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              <p class="caption" role="heading"><span class="caption-text">Table of Contents:</span></p>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="intro.html">Python Like You Mean It</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_1.html">Module 1: Getting Started with Python</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_2.html">Module 2: The Essentials of Python</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_2_problems.html">Module 2: Problems</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_3.html">Module 3: The Essentials of NumPy</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_3_problems.html">Module 3: Problems</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_4.html">Module 4: Object Oriented Programming</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_5.html">Module 5: Odds and Ends</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html">Changelog</a></li>
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<section id="python-like-you-mean-it">
<h1>Python Like You Mean It<a class="headerlink" href="#python-like-you-mean-it" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h1>
<blockquote>
<div><p>Written by Ryan Soklaski (Twitter/GitHub:<a class="reference external" href="https://twitter.com/rsokl">&#64;rsokl</a>)</p>
<p>Edited by <a class="reference external" href="https://davidmascharka.com/">David Mascharka</a></p>
<p><a class="reference external" href="https://cn.pythonlikeyoumeanit.com/">中文版</a> (Chinese Version)</p>
</div></blockquote>
<section id="what-this-is">
<h2>What this is<a class="headerlink" href="#what-this-is" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>Python Like You Mean It (PLYMI) is a free resource for learning the basics of Python &amp; NumPy, and moreover, becoming a competent Python user. The features of the Python language that are emphasized here were chosen to help those who are particularly interested in STEM applications (data analysis, machine learning, numerical work, etc.).</p>
<p>I want this to be a lean, one-stop resource for learning the essentials of Python from scratch. The reader will begin by learning about what Python is and what installing Python even means, and will hopefully walk away with a solid understanding of a substantial core of the language and its premiere numerical library, NumPy. I am also placing an emphasis on best practices throughout this site and am teaching to the latest version of Python (version 3.9, as of writing this).
This material has proven to be fruitful for high school and college teachers alike to teach Python as part of their STEM curriculum.</p>
</section>
<section id="what-this-isn-t">
<h2>What this isn’t<a class="headerlink" href="#what-this-isn-t" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>This is not even close to being an exhaustive treatment of the Python language, and is not sufficient to become a “complete” Python user. But it will hopefully provide a solid enough foundation that acquiring those missing pieces will be relatively easy.</p>
<p>This is also not a deep “Python for Data Science” resource. It will not teach you how to use machine learning and data analysis libraries like sci-kit learn and Pandas. That being said, NumPy is such a critically-important library that it has deeply influenced essentially all of the other major STEM-related Python libraries (e.g. sci-kit, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Pandas). The NumPy content presented here will serve as a cornerstone for working with all of these libraries down the road.</p>
</section>
<section id="what-about-python-textbooks">
<h2>What about Python textbooks?<a class="headerlink" href="#what-about-python-textbooks" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>Books and blogs can be great. I personally think that programming books can be overwhelming because they are required to be so complete; it is hard for a someone new to a language to distill the essentials of the Python language from hundreds of pages of text. Furthermore, it simply makes more sense to make this sort of material available digitally; users should be able to easily search the site, view it on mobile devices, copy code snippets, and know that the content is being kept up-to-date.</p>
</section>
<section id="python-shouldn-t-be-too-easy">
<h2>Python shouldn’t be <em>too</em> easy<a class="headerlink" href="#python-shouldn-t-be-too-easy" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>Python is a relatively easy language to pick up, and it doesn’t require much rigor to make code work. Unfortunately, this means that there are many Python users out there who know enough to just get by, but lack a sound understanding of the language. You don’t want to get caught in the “know enough Python to be dangerous” zone; therein lies complacency, stagnation, and the genesis of a lot of bad code. You’ve got to Python like you mean it!</p>
</section>
<section id="join-our-discussion-board">
<h2>Join Our Discussion Board<a class="headerlink" href="#join-our-discussion-board" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p><a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/rsokl/Learning_Python/discussions">Join the PLYMI community</a> to ask questions, recommend new content, or to just say hello!</p>
<p>(A note to <a class="reference external" href="https://beaverworks.ll.mit.edu/CMS/bw/bwsi">BWSI students</a>: please stick to your class’ piazza board for posting questions)</p>
</section>
<section id="plymi-is-on-github">
<h2>PLYMI is on GitHub<a class="headerlink" href="#plymi-is-on-github" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>If you have questions about the reading, think that you have spotted some mistakes, or would like to contribute to PLYMI, please visit <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/rsokl/Learning_Python">our GitHub page</a>. You will need to create a GitHub account in order to post an issue; this process is free and easy. We would love for you to join us to discuss the website!</p>
