GASP Beginners Python Course¶
Written by Students for Students¶
Introduction¶
Welcome to the GASP Beginners Python Course! A learning place so great, it will take your breath away.
There are a lot of worksheets in our beginners’ Python course. The most important are the six numbered sheets; you should work your way through those. But they’ll be pretty hard going unless you also make use of the lettered sheets, which give you useful information about particular topics.
This sheet gives a very brief description of all the sheets.
Each sheet has been given a difficulty rating : one to three stars.
- * Basic.
This stuff is reasonably easy, and you’ll need to know it.
- ** Intermediate.
This is trickier, but useful.
- *** Advanced.
If you’re feeling smart and/or adventurous, you might try these.
Numbered worksheets¶
Things to try, programs to write.
1 * Introducing Python You should read this first. It’s a little tour of some of the simpler things you can do with Python.
2 * Turning the Tables Computers are better at arithmetic than people. By the end of this sheet you’ll have written a program that tests you on your tables.
3 ** Pretty Pictures An introduction to graphics in Python. This sheet also introduces the important idea of functions.
4 * Higher! Lower! Writing a guessing game program. Not very hard, but there are plenty of ideas for taking it further.
5 ** The Robots are Coming! A graphical game in which you try to outwit a horde of robots.
Lettered worksheets¶
Important (and a few unimportant) topics.
A * Lists Lists of things are important in Python. This sheet shows you some things you can do with them.
C * Conditions and Conditionals How to tell the computer Do this if so-and-so is true; otherwise, do that.
D ** Dictionaries and Tuples Dictionaries and tuples: two kinds of object that aren’t covered elsewhere in the course.
E * Errors (also called Exceptions) Some rude messages you might get from Python, and what they mean.
F ** Functions An important tool for organizing programs.
G ** Gasp More details about drawing movable shapes with Python.
I * Input and Output How to make Python tell you things and ask you questions.
J * Jargon A guide to some technical terms. A useful sheet to have around.
L * Loops How to do things over and over again. Important.
M *** Modules An advanced topic: How Python manages to provide a huge number of useful functions without being too confusing.
O ** Objects and Classes Fairly easy. Important for the Games worksheets.
S * Strings What you can do with bits of text.
T ** Time How to tell the time, wait for 0.3 of a second, etc.