python_introduction/learning_python3.md

# What we'll learn

You'll learn **three** things at the same time so don't get discouraged if it feels a bit much at the start.
Everybody's issues will be in these three different domains and at the beginning it can be difficult to differentiate between them.
Keep this in mind, everybody has to go through this stage and the *click* comes at different times for different people but everybody clicks at some point!
The three new things you'll learn:

1. the **concepts** of programming, most notably Object Orientated Programming (OOP)
2. the **syntax** of one particular language, in our case Python3
3. the **tools** needed to start programming in our language of choice

Within each of these topics there are *subtopics* but there are not bottomless!
Below is a small overview of how I would subdivide them.

## Concepts

The subtopics behind the concept of programming can be sliced (in no particular order) as follows:

* objects or **OOP** (Object Orientated Programming)
	* abstraction
	* encapsulation
	* inheritance
	* polymorphism
* variables (which are **not** *boxes* in python3)
* conditional logic
* functions
* loops

The concept behind these topics are the same in most languages, it's just *how* you write them that is different.
This *how* is part of the **syntax** of the language.

## Syntax

> In computer science, the syntax of a computer language is the set of rules that defines the combinations of symbols that are considered to be correctly structured statements or expressions in that language.
> This applies both to programming languages, where the document represents source code, and to markup languages, where the document represents data.
> The syntax of a language defines its surface form.[1] Text-based computer languages are based on sequences of characters,

The quote above is taken shamelessly from [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax_(programming_languages)).

## Tools

### Writing code

Scripts are text files, plain and simple.
So in order to **write** a Python3 script all we need is a text editor.
Nano, vim, notepad++ all do a good job of editing plain text files but some make it *easier* than others.
You've noticed that vim colors the code of a shell script no?
One of the many features of an [IDE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_development_environment) is *syntax highlighting*.
It colors things such as [keywords](https://realpython.com/python-keywords/) which makes our life so much nicer when writing code.
We'll come back to these features in a bit.

### Running code

In order to **run** Python3 code you need the Python3 interpreter.
This is because when you **execute** your script, the interpreter will **read and execute** each line of the text file **line by line**.

Most people who want to write and run Python3 code, or any language for that matter, will install an Integrated Development Environment to do so.
There are no *rules* as to what has to be included for a program to qualify as an IDE but in my opinion they should include:

* syntax highlighting
* autocomplete
* *goto* commands such as goto definition, goto declaration, goto references
* automatic *pair* opening and closing
* builtin help navigation

There is a plethora of IDE's available and you can't really make a *wrong* choice here, but to make the overall learning curve a bit less steep we'll start out with a user friendly IDE, [pycharm](https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/installation-guide.html).

# The python3 shell

TODO animated overview of the shell and the world of OOP

# Installing pycharm

TODO

# Your first project

In almost any language you'll find a *helloworld* program.
It serves to illustrate a *very* basic working script or program to showcase the syntax.
In python a helloworld is done as such.

```python3
print("Hello World!")
```

Just for reference below are a few helloworld programs in different languages.
First `c#` then `c` and last but not least `javascript`.

```c#
Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
```

```c
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
   printf("Hello World!");
   return 0;
}
```

```javascript
alert( 'Hello, world!' );
```

## How to execute

* within pycharm
* from the command line

## Simple printing

The most basic printing can be done by calling the `print` function.
In python a call is symbolized by the `()`.
In practice this becomes as follows.

```python3
print("hello world")
print("my name is Wouter")
print("I'm", 35, "years old")
```

🏃 Try it
---

Try printing different lines and with combinations of different object types such as `int`, `float` and `str`.
What happens if you *add* (`+`) values to one another?


We can also print the objects referenced by variables.
A simple example:

```python3
name = "Wouter"
age = "35"

print("Hello, my name is", name, "and I'm", age, "years old.")
```

While it works perfectly well it's not super *readable*.
We can improve the readability by using either string replacement or string formatting.
My personal preference is string formatting.

🏃 Try it
---

Have a look at both ways illustrated below and try them out.


