Presenter

Dr. Andrew Harrington

Audience

Non-programmers looking to become beginning Python programmers

I am willing to accept middle school and high school kids as well as adults. A parent and child together make a good combination. I do not strongly recommend the tutorial for people with much programming background, but since it is self-paced, those with some background can move through quite effectively: It just might be a bit wordy for them.

Format

Hands-on, interactive

Requirements

Have your own computer, or one shared between a pair of people, with the full Python 2.5 installed, including Idle. Get a head start and save time on Tutorial Day: See the Hands-on Tutorial home page at http://cs.luc.edu/anh/python/hands-on You will certainly want to download and expand the examples zip file. In case we lose internet connectivity, downloading the zip file for the tutorial itself makes sense. Paper copies of the pdf version of Chapters 1 and 2 respectively will be handed out at the two tutorial sessions, also, but the online version is a lot easier to search!

Mac and Linux users may find their machines start with a partial Python installation: Look at the python.org site for instructions on loading the full Python distribution, including Idle. Windows users generally need to download the Python installer from python.org.

Optionally, you can get a head start on the Hands-on Tutorial on your own, and then be able to get extra far along by the end of Tutorial Day!

Summary

Are you curious about Python and programming in general? Are you new to programming? Start with the Hands-on Python Tutorial. Python is a great first programming language, and a language to keep using. In the tutorial you interactively try small bits, get immediate feedback, and build up your understanding and ability. Early examples are text manipulation in a mad-lib generator and graphical animation, which you should understand, play with, and extend. During the tutorial help will always be available as you work at your own rate. You are welcomed to continue with more of the tutorial after PyCon.

Presenter Bio

Dr. Andrew Harrington, Director of Academic Programs in Computer Science, Loyola University Chicago. His original area was mathematics, and his interests morphed through complex analysis, to fractals, image compression, graphics, and into programming languages and algorithms. A current interest of his is to get middle school and high school students to merge the study of algebra and geometry with an understanding of algorithms in Python.

Dr. Harrington went to Kenya and Tanzania in June 2007 with a group of Loyola faculty and staff and took along a couple of an early version of the OLPC computers (www.laptop.org) to test out with students in Tanzania.