Learning with Python

1.  The way of the program

• The Python programming language
• What is a program?
• What is debugging?
• Formal and natural languages
• The first program

2. Variables, expressions and statements

• Values and types
• Variables
• Variable names and keywords
• Statements
• Evaluating expressions
• Operators and operands
• Order of operations
• Operations on strings
• Composition
• Comments

3. Functions

• Function calls
• Type conversion
• Type coercion
• Math functions
• Composition
• Adding new functions
• Definitions and use
• Flow of execution
• Parameters and arguments
• Variables and parameters are local
• Stack diagrams
• Functions with results

 4. Conditionals and recursion

• The modulus operator
• Boolean expressions
• Logical operators
• Conditional execution
• Alternative execution
• Chained conditionals
• Nested conditionals
• The return statement
• Recursion
• Stack diagrams for recursive functions
• Infinite recursion
• Keyboard input

 5. Fruitful functions

• Return values
• Program development
• Composition
• Boolean functions
• More recursion
• Leap of faith
• One more example
• Checking types

6. Iteration

• Multiple assignment
• The while statement
• Tables
• Two-dimensional tables
• Encapsulation and generalization
• More encapsulation
• Local variables
• More generalization
• Functions

 7. Strings

• A compound data type  
• Length
• Traversal and the for loop
• String slices
• String comparison
• Strings are immutable
• A find function
• Looping and counting
• The string module
• Character classification

 8. Lists

• List values
• Accessing elements
• List length
• List membership
• Lists and for loops
• List operations
• List slices
• Lists are mutable
• List deletion
• Objects and values
• Aliasing
• Cloning lists
• List parameters
• Nested lists
• Matrices
• Strings and lists

9. Tuples

• Mutability and tuples
• Tuple assignment
• Tuples as return values
• Random numbers
• List of random numbers
• Counting
• Many buckets
• A single-pass solution

 10. Dictionaries

• Dictionary operations
• Dictionary methods
• Aliasing and copying
• Sparse matrices
• Hints
• Long integers
• Counting letters

 11. Files and exceptions

• Text files
• Writing variables
• Directories
• Pickling
• Exceptions

12. Classes and objects

• User-defined compound types
• Attributes
• Instances as arguments
• Sameness
• Rectangles
• Instances as return values
• Objects are mutable
• Copying

 13. Classes and functions

• Time
• Pure functions
• Modifiers
• Which is better?
• Prototype development versus planning
• Generalization
• Algorithms

 14. Classes and methods

• Object-oriented features
• printTime
• Another example
• A more complicated example
• Optional arguments
• The initialization method
• Points revisited
• Operator overloading
• Polymorphism

15. Sets of objects

• Composition
• Card objects
• Class attributes and the str method
• Comparing cards
• Decks
• Printing the deck
• Shuffling the deck
• Removing and dealing cards

16. Inheritance

• Inheritance
• A hand of cards  
• Dealing cards
• Printing a Hand
• The CardGame class
• OldMaidHand class
• OldMaidGame class

17. Linked lists

• Embedded references
• The Node class
• Lists as collections
• Lists and recursion
• Infinite lists
• The fundamental ambiguity theorem
• Modifying lists
• Wrappers and helpers
• The Linked List class
• Invariants

 18. Stacks

•  Abstract data types
•  The Stack ADT. . .
•  Implementing stacks with Python lists
•  Pushing and popping
•  Using a stack to evaluate postfix
•  Parsing
•  Evaluating postfix
•  Clients and providers

 19. Queues

• The Queue ADT
• Linked Queue
• Performance characteristics
• Improved Linked Queue
• Priority queue
• The Golfer class

 20. Trees

• Building trees
• Traversing trees
• Expression trees
• Tree traversal
• Building an expression tree
• Handling errors
• The animal tree

Debugging

•  Syntax errors
•  Runtime errors
•  Semantic errors

Creating a new data type

• Fraction multiplication
• Fraction addition
• Euclid’s algorithm
• Comparing fractions
• Taking it further

Recommendations for further reading

•  Python-related web sites and books
•  Recommended general computer science books