Python for Non-Programmers

If you've never programmed before, the tutorials on this page are recommended for you; they don't assume that you have previous experience.

If you have previous programming experience, the list of programmer-oriented tutorials on the BeginnersGuide/Programmers page may get you started more quickly, but the tutorials on this page may still be helpful.

• Learning to Program An introduction to programming for those who have never programmed before, by Alan Gauld. It introduces several programming languages but has a strong emphasis on Python.

• A Byte of Python, by Swaroop C.H., is also an introductory text for people with no previous programming experience.

• One Day of IDLE Toying A very gentle introduction to the IDLE development environment that comes with Python. This tutorial by Danny Yoo has been translated into nine different languages.

• How to Think Like a Computer Scientist Allen Downey's open source textbook has a Python version, written with Jeff Elkner. It's also available in book form.

• Instant Hacking A minimal crash course by Magnus Lie Hetland that's an excellent starting point.

• Free Python video lectures are also available as a course titled Intro to programming with Python and Tkinter, Unix users can view the video using mplayer once you have downloaded the files. Windows users will need to have a DivX player, available from http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/. (One user reports success viewing the videos on OS X 10.4 using the VLC player -- http://www.videolan.org/)

• A Non-Programmer's Tutorial for Python by Josh Cogliati. Also available from Andamooka.

• Handbook of the Physics Computing Course Also available in various forms at the

  author's Python in Education page, this is a preliminary course handbook for 1st-year university students with no computing experience. This course material is still preliminary and assumes some high school-level maths. It does not cover object-oriented programming or graphical applications.

• Beginning Python for Bioinformatics by Patrick O'Brien. An introduction to Python aimed at biologists that introduces the PyCrust shell and Python's basic data types.

• Two courses from the Pasteur Institute are aimed at biologists but are useful to anyone wanting to learn Python. Both tutorials are quite extensive, covering data types, object-oriented programming, files, and even design patterns.

  • Introduction to Programming using Python is for people completely new to programming.

  • Bioinformatics course in Python

  focuses on preparing people with some programming background for using the

  Biopython modules.

• Python Tutorial This tutorial is part of Python's documentation set and is updated with each new release. It's not written with non-programmers in mind, but skimming through it will give you an idea of the language's flavor and style.

For Younger Students

• LiveWires A set of Python lessons used during 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002

  children's summer camps in Britain by Richard Crook, Gareth McCaughan, Mark White, and Rhodri James. Aimed at children 12-15 years old.

• Guido van Robot A teaching tool in which students write simple programs using a Python-like language to control a simulated robot. Field-tested at Yorktown High School, the project includes a lesson plan.