## String replacement

```python3
name = "Wouter"
age = "35"

print(f"Hello, my name is {name} and I'm {age} years old.")
```

## String formatting

```python3
name = "Wouter"
age = "35"

print("Hello, my name is {} and I'm {} years old.".format(name, age))
```

## Some links to read up

* [realpython string formatting](https://realpython.com/python-string-formatting/)

# Taking input

The first **builtin function** we saw is `print` which can be used to signal messages to the user.
But how can we **get** some information from the user?
This is done with the `input` function.
If we open up a python shell we can observe it's behaviour.

```python3
>>> input()
hello world
'hello world'
>>> 
```

It seems to echo back what we type on the empty line.
If we take this idea and add it to a script the behaviour changes slightly.
The [prompt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command-line_interface#Command_prompt) appears but when we hit `enter` the text is not printed.
This is one of the slight nuances between running scripts and using the shell.
The shell is more *verbose* and will explicitly tell you what a function returns, unless it doesn't return anything.

## Functions can return something

So, functions can **return** something but how can we *use* the returned objects?
This is where **variables** come in handy.
The `input` function will **always** return an object of type `str`.
If we want to use this object later in our code we need to add a *post-it* to it so we can reference it later.
Remember that the object is created by the function call, and we add the reference after the object's creation.

```python3
print("What is your name? ")
answer = input()
print("Well hello", answer, "!")
```

**When looking at the code block above did you notice the *empty space* I added after my question?
Can you tell me why I did that?**

🏃 Try it
---

Try playing around with the `input` function and incorporate the different ways to print with it.
Ask multiple questions and combine the answers to print on one line.

## Functions can take arguments

Some, if not most, functions will take one or more arguments when calling them.
This might sound complicated but you've already done this!
The `print` function takes *a-message-to-print* as an argument, or even multiple ones as you probably noticed when playing around.

The `input` function *can* take arguments but as we've seen does not *require* an argument.
When looking at the documentation we can discover **what** the function does, how to **call** the function and what it **returns**.

⛑ **CTRL-q opens the documentation in pycharm**

```
Help on built-in function input in module builtins:

input(prompt=None, /)
    Read a string from standard input.  The trailing newline is stripped.
    
    The prompt string, if given, is printed to standard output without a
    trailing newline before reading input.
    
    If the user hits EOF (*nix: Ctrl-D, Windows: Ctrl-Z+Return), raise EOFError.
    On *nix systems, readline is used if available.
```

We can add one **argument** inside the `input` call which serves as a prompt.
Now which `type` should the object we pass to `input` be?
The most logical type would be a `str` that represents the *question* to ask the user no?
Let's try it out.

```python3
```

# Taking input and evaluation

TODO say hello plus ask for age

* slightly insist on *blocking* nature of `input()`

## Conditional logic  

* introduction to `if`, `elif` and `else`

## Class string methods

# Coding challenge - Celsius to Fahrenheit converter

# A text based adventure game

TODO mini text based adventure game to point out the complexity of conditional logic and flow control

# Creating your own functions 

## Functions that *do* something

TODO recipe with variable flavor (chocolate, vanilla, ...)
TODO pretty_print

## Variable scope

## Functions that *return* something

TODO basic math functions

# Using the standard library

TODO import random exercise (digital dice)
TODO import datetime exercise (will it be Sunday)
TODO simple ROT13 cryptography with multiple libs

# Coding challenge - Memento Mori calculator

# Writing your first library

TODO import pretty print and digital dice

## What are libraries?

## How do we write libraries?

## What is `__name__ == "__main__"`?

## Anatomy of a program

TODO imports, functions, execution

# While loop 

TODO guess the number exercise 

# Lists

## Creating lists

## Picking elements

## Slicing lists

# For loop

TODO say hello to my friends exercise

# Coding challenge - Cheerleader chant

TODO nested for loop exercise

# Handling files

## Reading from a file

## Writing to a file

## csv, JSON and yaml

## pickle

# Coding challenge - Login generator

TODO write a login generator as a library with a cli as program
BONUS argparse, save to file, read from file

# Dictionaries as data containers

TODO adapt the login generator to output a dict

# Creating our own classes

## Class examples

TODO simple animal or vehicle exercise
TODO task manager

## Class inheritance

TODO shapes and surfaces
TODO superhero game

## Improve the login generator

TODO convert the login generator to a class

# Infinite programs

* insist on the nature of scripts we did up until now

## Logic breakdown of a simple game

TODO hangman exercise

## Trivial pursuit multiple choice game

TODO [db](https://opentdb.com/api_config.php)

### Introduction to the `requests` library

## Threading

TODO add a countdown timer to the multiple choice game

# GUI programming

## wxpython helloworld

## wxpython guess the number

## MVC design pattern

# Coding challenge - Login generator with GUI

# Coding challenge - Trivial pursuit with GUI

# Introduction to the `logging` library