</section>
<section id="contributors">
<h2>Contributors<a class="headerlink" href="#contributors" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>The following people made significant contributions to PLYMI, adding problems with worked solutions and valuable feedback on the text:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>Alex Ding （GitHub:<a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/alexding123">&#64;alexding123</a>)</p></li>
<li><p>AJ Federici (GitHub:<a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/AFederici">&#64;Federici</a>)</p></li>
<li><p>Annabelle Lew (GitHub:<a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/AnnabelleLew">&#64;AnnabelleLew</a>)</p></li>
<li><p>Petar Griggs (GitHub:<a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/petarmhg">&#64;petarmhg</a>)</p></li>
<li><p>Sam Carpenter (GitHub:<a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/samaocarpenter">&#64;samaocarpenter</a>)</p></li>
<li><p>Patrick O’Shea (GitHub:<a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/ArtichokeSap">&#64;ArtichokeSap</a>)</p></li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="about-me">
<h2>About Me<a class="headerlink" href="#about-me" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>I started learning to use Python in graduate school for my physics research, and I was <em>so</em> bad at using it. Fortunately, one of my labmates was more experienced and had the good sense to tell me that my code and work flow was terrible. He pointed me to tooling, style guides, and documentation pages so that I could improve (I’d like to think that this resource would have been a huge help to me back then). I’ve been coding in Python for at least ten years now, and I’ve taken to following the language, along with its new features and changes, quite closely. Currently I do machine learning research, and have served as a core developer for a machine learning library. I also love to teach, so this has been a fun project for me to take on!</p>
<p>Here are some other open source projects that I have created:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/rsokl/MyGrad">MyGrad</a>: Adds drop-in automatic differentiation to NumPy</p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/mit-ll-responsible-ai/hydra-zen">hydra-zen</a>: Configurable, reproducible, and scalable workflows in Python, via Hydra</p></li>
</ul>
<div class="toctree-wrapper compound">
<p class="caption" role="heading"><span class="caption-text">Table of Contents:</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="intro.html">Python Like You Mean It</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="intro.html#what-this-is">What this is</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="intro.html#what-this-isn-t">What this isn’t</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="intro.html#what-about-python-textbooks">What about Python textbooks?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="intro.html#python-shouldn-t-be-too-easy">Python shouldn’t be <em>too</em> easy</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="intro.html#join-our-discussion-board">Join Our Discussion Board</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="intro.html#plymi-is-on-github">PLYMI is on GitHub</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="intro.html#contributors">Contributors</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="intro.html#about-me">About Me</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_1.html">Module 1: Getting Started with Python</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module1_GettingStartedWithPython/SiteFormatting.html">A Quick Guide to Formatting</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module1_GettingStartedWithPython/GettingStartedWithPython.html">Introducing the Python Programming Language</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module1_GettingStartedWithPython/Installing_Python.html">Installing Python</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module1_GettingStartedWithPython/Informal_Intro_Python.html">An Informal Introduction to Python</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module1_GettingStartedWithPython/Jupyter_Notebooks.html">Jupyter Notebooks</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module1_GettingStartedWithPython/Getting_Started_With_IDEs_and_Notebooks.html">Setting Up a Development Environment</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_2.html">Module 2: The Essentials of Python</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Basic_Objects.html">Basic Object Types</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/SequenceTypes.html">Sequence Types</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Variables_and_Assignment.html">Variables &amp; Assignment</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Introduction.html">Introducing Control Flow</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/ConditionalStatements.html">Conditional Statements</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/ForLoops.html">For-Loops and While-Loops</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Iterables.html">Iterables</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Generators_and_Comprehensions.html">Generators &amp; Comprehension Expressions</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Itertools.html">Python’s “Itertools”</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Functions.html">Basics of Functions</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Scope.html">Scope</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/DataStructures.html">Data Structures (Part