Irv Kalb - Learn to program with Python

Irv Kalb

Learn to Program with Python

Irv Kalb

Mountain View, California, USA

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ISBN 978-1-4842-1868-6

e-ISBN 978-1-4842-2172-3

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4842-2172-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016949498

Irv Kalb 2016

Learn to Program with Python

Managing Director: Welmoed Spahr

Lead Editor: Steve Anglin

Technical Reviewer: Michael Thomas

Editorial Board: Steve Anglin, Pramila Balan, Laura Berendson, Aaron Black, Louise Corrigan, Jonathan Gennick, Robert Hutchinson, Celestin Suresh John, Nikhil Karkal, James Markham, Susan McDermott, Matthew Moodie, Natalie Pao, Gwenan Spearing

Coordinating Editor: Mark Powers

Copy Editor: Kim Burton-Weisman

Compositor: SPi Global

Indexer: SPi Global

Artist: SPi Global

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Printed on acid-free paper

This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Lorraine Kalb.

I started learning about programming when I was 16 years old, at Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ. We were extremely fortunate to have a very early computer, an IBM 1130, that students could use.

I remember learning the basics of the Fortran programming language and writing a simple program that would add two numbers together and print the result. I was thrilled when I finally got my program to work correctly. It was a rewarding feeling to be able to get this huge, complicated machine to do exactly what I wanted it to do.

I clearly remember explaining to my mother that I wrote this program that got the computer to add 9 and 5 and come up with an answer of 14. She said that she didnt need a computer to do that. I tried to explain to her that getting the answer of 14 was not the important part. What was important was that I had written a program that would add any two numbers and print the result. She still didnt get it, but she was happy for me and very supportive.

Hopefully, through my explanations in this book, you will get it.

About the Author and About the Technical Reviewer

About the Author

Irv Kalb is an adjunct professor at UCSC (University of California, Santa Cruz) Extension Silicon Valley, Cogswell Polytechnical College, and the Art Institute of California-Silicon Valley. He has been teaching software development classes since 2010.

Irv has worked as a software developer, manager of software developers, and manager of software development projects. He has worked as an independent consultant for many years with his own company, Furry Pants Productions, where he has concentrated on educational software. Prior to that, he worked as an employee for a number of high-tech companies. He has a BS and MS in computer science.

Recently, he has been a mentor to a number of local competitive robotics teams.

His previous publications include numerous technical articles, two childrens edutainment CD-ROMs (about Darby the Dalmatian), an online e-book on object-oriented programming in the Lingo programming language, and the first book on Ultimate Frisbee,