Information on Python

Python on itlabs.cs.umn.edu or cs.umn.edu machines

To use phyton from your itlabs.umn.edu or cs.umn.edu account you need first to type:

 module load soft/python

This works on all the Solaris and Linux machines. You can avoid typing the module load command by adding it to youe .cshrc file. You can start python in three ways:

You type:
```
 python 
```
This starts Python in the interactive mode. In interactive mode you type to the Python interpreter, which will read and execute your commands.
If you want to execute the commands in a file, let's say in the file file.py, type
```
 python file.py
```
. Python will read the file, execute it, and exit.
If instead you want to load a file, execute it, and then start the interactive mode, type
```
 python -i file.py
```
.

Getting started with Python

Python runs under many operating systems. For information on python go to python.org
Make sure you use Python 2.1 or later, otherwise the scoping rules are different. Versions before 2.1 have dynamic scoping instead of lexical scoping.
You might find it useful to set up emacs (Xemacs) for python

Information about the Python language

Python for Lisp Programmers by Peter Norvig provides a brief high-level introduction to Python by comparing it with Lisp. It includes also data on comparing the speed of Lisp, Python, and other programming languages. Short but with most of the essential material.
python.org has numerous tutorials on Python covering everything from basic to advanced material. Look at the Python Intros page.
- For a full tutorial look at Python Tutorial by Guido van Rossum. This is the tutorial I recommend most highly. It includes many examples.
- A tutorial for advanced programmers with material on scripting applications, writing unit tests, etc is Dive Into Python by Mark Pilgrim.
Python 2.2 Quick Reference includes all the data types, functions, etc available in the language. It is very useful as a reference, but not as a way of learning the language.
A full textbook How to Think Like a Computer Scientist. Learning with Python, by Allen B. Downey, Jeffrey Elkner and Chris Meyers on using Python to learn computer science concepts.

Basic concepts in Python

Things we will learn:

basic syntax: rules of indentation, single and double quote, comments
how to import from files: import modulename, from modulename import *
data structures: python lists, tuples, dictionaries.
control structures: if, for, while
scoping rules: closures over read-only variables
functions: definitions, function calls, optional arguments, keywords
higher-order functions: map, filter
classes

Copyright: © 2000-2007 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
Department of Computer Science and Engineering. All rights reserved.
Comments to: Maria Gini
Changes and corrections are in red.