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Introduction to Python Programming

Gowrishankar S., Veena A.

This book presents an intuitive approach to the concepts of Python Programming for
students. It is appropriate for courses generally known as “Introduction to Python
Programming.” We have tried to write a book that assists students in discovering the
power of Python programming. We have taken into account the reality that students taking
“Introduction to Python Programming” course are likely to come from a variety of disciplines.
In addition to Computer Science majors, there tend to be students from other
majors like other engineering streams, physics, chemistry, biology, environmental science,
geography, economics, psychology and business.
This book differs from traditional texts not only in its philosophy but also in its overall
focus, level of activities, development of topics, and attention to programming details. The
emphasis is on understanding Python programming concepts. Reading a programming
book is different from reading a newspaper or a novel. Don’t be discouraged if you have
to read a passage more than once in order to understand it. We recommend that you keep
this book for reference purposes after you finish working through the course. Because
you will likely forget some of the specific details of Python programming language, the
book will serve as a useful reminder. Students will appreciate the many programming
examples within the text. Programs are carefully selected to bring the theoretical concepts
to fruition. Our aim is to get the reader to productivity as quickly as possible without sacrificing
the overall flow quality.
In fact, if you are a novice programmer, with some dedication and hard work you should
be able to learn Python Programming as your first programming language. As we introduce
each new feature of the language, we usually provide a complete program as an
example to illustrate the feature. Just as a picture is worth a thousand words, so is a properly
chosen programming example. We present the material in a way to encourage student
thinking and we show students how to generalize key concepts once they are introduced,
which can be used to solve real-world problems. Programming questions that accompany
the end of each chapter are based on worked examples which help students to gain solid
knowledge of the basics and assess their own level of understanding before moving on.
Students are highly encouraged to solve these programs to gain a solid hold on Python
programming language.
This book takes you through step by step process of learning the Python programming
language. Each line of the code is marked with numbers and is explained in detail. In this
book all the names of variables, strings, lists, dictionaries, tuples, functions, methods and
classes consist of several natural words and in the explanation part they are written in
italics to indicate the readers that they are part of programming code and to distinguish
them from normal words. This programming style of using readable natural names makes
the reading of code lot easier and prevents programming errors. Learning outcome component
is mentioned at the beginning of each chapter that calls the attention of the readers
to important items in the chapter. A summary of important concepts appears at the end
of each chapter.
We hope that students using the book will come away with an appreciation of the beauty,
power, and tremendous utility of Python programming language and that they will have
fun along the way.