I): Introduction</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/DataStructures_II_Dictionaries.html">Data Structures (Part II): Dictionaries</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/DataStructures_III_Sets_and_More.html">Data Structures (Part III): Sets &amp; the Collections Module</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_2_problems.html">Module 2: Problems</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Problems/MergeMaxDicts.html">Merging Two Dictionaries</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Problems/Palindrome.html">Is Palindrome</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Problems/MarginPercentage.html">Within Margin Percentage</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Problems/DifferenceFanout.html">Difference Fanout</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module2_EssentialsOfPython/Problems/EncodeAsString.html">Encode as String</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_3.html">Module 3: The Essentials of NumPy</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module3_IntroducingNumpy/IntroducingTheNDarray.html">Introducing the ND-array</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module3_IntroducingNumpy/AccessingDataAlongMultipleDimensions.html">Accessing Data Along Multiple Dimensions in an Array</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module3_IntroducingNumpy/BasicArrayAttributes.html">Basic Array Attributes</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module3_IntroducingNumpy/FunctionsForCreatingNumpyArrays.html">Functions for Creating NumPy Arrays</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module3_IntroducingNumpy/ArrayTraversal.html">Iterating Over Arrays &amp; Array-Traversal Order</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module3_IntroducingNumpy/VectorizedOperations.html">“Vectorized” Operations: Optimized Computations on NumPy Arrays</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module3_IntroducingNumpy/Broadcasting.html">Array Broadcasting</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module3_IntroducingNumpy/BasicIndexing.html">Introducing Basic and Advanced Indexing</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module3_IntroducingNumpy/AdvancedIndexing.html">Advanced Indexing</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module3_IntroducingNumpy/AutoDiff.html">Automatic Differentiation</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_3_problems.html">Module 3: Problems</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module3_IntroducingNumpy/Problems/ComputeAccuracy.html">Measuring the Accuracy of a Classification Model</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module3_IntroducingNumpy/Problems/Approximating_pi.html">Playing Darts and Estimating Pi</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_4.html">Module 4: Object Oriented Programming</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module4_OOP/Introduction_to_OOP.html">Introduction to Object Oriented Programming</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module4_OOP/ClassDefinition.html">Defining a New Class of Object</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module4_OOP/ClassInstances.html">Instances of a Class</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module4_OOP/Brief_Review.html">A Brief Summary of Terms and Concepts</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module4_OOP/Methods.html">Methods</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module4_OOP/Applications_of_OOP.html">Applications of Object Oriented Programming</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module4_OOP/Special_Methods.html">Special Methods</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module4_OOP/Inheritance.html">Inheritance</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="module_5.html">Module 5: Odds and Ends</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module5_OddsAndEnds/Writing_Good_Code.html">Writing Good Code</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module5_OddsAndEnds/Matplotlib.html">Matplotlib</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module5_OddsAndEnds/WorkingWithFiles.html">Working with Files</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="Module5_OddsAndEnds/Modules_and_Packages.html">Import: Modules and Packages</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html">Changelog</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html#id1">2022-01-29</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html#id2">2021-02-28</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html#id3">2021-01-31</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html#id4">2021-01-30</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html#id5">2021-01-24</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html#id9">2020-06-17</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html#id10">2020-05-10</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html#id11">2020-04-11</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html#id12">2020-04-02</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html#id13">2020-02-16</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="changes.html#id14">2019-12-14</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<section id="indices-and-tables">
<h3>Indices and tables<a class="headerlink" href="#indices-and-tables" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="genindex.html"><span class="std std-ref">Index</span></a></p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="py-modindex.html"><span class="std std-ref">Module Index</span></a></p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference internal" href="search.html"><span class="std std-ref">Search Page</span></a></p></li>
</ul>
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