This document is intended to be handed out at the end of the workshop. It has

been designed for Engineering students who are Python beginners and have basic

programming skills. The focus is on basic numerics and plotting using Python.

The system requirements:

  * Python - version 2.5.x or newer.

  * Text editor - scite, vim, emacs or whatever you are comfortable with.

The Python programming language was created by a dutch named Guido van Rossum.

The idea of Python was conceived in December 1989. The name Python has nothing

to do with the reptilian, but its been named after the 70s comedy series 

"Monty Python's Flying Circus", since it happens to be Guido's favourite 

TV series. 

Current stable version of Python is 2.6.x, although Python 3.0 is also the stable

version, it is not backwards compatible with the previous versions and is hence

not entirely popular at the moment. This material will focus on the 2.6.x series.

Python is licensed under the Python Software Foundation License (PSF License) 

which is GPL compatible Free Software license (excepting license version 1.6 and 2.0)

It is a no strings attached license, which means the source code is free to modify

and redistribute.

The Python docs define Python as "Python is an interpreted, object-oriented, 

high-level programming language with dynamic semantics." A more detailed summary

can be found at http://www.python.org/doc/essays/blurb.html. Python is a language that

has been designed to help the programmer concentrate on solving the problem at hand

and not worry about the programming language idiosyncrasies.

Python is a highly cross platform compatible language on account of it being an 

interpreted language. It is highly scalable and hence has been adapted to run on 

the Nokia 60 series phones. Python has been designed to be readable and easy to use

**Resources available for reference**

* Web: http://www.python.org

* Doc: http://www.python.org/doc

* Free Tutorials:

    * Official Python Tutorial: http://docs.python.org/tut/tut.html

    * Byte of Python: http://www.byteofpython.info/

    * Dive into Python: http://diveintopython.org/

**Advantages of Python - Why Python??**

* Python has been designed for readability and ease of use. Its been designed in 

  such a fashion that it imposes readability on the programmer. Python does away

  with the braces and the semicolons and instead implements code blocks based on 

  indentation, thus enhancing readability. 

* Python is a high level, interpreted, modular and object oriented language.

  Python performs memory management on its own, thus the programmer need not bother

  about allocating and deallocating memory to variables. Python provides extensibility

  by providing modules which can be easily imported similar to headers in C and 

  packages in Java. Python is object oriented and hence provides all the object oriented

  characteristics such as inheritance, encapsulation and polymorphism.

* Python offers a highly powerful interactive programming interface in the form

  of the 'Interactive Interpreter' which will be discussed in more detail in the 

  following sections.

* Python provides a rich standard library and an extensive set of modules. The 

  power of Python modules can be seen in this slightly exaggerated cartoon

  http://xkcd.com/353/

* Python interfaces well with most other programming languages such as C, C++ 

  and FORTRAN.

Although, Python has one setback. Python is not fast as some of the compiled 

languages like C or C++. Yet, the amount of flexibility and power more than make

up for this setback.

Typing *python* at the shell prompt on any standard Unix/Gnu-Linux system and

hitting the enter key fires up the Python 'Interactive Interpreter'. The Python

interpreter is one of the most integral features of Python. The prompt obtained

when the interactive interpreter is similar to what is shown below. The exact

appearance might differ based on the version of Python being used. The ``>>>``

thing shown is the python prompt. When something is typed at the prompt and the

enter key is hit, the python interpreter interprets the command entered and

performs the appropriate action.

::

  Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Oct  5 2008, 19:24:49) 

  [GCC 4.3.2] on linux2

  Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

  >>> 

Lets try with an example, type ``print 'Hello, World!'`` at the prompt and hit

the enter key. 

::

  >>> print 'Hello, World!'

  Hello, World!

This example was quite straight forward, and thus we have written our first

line of Python code. Now let us try typing something arbitrary at the prompt.

For example: 

::

  >>> arbit word

    File "<stdin>", line 1

      arbit word

              ^

  SyntaxError: invalid syntax

  >>>

The interpreter gave an error message saying that 'arbit word' was invalid

syntax which is valid. The interpreter is an amazing tool when learning to

program in Python. The interpreter provides a help function that provides the

necessary documentation regarding all Python syntax, constructs, modules and

objects. Typing *help()* at the prompt gives the following output:

::

  >>> help()

  Welcome to Python 2.5!  This is the online help utility.

  If this is your first time using Python, you should definitely check out

  the tutorial on the Internet at http://www.python.org/doc/tut/.

  Enter the name of any module, keyword, or topic to get help on writing

  Python programs and using Python modules.  To quit this help utility and

  return to the interpreter, just type "quit".

  To get a list of available modules, keywords, or topics, type "modules",

  "keywords", or "topics".  Each module also comes with a one-line summary

  of what it does; to list the modules whose summaries contain a given word

  such as "spam", type "modules spam".

  help> 

As mentioned in the output, entering the name of any module, keyword or topic

will provide the documentation and help regarding the same through the online

help utility. Pressing *Ctrl+d* exits the help prompt and returns to the

python prompt. 

Let us now try a few examples at the python interpreter. 

Eg 1:

::

  >>> print 'Hello, python!'

  Hello, python!

  >>>

Eg 2:

::

  >>> print 4321*567890

  2453852690

  >>> 

Eg 3:

::

  >>> 4321*567890

  2453852690L

  >>>

::

  Note: Notice the 'L' at the end of the output. The 'L' signifies that the

  output of the operation is of type *long*. It was absent in the previous

  example because we used the print statement. This is because *print* formats

  the output before displaying.

Eg 4:

::

  >>> big = 12345678901234567890 ** 3

  >>> print big

  1881676372353657772490265749424677022198701224860897069000

  >>> 

::

  This example is to show that unlike in C or C++ there is no limit on the

  value of an integer.

The power and the importance of the interactive interpreter was the highlight

of the previous section. This section provides insight into the enhanced

interpreter with more advanced set of features called **ipython**. Entering

*ipython* at the shell prompt fires up the interactive interpreter. 

::

  $ ipython

  Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Oct  5 2008, 19:24:49) 

  Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

  IPython 0.8.4 -- An enhanced Interactive Python.

  ?         -> Introduction and overview of IPython's features.

  %quickref -> Quick reference.

  help      -> Python's own help system.

  object?   -> Details about 'object'. ?object also works, ?? prints more.

  In [1]: 

This is the output obtained upon firing ipython. The exact appearance may

change based on the Python version installed. The following are some of the

various features provided by **ipython**:

  * Suggestions - ipython provides suggestions of the possible methods and

    operations available for the given python object.

Eg:

::

  In [4]: a = 6

  In [5]: a.

In this example, we initialized 'a' (a variable - a concept that will be

discussed in the subsequent sections.) to 6. In the next line when the *tab* key

is pressed after typing '*a.*' ipython displays the set of all possible methods

that are applicable on the object 'a' (an integer in this context). Ipython

provides many such datatype specific features which will be presented in the

further sections as and when the datatypes are introduced.