Python Workshop For BSOS Faculty
January 9-12, 2017
Topic: Python, known for its simplicity, power, and efficiency, has been increasingly used in teaching and researching. This workshop introduces conceptual and practical aspects of using Python for beginners in programming. The main focus is on developing a solid understanding of basic programming techniques of using Python, including variables, looping, conditional statements, nesting, math, strings, and other concepts. The examples and problems will be drawn from diverse areas such as text processing, simple graphics creation and image manipulation, HTML and web programming, spatial data processing, etc.
Dates and Times: January 9, 10, 11, and 12, 2017 from 10am until 3pm (lunch will be provided)
Location: Chincoteague 2113
Instructor: Dr. Ruibo Han (ruibo [at] umd.edu)
Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with the required software pre-installed (see "Software" below).
Software
Python and Wing IDE are required for the workshop.
Python - How to download and install
(Based on https://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/Download)
Python might have been installed on your computer though you may never used it before, so please check if Python is install by entering python in a command line window. If you see a response from a Python interpreter which include a version number in its initial display, it means that Python is installed in your system. Any recent 2.x of Python 2 or 3.x of Python 3 versions will do for this workshop, though I recommend Python 2.7.13 if you are going for a fresh installation. If you want to learn more about the choices between Python 2 and Python 3, see Python 2 or 3.
If you're running Windows: the most stable Windows downloads are available from the Python for Windows page.
If you are using a Mac, see the Python for Mac OS X page. MacOS 10.2 (Jaguar), 10.3 (Panther), 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard) already include various versions of Python.
For Red Hat, install the python2 and python2-devel packages.
For Debian or Ubuntu, install the python2.x and python2.x-dev packages.
For other systems, or if you want to install from source, see the general download page.
After installation, open a command line window, and type python and then press enter, a Python interpreter dispalys with version number indicates Python is installed and running successfully.
Wing IDE - How to download and install
The Wing IDE is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Wingware that is designed specifically for the programming language Python, to reduce development and debugging time, coding errors, and make it easier to understand and navigate Python code. It is one of the best Python IDE I have used, and we got free license as education users. NOTE: Please make sure that Python is installed before you install Wing IDE.
Go to https://wingware.com/downloads to download and install the version of Wing IDE Pro v.5.1.12 for your operating system. Refer to https://wingware.com/doc/install/installing if you need further help with installing the software.
Use this Limited Term Free License 6N31D-YCJKR-2A1TF-D4NWD to register your Wing IDE.
Please read these two pages if you want to get familiar with Wing IDE by yourself (Don't worry if you find some sections are difficult to understand at this time):
Tutorial: Getting Around Wing IDE
Now, you are prepared for the Python workshop.
If you'd like to get a head start with Python program, there are a large nubmer of online tutorials, such as https://www.codecademy.com/learn/python, or https://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ is another good site if you don’t like the style of codecademy.
Day 1 Slides Download Excecises: Omelet_solution.py Mad lib.py
Day 2 Materials available at Link
This page will be continously updated for posting learning materials...
Acknowledgements & Support
Portions of the materials here are adopted from https://www.python.org/.
