Python for the absolute beginner: part 1: Why?
Why would you start programming? Why would you start in python? Why? Why? Why, for your imaginary friend… why?
Python is one of the leading programming languages today and has so many applications from Internet of Things to scripting to whatever you can imagine. I could bore you to death with the history of the language and on what iteration we are now and why and what the connection is with Monty Python, but really I just want to answer the reason why you should learn how to program in the first place.
It’s a wonderful hobby. That’s it. It doesn’t have to be more than this, just something you do out of curiousity or to fascinate or to have something to do… It could lead to a fantastic job, or an awesome project, but you have to do it because it fascinates you first, otherwise you are not going to get far. Trust me. I have been there. I struggled with learning Python because I couldn’t really find a reason why I would learn to program and due to my graduate course now, and in being in the curriculum, I probably would have struggled to learn to program again and again and again.
It fascinated me, that’s for sure, but I couldn’t find an instruction manual that clearly stated this and that and thus, from the very, very beginning, with a beginner in mind, until I met my teacher, the one that taught me in my graduate course and he explained programming in such a beginner-friendly way it was hard not to learn to program, so this is what this guide will be, a guide to programming from the very, very beginning.
Who is this guide for?
For the budding programmer. Those that really want to, but haven’t found a guide or manual or teacher that is teaching them. Or for a maker that wants to learn, but doesn’t want a hard tutorial but still wants all the building blocks to learn to program, without having to search a dozen forums without ever learning to read code. It’s also for those that never outgrew their lego-set and love to build. Step by step and block by block. Learning to code has a lot in common with Lego and building stuff with it. You learn to use all the different blocks to create something that works. Something that does a thing you like. This guide will do that for you.
In the next installment we start with the very first thing that you will need: a variable and together with that we are going to call our first function as well, so you get to see what is happening, with the ultimate beginning of almost any tutorial, Hello world.
