[Tutor] Finding written and video tutorials for Python [Was: IDLE]

[boB Stepp]

I am renaming this thread as it has drifted off its original subject.

On Sat, Dec 30, 2017 at 9:53 AM, nelson jon kane
<nelsonjonkane6 at live.com> wrote:
> Thanks. What do you mean when you say "find a written tutorial"?
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Tutor <tutor-bounces+nelsonjonkane6=live.com at python.org> on behalf of Leam Hall <leamhall at gmail.com>
> Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2017 6:39 AM
> To: tutor at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Tutor] IDLE
>
> On 12/30/2017 04:07 AM, Alan Gauld via Tutor wrote:
>
>> Videos are good for getting a feel for things and
>> understanding concepts but IMHO they are not good
>> for details.
>
> This is how I learn coding languages. Watch a video series for a little
> bit and then find a written tutorial to work through. Getting the "big
> picture" quickly helps provide a context and then digging deeply into
> the actual code really helps learning.

What Alan and Leam are suggesting is to use a written, non-video
tutorial as your main learning tool.  If you truly wish to learn to
program you must write code, run it, inevitably get errors, correct
the errors, get more errors, correct those, etc., until you get a
finished program that does what you desire.  The struggle in doing
this is where the real learning occurs.  It is helpful starting out to
have a resource that presents the information in a logical, organized
way optimized for your learning.  Whatever resource you use will
illustrate a topic with actual code.  You should type that code in
yourself and try to run it.  If it works you should play around with
it yourself until you are certain you fully understand that code
snippet and what each piece of it does.  If it doesn't run then you
should debug it until it does run and then play around with it for
full understanding.  This interactive process of reading/watching
someone else's code and then trying it out yourself is more difficult
to accomplish with a video.  But with a book, a written webpage, etc.,
it is easy to do.

Alan has a web resource:

http://www.alan-g.me.uk/

that you could use as a written tutorial.  Use version 3 for Python 3
as that is what is current.  Other resources for people without
previous programming experience are given on Python's official website
at:

https://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers

And of course you can search for others.

Do whatever you find works best for how you learn, but whatever you
do, make sure you write and debug code.  This is where the real
learning occurs.

-- 
boB