Overview

Python is a powerful open-source programming language. It comes with an extensive built-in Python Standard Library which is supplemented by a growing collection of thousands of third-party Python Packages available from the Python Package Index. Best of all, Python is easy-to-learn and use, and has tons of on-line resources available for assistance. If you're looking to pick up a programming language, I highly recommend learning Python.

Links

The following links are for the most important Python resources.

• Python.org is the main software page where all of the official Python resources are maintained.
• Python Standard Library is a sub-page of the Python.org website where all of the built-in Standard Library components are documented.
• Python Package Index is also a sub-page of the Python.org website, where all of the third party Python Packages are listed.

Learning Topics

The following section lists various topics for learning some aspect of Python programming. This is not intended to be another on-line beginners course for learning Python. There are plenty of those already. The intention is to cover some of the less obvious areas of Python, and document them for myself so that I can reference it later. You might be thinking, didn't I say that Python was "easy-to-learn", so what's up with the "less obvious" stuff? I should clarify. Learning the core Python programming language is easy, and there is a ton that can be done with the Standard Library, but some of the real power of Python comes from the third-party libraries, and not every one of those is particularly consistent or well documented.

If you are completely new to Python and happened upon this page by accident, I would suggest bookmarking it, and read through some of the on-line beginners courses such as Learn Python the Hard Way, and come back when you have an understanding of the basics. That said, I was asked by friends and colleagues if I could help get them started with Python, so I've decided that the first Topics will cover some of the basics in a bit more detail than you get from the beginner courses.

Note: If you don't already have a Python IDE installed, then you're probably a true beginner, and I would recommend that you install Thonny before starting. When the topics require something more powerful and complex, I'll let you know.

• Topic 1: For Loops and Iterables
• Topic 2: Print and String Formatting
• Topic 3: How Python Handles Variables
• Topic 4: Create a summary of all unique occurrences in any flat file (Coming Soon)

A list of possible future topics:

• Combine data from multiple files in a directory
• Launch, monitor, and close processes in Python (Windows)
• Read and write files, create directories, etc.
• Use datetime to track execution time, and other stuff
• Handling Python exceptions
• Create a graphical user interface for your Python program
• Add data validation to your GUI data inputs
• Create plots using matplotlib (Requires Anaconda)
• Animate plots using matplotlib (Requires Anaconda)
• Turn your Python program into a Windows executable
• Passing and debugging command line arguments
• Using pyinstaller to distribute python applications
• Write unit tests for your Python code
• What is this shebang thing and what does it do?
• Generating random data in Python
• Socket programming in Python, TCP/IP
• Send emails or text messages using Python
• Bind keyboard and mouse inputs using Python (Windows)
• Read and modify Excel spreadsheets using openpyxl
• Monitor CPU usage and temperature (RPi)
• Publishing your Python Package to PyPi

Additional Resources

• Wikipedia's Python Programming Language webpage
• Python Tutorial Home at w3schools.com
• Python the Hard Way