User:Yath/Python

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NOTE: This page is mostly obsolete and the reorganization has been accomplished.

This is a scratch page for reorganizing Programming:Python. The book currently has two tables of contents. One of them may or may not represent a reasonable progression through the subject. At any rate, the book is in an amazing state of disarray; I'll try to evaluate and plan some reconstruction here.

These are just the pages that exist. There are also many red links.

This page has three sections. One of them is an outline, so I won't be putting in headings and subheadings here (they would interfere with the outline). They are:

Analysis of old content
New section outline
Copy of old content

Existing chapter	Apparent purpose	What to do with it
Beginning	Actually getting it up and running; entering and running programs.	A good second chapter (just after the narrative introduction). Just the thing to prepare for delving into actual code (hello world).
syntax	Python's syntax is C-like.	Trash it.
features	Not really "features"; it's a list of data types. Good for... a list of data types.	The reference section.
and data	Might have been intended to be about data types; but so far it's just about lists and the operations you can do on them.	Merge into tutorial section that occurs after we've played with lists. (Following a general format of tutorialship that says: play with this, play with this, this is a list--play with this, now here's all about lists. now play with lists some more.)
Preliminaries	Fundamental python concepts.	Not at all appropriate for "preliminaries", with the exception of case-sensitivity. Good for the indepth language description occurring in the advanced section of the book.
modules	A thin overview of modules.
variables	A discussion of scoping, with examples. "Variables" is not the right title.
data types	An overview of Python's data types.
simple input and output	I/O, for sure.	Put in the i/o section.
Simple math		Good for the operators section.
control		Flow control section.
procedures and functions		Functions section.
classes and instances		Classes section.
strings		Data types section.
error handling	Hmm. Exceptions.	Flow control section? Or its own section?
A simple tutorial in Python	Empty, delete.
Python community	About the Python community.	Goes in the introduction.

Potential outline

[edit] Introduction

This section is for lighthearted reading, and to prepare the reader for the next section (learning to program).

[edit] What is Python

[edit] Getting Python

[edit] Editing and running Python programs

[edit] Learning to program in Python

This section presents a series of examples and exercises of increasing depth and complexity. It sort of follows the sequence of the "Python concepts" section, but tosses in bits from more advanced and less advanced sections. For example, when the sample programs seem to be playing with "flow control" (loops etc.) the os module might be imported and used for a simple function (from ahead) and triple-quoted multiline strings might pop in (from behind). This sort of stuff is done sparingly, because you don't want to overwhelm the reader. It is necessary, however, to keep people from becoming too bored. And it can usually be ignored, unless the reader gets too curious, in which case they can turn to the section on the os module and read up a bit.

[edit] Your first program in Python

[edit] The foo program

[edit] The snarf program

[edit] The cgi program

[edit] Python concepts

This section is like a concept reference. Want something that's a step up from a list of flow control operators? Here it is. Every idiosyncracy of 'if-else-elif-unless' is clearly presented and explained. This would be inappropriate for the learning section. This is the place for completeness.