A Gentle Intro

to Coding

slides available here: https://goo.gl/5HKE2J

Introductions

Who am i

Maëlys

(mah

-eh

-liss)

she/her pronouns

10 years professional programming experience

I like corgis

Who am i

Quinn

he/him pronouns

loves ice cream

LGBTQ+ organizer, tech inept

Who am i

Mado

they/them

Planning on making disability/activism-related software once I am powerful enough

Programmer in training

Who am i

Serena

loves going out for ice cream

has been in tech a long time and is pretty much a tech granny by now

former pet photographer

territorial acknowledgement

We are meeting on aboriginal land that has been inhabited by Indigenous peoples from the beginning. This particular event is taking place on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg people.

I recognize and deeply appreciate their historic connection to this place. I also recognize the contributions that Métis, Inuit, and other Indigenous peoples have made, both in shaping and strengthening this community, and our province and country as a whole.

As a settler, I am grateful for the opportunity to meet here and thank all the generations of people who have taken care of this land for thousands of years.

I would encourage you not to dismiss this territorial acknowledgement, but understand it as part of a larger responsibility we all share not to be silent, for silence only protects the status quo.

And the status quo just won't do.

  • Read the Truth and Reconciliation Final Report

what you can do

Source: Ontario Federation of Labour Aboriginal Circle

  • Sponsor and promote Indigenous events and advocacy
  • Support the calls to action
  • Acknowledge Indigenous territory at all of your meetings

overview of today's content

the theme for this workshop is Dipping Feet in code

We will cover

what software developers do

Programming languages

A BIT OF Coding!

software development

Let's talk perception

Reality

Coding is HARD at first BECAUSE IT'S UNFAMILIAR

Pro developers find doing UNFAMILIAR Program-my things hard All the time

This is expected!

we're all at various levels of familiarity

in this workshop

the point isn't to keep up with the person next to you

It's to be a little ahead of where you were

there is no shame being at whatever point you are at

You're here and that's really great

We are here to help you at the point you are at

I know it can be RLY intimidating to ask questions

try to remind yourself

All questions are good questions

if you're thinking it so is someone else

And you'll be helping them too

~please turn on your Laptop~

Programming Languages

programming languages are for humans

to tell computers What to do

sometimes they look like this

or this

but they more or less work the same

you write instructions for the computer in a language for humans (programming language)

then a program turns it into something the computer understands (Machine Code)

Programming Language

Readable by Humans

Machine Code

Readable by Computers

Software

Today we will learn a programming language called python

We're using it because it's

Easier to learn

Used in academia

Loved by Pro Developers

Used in Web development

Questions?

Getting set-up to code

Make sure tools are installed

https://www.python.org/downloads

https://code.visualstudio.com/download

Python:

Visual Studio Code:

Install the latest version of Python & Visual Studio Code!

please Launch visual studio code

visual studio code is what we use to write code

it's Sort of like the microsoft word of writing code

We're going to do two things

Create a project in visual studio code

make sure we can use python

Dismiss errors related to git.

Click open folder

Dismiss errors related to git.

Create a folder called pythonworkshop

click to select the folder

our project is now created

now to make sure python works

Click View Then integrated terminal

TYPE "PYTHON" IN THE TERMINAL

 

TYPE "py.exe" IN THE TERMINAL

Mac/
Linux

Windows

Does anyone not see this?

write "           " in the terminal and press enter 

exit()

creating our first program

we will create a file

that contains our code

and then have the computer run THAT CODE

click on the new file icon

write "hello.py"
And press enter

we now have a file for our code

This file is called "hello.py"

files that end in .py contain code in the python programming language

The file doesn't have anything in it right now

print("hello")

write                            AND SAVE

print() tells the computer to show text on the screen

this is our code

it was written in python, a language for humans

now we will run it in a program so the computer will understand it

RUN "PYTHON hello.py" IN THE TERMINAL

Mac/
Linux

Windows

RUN "py.exe hello.py" IN THE TERMINAL

does anyone not see "hello" In the terminal

Now put something else inside Print() other than "Hello"

IDEAS

print("hi there!")

print(1234)

print(1 + 1)

print(4.3 - 2.1)

You just wrote a program!

