These notes are intended as an introduction and guide to using Python for data analysis and research.
As big a part of this workshop as any of the formal aims listed below, is that you should enjoy yourself. Python is a fun language because it is relatively easy to read and tells you all about what you did wrong (or what module was broken) if an error occurs.
With that in mind, have fun, and happy learning!
The main components of this workshop are these notes and accompanying exercises.
In addition there will be an introductory talk. From there, you’ll be left to work through the material at your own pace with invaluable guidance and advice available from the workshop demonstrators.
Where appropriate, key points will be emphasized via short interjections during the workshop.
Python is the name of a programming language (created by Dutch programmer Guido Van Rossum as a hobby programming project!), as well as the program, known as an interpreter, that executes scripts (text files) written in that language.
Van Rossum named his new programming language after Monty Python’s Flying Circus (he was reading the published scripts from “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” at the time of developing Python!).
It is common to use Monty Python references in example code. For example, the dummy (aka metasyntactic) variables often used in Python literature are spam and eggs, instead of the traditional foo and bar. As well as this, the official Python documentation often contains various obscure Monty Python references.
Jargon
The program is known as an interpreter because it interprets human readable code into computer readable code and executes it. This is in contrast to compiled programming languages like C, C++, and Java which split this process up into a compile step (conversion of human-readable code into computer code) and a separate execution step, which is what happens when you press on a typical program executable, or run a Java class file using the Java Virtual Machine.
Because of it’s focus on code readability and highly expressive syntax (meaning that programmers can write less code than would be required with languages like C or Java), Python has grown hugely in popularity and is now one of the most popular programming languages in use.
During this workshop, hopefully you will cover most if not all of the following sections
[ abs(x) for x in y ])with)yield)Optional sections include
skimage) & Scipy’s ndimage submoduleWe will not be delivering hours of lectures on programming constructs and theory, or detailing how every function of every module works.
For both environmental reasons and to ensure that you have the most up-to-date version, we recommend that you work from the online version of these notes.
A printable, single page version of these notes is available here.
Please email any typos, mistakes, broken links or other suggestions to j.metz@exeter.ac.uk.
If you want to use Python on your own computer I would recomend using one of the following “distributions” of Python, rather than just the basic Python interpreter.
Amongst other things, these distributions take the pain out of getting started because they include all modules you’re likely to need to get started as well as links to pre-configured consoles that make running Python a breeze.
sudo apt-get install python3 from a terminal will install Python 3. Alternatively use Anaconda.Note : Be sure to download the Python 3, not 2, and get the correct acrchitecture for your machine (ie 32 or 64 bit).