Hello there. I have created this blog to record my progress as I learn the Python programming/scripting language. The idea is that this will be a useful record for me, and hopefully for others who would like to learn Python. It may serve as a handy guide for which direction to take, where to actually begin, and even how to progress along that path once you take the first steps. I hope to be able to provide this information to you, gradually, as I discover it for myself. At the time of writing this post, I am a Python noob. I do have a little experience learning Python online casually over the last few years. Enough to understand the basics as I start this blog.
So, first of all, my girlfriend recently informed me about a site, https://www.coursera.org/, which provides free online courses, in many many areas. This website has partnered with some of the world's top Universities, to provide free tutelage by their actual lecturers/professors. This amazed and intrigued me, and I immediately signed up to a few courses. They actually award certificates for completion of many of the courses, signed by the tutors! So, I was signed up, ready to go, several computer science type courses awaiting me. I was soon to realise that I was way over my head. I had to take a step back, and did an online search for something more basic, more introductory.
Then I found https://www.udacity.com/. One thing about 'Coursera' is that you have to sign up for the courses at the right times, as they only take place for a period of weeks before you cannot access the video lectures etc. any longer. Not so with 'Udacity'. The courses there are also free, as it is very similar to 'Coursera'. However, these courses can be taken at any time, and completed at your own pace. This I found to be more suitable for me. I also found that they had this course, Introduction to Computer Science(CS101). This was what I had been hoping for. An introductory computer science course, that teaches python for beginners(you'll have a neat web crawler and search engine built by the final lessons!!) and taught through clear, concise videos, inter-spliced with many challenging quizzes and exercises to cement your learning and get those brain cogs moving more like a computer scientists. Basic CS theory is taught in this class, and I have been finding it VERY good. A great place to start. Highly recommended. The site also has a thriving student community who will answer questions and help out where possible. I am currently half way though Unit 4 of 6, and I have learned loads of Python!
Bottom line: if you want to learn Python, and you are a programming and computer science noob, this may just be the best place to start.
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