Katie Cunningham - Python in 24 Hours

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Katie Cunningham

800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46240 USA

Sams Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours

Copyright 2014 by Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

ISBN-13: 978-0-672-33687-4
ISBN-10: 0-672-33687-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013944085

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing October 2013

Editor-in-Chief
Mark Taub

Executive Editor
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Development Editor
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Technical Editors
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Katie Cunningham is a Python developer at Cox Media Group. Shes a fervent advocate for Python, open source software, and teaching people how to program. Shes a frequent speaker at open source conferences, such as PyCon and DjangoCon, speaking on beginners topics such as someones first site in the cloud and making a site that is accessible to everyone.

She also helps organize PyLadies in the DC area, a program designed to increase diversity in the Python community. She has taught classes for the organization, bringing novices from installation to writing their first app in 48 hours.

Katie is an active blogger at her website (http://therealkatie.net), covering issues such as Python, accessibility, and the trials and tribulations of working from home.

Katie lives in the DC area with her husband and two children.

This is dedicated to my family, who helps keep me sane every time
I decide to do this again. Jim, thank you for picking up the slack.
Mom, thank you for taking the kids and offering help every time
I started to look like I was going to fall over.
Kids, thank you for being okay with all the delivery food.

This book wouldnt have happened without the help from quite a few people.

First, my editor, Debra Williams Cauley, has been both patient and enthusiastic. Without her, I dont know if I would have ever hit the deadline.

A special thanks goes to my tech editors, Doug Hellmann and Gabriel Nilsson. They were machines when it came to catching my glaring errors, and their suggestions only made this book stronger. Also, a thanks goes out to Richard Jones, who took the time to review my PyGame chapter.

Thanks to Michael Thurston, who made me sound fabulous. I swear, one of these days, Ill learn to spell installation right.

Finally, a thank you goes out to the Python community, who has been on hand every time I had a question, needed a sanity check, or just needed some inspiration. You guys are my home.

Why Python?

I get this question quite a bit. Why should someone learning to program learn Python? Why not a language that was made for beginners, such as Scratch? Why not learn Java or C++, which most colleges seem to be using?

Personally, I believe that Python is an ideal language for beginners. It runs on multiple systems. The syntax (the grammar of the language) isnt fussy. Its easy to read, and many people can walk through a simple script and understand what its doing without ever having written a single line of code.

Its also ideal because its easy for a beginner to move on to more advanced projects. Python is used in a number of areas, from scientific computing to game development. A new programmer can almost always find one, if not multiple, projects to fit their tastes.