A collection of large—scale problems for “learning by doing.” With detailed and careful analysis of the real world situations surrounding common programming problems. -- Back cover.

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python will teach you how to make computer games using the popular Python programming language—even if you’ve never programmed before! Begin by building classic games like Hangman, Guess the Number, and Tic-Tac-Toe, and then work your way up to more advanced games, like a text-based treasure hunting game and an animated collision-dodging game with sound effects. Along the way, you’ll learn key programming and math concepts that will help you take your game programming to the next level. Learn how to: –Combine loops, variables, and flow control statements into real working programs –Choose the right data structures for the job, such as lists, dictionaries, and tuples –Add graphics and animation to your games with the pygame module –Handle keyboard and mouse input –Program simple artificial intelligence so you can play against the computer –Use cryptography to convert text messages into secret code –Debug your programs and find common errors As you work through each game, you’ll build a solid foundation in Python and an understanding of computer science fundamentals. What new game will you create with the power of Python? The projects in this book are compatible with Python 3.

This book is aimed at readers who are interested in software development but have very little to no prior experience. The book focuses on teaching the core principles around software development. It uses several technologies to this goal (e.g. C, Python, JavaScript, HTML, etc.) but is not a book about the technologies themselves. The reader will learn the basics (or in some cases more) of various technologies along the way, but the focus is on building a foundation for software development. The book is your guided tour through the programming jungle, aiming to provide some clarity and build the foundation for software development skills. The book web site is https: //progbook.org/

Learning to Program will help students build a solid foundation in programming that can prepare them to achieve just about any programming goal. Whether they want to become a professional software programmer, learn how to more effectively communicate with programmers, or are just curious about how programming works, this book is a great first step in helping to get there.

Why every child needs to learn to code: the shift from “computational thinking” to computational participation. Coding, once considered an arcane craft practiced by solitary techies, is now recognized by educators and theorists as a crucial skill, even a new literacy, for all children. Programming is often promoted in K-12 schools as a way to encourage “computational thinking”—which has now become the umbrella term for understanding what computer science has to contribute to reasoning and communicating in an ever-increasingly digital world. In Connected Code, Yasmin Kafai and Quinn Burke argue that although computational thinking represents an excellent starting point, the broader conception of “computational participation” better captures the twenty-first-century reality. Computational participation moves beyond the individual to focus on wider social networks and a DIY culture of digital “making.” Kafai and Burke describe contemporary examples of computational participation: students who code not for the sake of coding but to create games, stories, and animations to share; the emergence of youth programming communities; the practices and ethical challenges of remixing (rather than starting from scratch); and the move beyond stationary screens to programmable toys, tools, and textiles.

Get Programming: Learn to code with Python teaches you the basics of computer programming using the Python language. In this exercise-driven book, you'll be doing something on nearly every page as you work through 38 compact lessons and 7 engaging capstone projects. By exploring the crystal-clear illustrations, exercises that check your understanding as you go, and tips for what to try next, you'll start thinking like a programmer in no time. This book works perfectly alongside our video course Get Programming with Python in Motion, available exclusively at Manning.com: www.manning.com/livevideo/get-programming-with-python-in-motion Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. What's Inside Programming skills you can use in any language Learn to code—no experience required Learn Python, the language for beginners Dozens of exercises and examples help you learn by doing About the Reader No prior programming experience needed. Table of Contents LEARNING HOW TO PROGRAM Lesson 1 - Why should you learn how to program? Lesson 2 - Basic principles of learning a programming language UNIT 1 - VARIABLES, TYPES, EXPRESSIONS, AND STATEMENTS Lesson 3 - Introducing Python: a programming language Lesson 4 - Variables and expressions: giving names and values to things Lesson 5 - Object types and statements of code 46 Lesson 6 - Capstone project: your first Python program-convert hours to minutes UNIT 2 - STRINGS, TUPLES, AND INTERACTING WITH THE USER Lesson 7 - Introducing string objects: sequences of characters Lesson 8 - Advanced string operations Lesson 9 - Simple error messages Lesson 10 - Tuple objects: sequences of any kind of object Lesson 11 - Interacting with the user Lesson 12 - Capstone project: name mashup UNIT 3 - MAKING DECISIONS IN YOUR PROGRAMS Lesson 13 - Introducing decisions in programs Lesson 14 - Making more-complicated decisions Lesson 15 - Capstone project: choose your own adventure UNIT 4 - REPEATING TASKS Lesson 16 - Repeating tasks with loops Lesson 17 - Customizing loops Lesson 18 - Repeating tasks while conditions hold Lesson 19 - Capstone project: Scrabble, Art Edition UNIT 5 - ORGANIZING YOUR CODE INTO REUSABLE BLOCKS Lesson 20 - Building programs to last Lesson 21 - Achieving modularity and abstraction with functions Lesson 22 - Advanced operations with functions Lesson 23 - Capstone project: analyze your friends UNIT 6 - WORKING WITH MUTABLE DATA TYPES Lesson 24 - Mutable and immutable objects Lesson 25 - Working with lists Lesson 26 - Advanced operations with lists Lesson 27 - Dictionaries as maps between objects Lesson 28 - Aliasing and copying lists and dictionaries Lesson 29 - Capstone project: document similarity UNIT 7 - MAKING YOUR OWN OBJECT TYPES BY USING OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING Lesson 30 - Making your own object types Lesson 31 - Creating a class for an object type Lesson 32 - Working with your own object types Lesson 33 - Customizing classes Lesson 34 - Capstone project: card game UNIT 8 - USING LIBRARIES TO ENHANCE YOUR PROGRAMS Lesson 35 - Useful libraries Lesson 36 - Testing and debugging your programs Lesson 37 - A library for graphical user interfaces Lesson 38 - Capstone project: game of tag Appendix A - Answers to lesson exercises Appendix B - Python cheat sheet Appendix C - Interesting Python libraries

