Welcome to an Introduction to Python with Turtle Graphics and Fractals! In this course, we will introduce you to main concepts of Computer Programming using one of the most popular programming languages today - Python. You will also learn to make your computer draw nice images like the one below:
Computer programming is a way to tell a computer how to do things. For example, you can ask computer to calculate the product of all numbers from 1 to 10. To do that, you need to express your instructions in a clear way, and in a language understandable to a computer. We will learn the language called Python, but there are also many other popular languages, such as C#, C++ or JavaScript.
Many of the samples in this course will be using so-called Turtle graphics. The main idea is that we can give commands to a simple "virtual robot" called turtle, asking it to move forward, or turn left. By doing so, we can draw different things and immediately see the results of our commands. It is a fun way to learn programming because you will produce images and not just work with numbers. But don't worry, we will work with numbers as well!
In this course we will use a technology called Jupyter Notebooks. Notebooks are documents that combine normal text with some computer code that you can execute. While you can read notebooks here by following the links, to execute them you need to set up a programming environment. There are several ways you can execute notebooks and follow this course:
- Install Python, pip and Jupyter locally on your computer.
Your computer might already have Python installed. To test this, open a command or terminal window and run the following commands.
python3 --version
pip3 --versionIf Python and pip are installed a version number will be displayed, such as 3.8.10. Otherwise, an error message is displayed. You can install Python and pip as needed:
The instructions for this workshop assume you are using Visual Studio Code, an open source code editor. You will also need the Jupyter extension, which will provide additional functionality when writing Python.
- Use GitHub Codespaces. Currently you need to apply for early access to this technology and there may be costs involved in using it, but it works well with Python.
- Use Binder by clicking on the button at the top of this page. Keep in mind that when using Binder all changes you make to notebooks are not saved by default, and the environment tends to expire after some time - thus it is very easy to lose your work.
| Unit | Link |
|---|---|
| Introduction to Programming |  |
| Functions | |
| Conditional Operators | |
| Loops | |
| Nested Loops | |
| While Loop | |
| Recursion and Beauty of Programming | |
