Presenter

Stuart Williams

Intended audience

Programmers who want a fast introduction to the basics of Python.

This tutorial is continued with Python 102 (Williams)

Requirements

Bring a laptop computer with Python 2.5 installed. Try to get as much of an overview of Python before the tutorial as you have time to in order to get more out of it. Two angles on this are the Python Quick Reference at http://rgruet.free.fr/PQR25/PQR2.5.html and the Python website's tutorial at http://docs.python.org/tut/tut.html. To facilitate tailoring of the tutorial to the level of participants, they are asked to send one to two paragraphs describing their background with programming and with Python to pycon-tutorial@swilliams.ca.

Summary

This half-day tutorial presents the basics of the Python language to beginning and intermediate programmers. It works best when paired with its companion tutorial Python 102.

Rather than starting with the "Hello, world!" script, this tutorial makes heavy use of the interactive Python interpreter to give participants hands-on familiarity with much of core Python before presenting blocks or scripts.

The tutorial is divided into short sections with both presentation and exercises to quickly cover lots of ground.

Advanced topics are introduced throughout the tutorial and covered in "extra credit" exercises such that more advanced participants can learn at their own pace.

Presenter Biography

Stuart Williams lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada where he works in the financial services industry. He taught first year (university) Introduction to Computer Science using Python, developed a Python summer camp for high school students, and started the Winnipeg Python Users Group where he is a regular presenter. He and his wife keep busy with two young children and third arriving shortly.