Introduction - Video Tutorials & Practice Problems

<v ->Hello and welcome to introduction to Python livelessons,</v> Learn How to Program Today with Python. My name is Arianne Dee and I'll be your instructor. I started my programming journey in 2009 by teaching myself Python through online tutorials and now I want to help you do the same thing. After a computer science degree and a couple of jobs where I mostly worked in Java, I eventually found my way back to Python in 2015. Ever since then, it's been my language of choice, both for work and for teaching. I've use Python for building a wide range of applications like a smart heating system for complex buildings, a prototype for rain barrels that prevents flooding in cities and a web platform to improve transparency within companies. I'm also an instructor at Canada Learning Code and at MakerLabs in Vancouver. Since the world of computer technology is such a vast ocean of knowledge it can be overwhelming at first to know how to start. I've developed this course with beginners in mind so that in addition to learning how to code in Python you also get additional contextual discussions that most courses don't include. I'll go over topics like, why there are so many programming languages out there and how to solve problems like a programmer. Also, how to continue learning after this course. So, if you already know how to program or you are only interested in the programming lessons, feel free to skip over the get more context sublessons that are included in each section. Also, remember you can adjust the video playback speed faster or slower to suit your pace. In lesson one, we set up your computer with Python and PyCharm which is a code editor specifically designed for Python programming. After running some Python code, I discuss what programming is and how programming fits into the spectrum of programming languages. In lessons two to four, you learn the fundamentals of programming in Python, like types, conditionals, functions and loops. In order to consolidate your learning you'll also be writing a number of small, text-based games that build on the previous lessons. The context lessons in the sections cover Python's history, what skills you need to be a programmer and how to write clean code. Finally, in lessons five to seven we go beyond the basics. In those lessons, we cover skills that you'll need to work as a Python developer like using classes, importing external libraries and setting up virtual environments. You'll also get a quick and dirty intro to the basics of data analysis and web programming which are two of the more popular uses of Python. It's such a versatile language and I'm excited to help you get started in your programming journey with Python today.