Preface to the Interactive Edition

by Brad Miller and David Ranum

There are many books available if you want to learn to program in Python. In fact, we have written a few of them ourselves. However, none of the books are like this one.

Programming is not a “spectator sport”. It is something you do, something you participate in. It would make sense, then, that the book you use to learn programming should allow you to be active. That is our goal.

This book is meant to provide you with an interactive experience as you learn to program in Python. You can read the text, watch videos, and write and execute Python code. In addition to simply executing code, there is a unique feature called ‘codelens’ that allows you to control the flow of execution in order to gain a better understanding of how the program works..

We have tried to use these different presentation techniques where they are most appropriate. In other words, sometimes it might be best to read a description of some aspect of Python. On a different occasion, is might be best to execute a small example program. Often we give you many different options for covering the material. Our hope is that you will find that your understanding will be enhanced because you are able to experience it in more than just one way.

Whats the deal with Logging in?

This edition of the book is hosted as a Google App Engine App. The reason is that for teaching purposes we want our students to be able to save their work in a browser in the lab and get back to it when they are in their room or in a different lab. We also wanted them to be able to turn in homework assignments so that we can grade them. If you are a teacher and want to get access to the grading interface contact Brad Miller. You don’t need to login to use the features of the book, but if you choose to login with any old gmail account you will be able to save your work.

How to Contribute

We invite you to join our open source project. Please visit our web page for more information about obtaining the source: Runestone Interactive

Acknowledgements

This interactive textbook is a triumph of open source. Not only have we stood on the shoulders of Jeffrey Elkner et. al. as the starting point for the prose but the interactive features of this book also make use of open source software. We are indebted to Scott Graham (skulpt.org) for his open source Python interpreter written in Javascript. In addition we are indebted to Philip Guo (https://github.com/pgbovine/OnlinePythonTutor/) for the Online Python Tutor which forms the basis for Codelens.

We would also like to acknowledge the Sphinx project for their fine work in creating a documentation system that allows us to focus on writing not endless hours of Javascript and html coding. In particular without the extension architecture of Sphinx this book would not have made it off the ground.