Resources
Learning to program involves learning not only the syntax and rules of a new language, but also a new way of thinking. Not only do we want to write code that is understandable by the computer, we must also understand what the computer will do when it tries to run that code.
A key part of that is learning to think like a computer thinks. We sometimes call this our “mental model” of a computer. If we have a good “mental model” of a computer, then we can learn to read code and mentally predict what it will do, even without ever running it on an actual computer. This ability is crucial for programmers to develop.
So, as we work through this lab, we’ll need to constantly pay attention to how a real computer works, and make sure that our “mental model” is accurate. If not, we’ll have to adapt our understanding of a computer to match the real world. This process of adaptation and accommodation is an important part of learning to program - we have to have a good understanding of what a computer actually does when it runs our code, or else we won’t be able to write code that will do what we want it to do.
We’ve chosen Python because it is very easy to learn, easy to use, and it is used in many different places, from scientific computing and data analysis to web servers and even artificial intelligence. It is a very useful language to learn, and it makes a great first programming language.
As we learn to write code in a real programming language, it helps to refer to the actual documentation from time to time. So, we recommend bookmarking the official Python Documentation as a great place to start. Throughout this course, we may also include links to additional resources, and those are also worth bookmarking. One of the best parts about programming is that nearly all of the documentation is online and easily accessible, and learning how to quickly search for a particular solution or reference is just as useful as knowing how to do it from memory. In fact, most programmers really only know the basics of the language and a few handy tricks, and the rest of it is just reading documentation and learning when to use it. So, don’t worry about remembering it all right from the start - instead, learn to read the documentation and use the tools that are available, and focus on understanding the basics of the language’s syntax and rules. Let’s get started!