How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

Learning with Python: Interactive Edition (Using Python 3.x)

by Brad Miller and David Ranum

Luther College

General Introduction

• The Way of the Program
  • Algorithms
  • The Python Programming Language
  • Special Ways to Execute Python in this Book
  • More About Programs
  • What is Debugging?
  • Syntax errors
  • Runtime Errors
  • Semantic Errors
  • Experimental Debugging
  • Formal and Natural Languages
  • A Typical First Program
  • Comments
  • Glossary

Simple Python Data

• Variables, Expressions and Statements
  • Values and Data Types
  • Type conversion functions
  • Variables
  • Variable Names and Keywords
  • Statements and Expressions
  • Operators and Operands
  • Input
  • Order of Operations
  • Reassignment
  • Updating Variables
  • Glossary
  • Exercises

Python Turtle Graphics

• Hello, Little Turtles!
  • Our First Turtle Program
  • Instances — A Herd of Turtles
  • The for Loop
  • Flow of Execution of the for Loop
  • Iteration Simplifies our Turtle Program
  • The range Function
  • A Few More turtle Methods and Observations
  • Summary of Turtle Methods
  • Glossary
  • Exercises

Python Modules

• Modules and Getting Help
  • Modules
  • More About Using Modules
  • The math module
  • The random module
  • Glossary
  • Exercises

Functions

• Functions
  • Functions
  • Functions that return values
  • Variables and parameters are local
  • The Accumulator Pattern
  • Functions can call other functions
  • Flow of execution summary
  • A Turtle Bar Chart
  • Glossary
  • Exercises

Selection

• Decisions and Selection
  • Boolean Values and Boolean Expressions
  • Logical operators
  • Precedence of Operators
  • Conditional Execution: Binary Selection
  • Omitting the else Clause: Unary Selection
  • Nested conditionals
  • Chained conditionals
  • Boolean Functions
  • Glossary
  • Exercises

More About Iteration

• Iteration Revisited
  • The for loop revisited
  • The while Statement
  • Randomly Walking Turtles
  • The 3n + 1 Sequence
  • Newton’s Method
  • Algorithms Revisited
  • Simple Tables
  • 2-Dimensional Iteration: Image Processing
  • Image Processing on Your Own
  • Glossary
  • Exercises

Strings

• Strings
  • Strings Revisited
  • A Collection Data Type
  • Operations on Strings
  • Index Operator: Working with the Characters of a String
  • String Methods
  • Length
  • The Slice Operator
  • String Comparison
  • Strings are Immutable
  • Traversal and the for Loop: By Item
  • Traversal and the for Loop: By Index
  • Traversal and the while Loop
  • The in and not in operators
  • The Accumulator Pattern with Strings
  • Turtles and Strings and L-Systems
  • Looping and counting
  • A find function
  • Optional parameters
  • Character classification
  • Summary
  • Glossary
  • Exercises

Lists

• Lists
  • List Values
  • List Length
  • Accessing Elements
  • List Membership
  • Concatenation and Repetition
  • List Slices
  • Lists are Mutable
  • List Deletion
  • Objects and References
  • Aliasing
  • Cloning Lists
  • Repetition and References
  • List Methods
  • The Return of L-Systems
  • Append versus Concatenate
  • Lists and for loops
  • Using Lists as Parameters
  • Pure Functions
  • Which is Better?
  • Functions that Produce Lists
  • List Comprehensions
  • Nested Lists
  • Strings and Lists
  • list Type Conversion Function
  • Tuples and Mutability
  • Tuple Assignment
  • Tuples as Return Values
  • Glossary
  • Exercises

Files

• Working with Data Files
  • Finding a File on your Disk
  • Reading a File

Dictionaries

• Dictionaries
  • Dictionary operations
  • Dictionary methods
  • Aliasing and copying
  • Sparse matrices
  • Glossary
  • Exercises

Recursion

• Recursion
• Objectives
• What Is Recursion?
  • Calculating the Sum of a List of Numbers
  • The Three Laws of Recursion
  • Converting an Integer to a String in Any Base
• Stack Frames: Implementing Recursion
• Visualizing Recursion
  • Sierpinski Triangle
• Glossary
• Programming Exercises

Defining Classes

• Classes and Objects - the Basics
  • Object-oriented programming
  • A change of perspective
  • Objects Revisited
  • User Defined Classes
  • Improving our Constructor
  • Adding Other Methods to our Class
  • Objects as Arguments and Parameters
  • Converting an Object to a String
  • Instances as Return Values
  • Glossary
  • Exercises
• Classes and Objects - Digging a little deeper
  • Fractions
  • Objects are Mutable
  • Sameness
  • Arithmetic Methods
  • Glossary
  • Exercises

Acknowledgements

• Copyright Notice
• Preface to the Interactive Edition
• Whats the deal with Logging in?
• How to Contribute
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Preface to the Third Edition
• The Rhodes Local Edition (RLE)
• Preface to the First and Second Editions
• Contributor List
• GNU Free Documentation License
• ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

Indices and tables

• Index
• Module Index
• Search Page