Python Crash Course & Learning Enough to Start Creating

How much Python do you need to learn to start creating projects? What’s a good balance of information and hands-on practice? This week on the show, Eric Matthes is here to discuss his book Python Crash Course.

As a former high school science, math, and programming teacher, Eric saw something missing in the programming publishing landscape. We discuss the guiding questions that inspired the book’s development and the title. Eric covers how the crash course takes readers through a fast-paced introduction to Python that culminates in three unique projects.

We also discuss Eric’s blog, Mostly Python, where he digs deeper into technical subjects. He also occasionally shares more topical posts and includes many exercises.

Topics:

• 00:00:00 – Introduction
• 00:02:04 – Why Alaska?
• 00:05:33 – What do you like about Python?
• 00:06:40 – Becoming an author & the intended reader
• 00:15:56 – History of programming books
• 00:17:39 – Having a purpose for learning
• 00:20:22 – Exercising as you go
• 00:24:45 – Including projects in the book
• 00:26:32 – Is the “crash course” a book model?
• 00:29:20 – Video Course Spotlight
• 00:30:29 – How much of a topic to reveal
• 00:35:08 – Guiding questions
• 00:42:43 – Moving from functions to testing in four chapters
• 00:46:21 – What were you excited to update in the book?
• 00:50:28 – Were there doubts about preparing readers for projects?
• 00:53:52 – Space invaders clone pygame project
• 00:55:52 – Data visualization project
• 01:00:38 – Django web app project
• 01:04:15 – Cheat sheets and additional resources
• 01:07:54 – Python flash cards
• 01:09:54 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?
• 01:10:54 – What do you want to learn next?
• 01:11:46 – How can people follow the work you do?
• 01:13:06 – Thanks and goodbye

Show Links:

• Python Crash Course, 3rd Edition - No Starch Press
• Episode #105: Creating Better Error Messages for Python 3.10 & 3.11 – The Real Python Podcast
• Making Python Better One Error Message At A Time - PyCon 2022
• Learning Python, 2nd Edition
• pytest: helps you write better programs — pytest documentation
• Pygame
• Matplotlib — Visualization with Python
• Plotly: Low-Code Data App Development
• django-simple-deploy - readthedocs.io
• Cheat Sheets - Python Crash Course, Third Edition
• Python Flash Cards - No Starch Press
• DjangoCon US 2023 - October 16-20, 2023 - Durham, NC United States
• pandas - Python Data Analysis Library
• Python Crash Course, Third Edition - GitHub Resources
• Mostly Python - Eric Matthes - Substack
• Eric Matthes (@ehmatthes@fosstodon.org) - Fosstodon

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