 together, you know enough Math to program. This is the kind of Math use in 99% of programming.

The other 1% is a bit more complex, and often falls under the category of Discrete Mathematics. This other Math is used to tell how slow an algorithm might be, or how to sort a list of integers the fastest way. It's a niche category of programming, and often these sorts of calculations are done for you already.

It's similar to how Aztecross, Datto, and Ehroar figure out numbers and share them the Destiny gaming community. It often happens that smart programmers figure out what's the best approach, and share that knowledge with the coding community.

It's beneficial to be able to do the more complex Math, eventually. It's also optional, because it's such a thin slice of overall programming. Much more of programming is about organizing, and writing well (as in, writing English).

Resources

Some of the resources we'll use for Python are listed.

• https://automatetheboringstuff.com/#toc
• https://www.learnpython.org/
• https://learnpythonthehardway.org/python3/
• https://hyperpolyglot.org/scripting

We will eventually want to create web apps, as part of our learning. To do that, we might need to dabble in a small amount of other languages like Javascript and SQL.

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript
• https://eloquentjavascript.net/
• https://opentextbc.ca/dbdesign01/chapter/sql-structured-query-language/
• https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/reference/standard-sql/query-syntax

Finally, we'll need to learn a little bit about Linux and Git. Linux is the operating system (like Windows). Git is the way we'll save our code.

• https://lab.github.com/githubtraining/introduction-to-github
• https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Recording-Changes-to-the-Repository
• https://github.com/git-guides/#make-change-and-make-a-commit

Testing your setup

1. Create your own copy of this repo. Do so by click the USE THIS TEMPLATE button in the upper right. This should ask you to name your new repo.
2. Open your new repo with GitPod. Do so by visiting Gitpod.io and clicking "New Workspace". This should display a menu where you can select your new name you set for your repo.
3. Explore your editor. Make a change in the top window (the editor), and save it using git commands in the bottom window (called the terminal, command line, or CLI).
4. To save your work you'll need to use the git commands listed here. Specifically, git add ., git commit -m "comment", and git push are the three commands to run in order to save your work.
5. Check that your changes are saved to your repository. You should be able to view your repo at https://github.com/the-jujus/learning-python/, where the-jujus is the name of your github account.