Now a Wall Street Journal bestseller. Learn a new talent, stay relevant, reinvent yourself, and adapt to whatever the workplace throws your way. Ultralearning offers nine principles to master hard skills quickly. This is the essential guide to future-proof your career and maximize your competitive advantage through self-education. In these tumultuous times of economic and technological change, staying ahead depends on continual self-education—a lifelong mastery of fresh ideas, subjects, and skills. If you want to accomplish more and stand apart from everyone else, you need to become an ultralearner. The challenge of learning new skills is that you think you already know how best to learn, as you did as a student, so you rerun old routines and old ways of solving problems. To counter that, Ultralearning offers powerful strategies to break you out of those mental ruts and introduces new training methods to help you push through to higher levels of retention. Scott H. Young incorporates the latest research about the most effective learning methods and the stories of other ultralearners like himself—among them Benjamin Franklin, chess grandmaster Judit Polgár, and Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman, as well as a host of others, such as little-known modern polymath Nigel Richards, who won the French World Scrabble Championship—without knowing French. Young documents the methods he and others have used to acquire knowledge and shows that, far from being an obscure skill limited to aggressive autodidacts, ultralearning is a powerful tool anyone can use to improve their career, studies, and life. Ultralearning explores this fascinating subculture, shares a proven framework for a successful ultralearning project, and offers insights into how you can organize and exe - cute a plan to learn anything deeply and quickly, without teachers or budget-busting tuition costs. Whether the goal is to be fluent in a language (or ten languages), earn the equivalent of a college degree in a fraction of the time, or master multiple tools to build a product or business from the ground up, the principles in Ultralearning will guide you to success.

It's easier to learn how to program a computer than it has ever been before. Now everyone can learn to write programs for themselves - no previous experience is necessary. Chris Pine takes a thorough, but lighthearted approach that teaches you the fundamentals of computer programming, with a minimum of fuss or bother. Whether you are interested in a new hobby or a new career, this book is your doorway into the world of programming. Computers are everywhere, and being able to program them is more important than it has ever been. But since most books on programming are written for other programmers, it can be hard to break in. At least it used to be. Chris Pine will teach you how to program. You'll learn to use your computer better, to get it to do what you want it to do. Starting with small, simple one-line programs to calculate your age in seconds, you'll see how to write interactive programs, to use APIs to fetch live data from the internet, to rename your photos from your digital camera, and more. You'll learn the same technology used to drive modern dynamic websites and large, professional applications. Whether you are looking for a fun new hobby or are interested in entering the tech world as a professional, this book gives you a solid foundation in programming. Chris teaches the basics, but also shows you how to think like a programmer. You'll learn through tons of examples, and through programming challenges throughout the book. When you finish, you'll know how and where to learn more - you'll be on your way. What You Need: All you need to learn how to program is a computer (Windows, macOS, or Linux) and an internet connection. Chris Pine will lead you through setting set up with the software you will need to start writing programs of your own.

Why children should be taught coding not as a technical skill but as a new literacy—a way to express themselves and engage with the world. Today, schools are introducing STEM education and robotics to children in ever-lower grades. In Beyond Coding, Marina Umaschi Bers lays out a pedagogical roadmap for teaching code that encompasses the cultivation of character along with technical knowledge and skills. Presenting code as a universal language, she shows how children discover new ways of thinking, relating, and behaving through creative coding activities. Today’s children will undoubtedly have the technical knowledge to change the world. But cultivating strength of character, socioeconomic maturity, and a moral compass alongside that knowledge, says Bers, is crucial. Bers, a leading proponent of teaching computational thinking and coding as early as preschool and kindergarten, presents examples of children and teachers using the Scratch Jr. and Kibo robotics platforms to make explicit some of the positive values implicit in the process of learning computer science. If we are to do right by our children, our approach to coding must incorporate the elements of a moral education: the use of narrative to explore identity and values, the development of logical thinking to think critically and solve technical and ethical problems, and experiences in the community to enable personal relationships. Through learning the language of programming, says Bers, it is possible for diverse cultural and religious groups to find points of connection, put assumptions and stereotypes behind them, and work together toward a common goal.

Best-selling author Al Sweigart shows you how to easily build over 80 fun programs with minimal code and maximum creativity. If you’ve mastered basic Python syntax and you’re ready to start writing programs, you’ll find The Big Book of Small Python Projects both enlightening and fun. This collection of 81 Python projects will have you making digital art, games, animations, counting pro- grams, and more right away. Once you see how the code works, you’ll practice re-creating the programs and experiment by adding your own custom touches. These simple, text-based programs are 256 lines of code or less. And whether it’s a vintage screensaver, a snail-racing game, a clickbait headline generator, or animated strands of DNA, each project is designed to be self-contained so you can easily share it online. You’ll create: • Hangman, Blackjack, and other games to play against your friends or the computer • Simulations of a forest fire, a million dice rolls, and a Japanese abacus • Animations like a virtual fish tank, a rotating cube, and a bouncing DVD logo screensaver • A first-person 3D maze game • Encryption programs that use ciphers like ROT13 and Vigenère to conceal text If you’re tired of standard step-by-step tutorials, you’ll love the learn-by-doing approach of The Big Book of Small Python Projects. It’s proof that good things come in small programs!