next up are Three topics

these are fundamental almost all programming languages

functions

variables

comments

Using functions

functions are a shortcut to code written elsewhere

print("hi there!")

print(1234)

print(1 + 1)

print(4.3 - 2.1)

remember this?

print() is a function

Print shows things on the screen

you didn't tell the computer how to show something on the screen

someone else wrote that code and it exists elsewhere

you use a shortcut to USE that function

Python comes with a bunch of functions you can use

Create a new file called "functions.py"

abs(-5)

write               AND SAVE

We'LL explain what this function does in a bit

just know that abs() outputs a number

Let's run this program

RUN "PYTHON functions.py" IN THE TERMINAL

Mac/
Linux

Windows

RUN "py.exe functions.py" IN THE TERMINAL

There's nothing shown!

How could we show something on the screen?

print(abs(-5))

Can anyone say what abs() does?

now it's your turn

you now know the functions
abs() and print()

See what these ones do

len("the dog")

round(5.3)

max(1, 2, 3, 4)

variables

sometimes it's useful for the computer to remember things like numbers and text

That's what variables are for

message = "my name is Maëlys"

print(message)

For example

"Message" Is a variable

a = 2
b = 6
c = a + b

print(c)

For example

"a", "B" & "C" ARE variableS

Let's play with this a bit

Create a new file called "variables.py"

a = 2
b = 3

print(a * b)

put this code in the file

RUN "PYTHON variables.py" IN THE TERMINAL

Mac/
Linux

Windows

RUN "py.exe variables.py"
IN THE TERMINAL

What does "*" do?

It multiplies

now it's your turn

See what "**", "/", "%" DOES

a = 10
b = 7

print(a + b)
print(a - b)
print(a * b)
print(a / b)
print(a ** b)
print(a % b)

comments

sometimes programmers want to leave notes for themselves in code

To help them remember what things do

Because it's not always obvious

comments are a way to add notes in code

Remember this?

a = 10
b = 7

print(a + b)
print(a - b)
print(a * b)
print(a / b)
print(a ** b)
print(a % b)

We can add comments

a = 10
b = 7

# Adds two numbers
print(a + b)

# Subtracts two numbers
print(a - b)

# Multiplies two numbers
print(a * b)

much more clear!

in python, comments are added by starting a line with "#"

now it's your turn

add comments To Your "Variables.Py" file

a = 10
b = 7

# Adds two numbers
print(a + b)

# Subtracts two numbers
print(a - b)

# Multiplies two numbers
print(a * b)

creating functions

Earlier We looked at using functions other people wrote

functions like print() and len()

We can also create functions too

first though let's understand what a functions does

Input:

1

3

Output:

4

Function to add numbers

+

functions take input, do something to it, then have output

here's a function to add two numbers In python 

def add_numbers(a, b):

  # add numbers
  c = a + b

  # put the result in the output
  return c

# Use the function
result = add_numbers(10, 2)
print(result)

Let's look at the parts of a function 

def add_numbers(a, b):

  # add numbers
  c = a + b

  # put the result in the output
  return c

input

output

indentation

name of function

each line of code in functions start with indentation

why would we need indentation?

because python can't tell where the function ends

def add_numbers(a, b):

  # add numbers
  c = a + b

  # put the result in the output
  return c

# Use the function
result = add_numbers(10, 2)
print(result)

use the tab key to add indentation

python also can't tell what the output should be

def add_numbers(a, b):

  # add numbers
  c = a + b

  # put the result in the output
  return c

return

So "return" is put to say to output a variable

Let's create a function

this function will multiply three numbers

Create a new file called "createfunctions.py"

write this function in your file

def multiply(a, b, c):

  # multiply numbers
  output = a * b * c
  return output

We're just missing one thing to make it work

a line of code to use the function

because functions don't do anything until they're used

ADD thIS code to use the function

def multiply(a, b, c):

  # multiply numbers
  output = a * b * c
  return output

# use the function
print(multiply(2, 3, 4))

now run the program

does it do what you expect?

now it's your turn

Create your own function

ideas

dividing two numbers

giving the square of a number

that's it for this week!

next week

reading files

user input

learning resources

Questions?

Thank you to Serena & Mado

And to quinn and the Algoquin pride centre for this space

slides available here: https://goo.gl/5HKE2J

thank you!

my website:
www.maelys.bio

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