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.

Course Spotlight: Plot With pandas: Python Data Visualization Basics

In this course, you’ll get to know the basic plotting possibilities that Python provides in the popular data analysis library pandas. You’ll learn about the different kinds of plots that pandas offers, how to use them for data exploration, and which types of plots are best for certain use cases.

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

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