Hello everyone. I have been looking around for beginner courses in Python. To be honest, I'd like to skip some of the real basic stuff like operators and expressions. Maybe drop around where they start to explain For loops and beyond as it pertains to other stuff like how database queries work. I don't know if such a course exists.
But....anyway....I have an even bigger issue. I would like if the course was somehow accredited and my employer pick up the bill. I have a hard time with the fact that many accredited courses look to be months long and require around 15 hours logged in every week (that's quite a long time for my employer to justify my progress). Would be better if the class could be broken up into 4 month milestones with something that is tangible (a certificate perhaps) at every milestone?
For what say you!?
Thank you in advance to anyone who reaches out with suggestions.
I would have bet a dollar that was gonna be the first response out the gate. Arduino and Python can be best buds together...where's your spirit?
I have had tons a great advice from the patrons here on the Arduino forum....I wouldn't sell out my thoughts or questions anywhere else....python or not.
Why not buy a book about Python programming and then you can study the chapters in any order you like.
Do you already know how to program in C++ and just want to learn how to use Python?
OR
Are you a complete beginner at programming?
Database programming would not normally be part of a Python course. I would expect that you would need to find a database course (for MySQL or whatever) that uses Python as the interface.
I'm going to tell my boss I bought a book. No need for an online class. Instead, he can get me a class on how to read.
Anyway, I have been making prototype logic systems for machine professionally using Arduino for years now. I work in R&D and I get called upon to make compete systems from scratch. LOTS of different products (kitchen related mostly) that end up in stores. I'm just in the proof of concept phase though...so these machine's go to China mostly to be studies and then they 'replicated' for production system and sales.
I can code anything step wise...any logical flow a machine may require to operate, but once you say something to me like Object Oriented Programming, my eyes cross and I haven't a clue what your saying. Need a drone that can take a person into the sky?...I can do that, but advanced topics in programming and I get lost. Only because I have not studied it...haven't had to up until now (now I want to get better).
UsernameD:
Only because I have not studied it...haven't had to up until now (now I want to get better).
My suggestion is to find several free tutorials on the web and/or YouTube videos and go through them quickly with the objective of becoming better acquainted with the stuff you really want to spend time studying. There is a wide variation in the coverage and quality of online stuff - some will suit your learning style, some won't and you need to find out which is which.
IMHO it would also be a good idea to pick a project that you would like to implement and use that to focus the things you need to learn.
DO NOT under any circumstances start from the assumption that something like OOP or any other programming idiom is sacrosanct. Learn what it is and maybe work through some simple learning programs before making a decision whether you want to use it.
I learned a lot by studying Ruby on Rails several years ago - when it was still relatively new. Ruby is a completely Object Oriented language and Rails was created to make web development easier so it necessarily deals with HTML and Javascript and databases. I reluctantly gave up Ruby in favour of Python because Python is more widespread, especially among Arduino users. There are Python libraries that give pretty much all of the functionality of Ruby and Rails but I am not aware of any books or tutorials that bundles all of the learning together in the way that is done in the book "Agile Web Development with Rails"
You might see a future where the Python skills you gain can also be used with Arduino directly. The upcoming Portenta H7 is advertised to have MicroPython support. The Arduino Pro IDE is also advertised as supporting Python.
U of Michigan has a bunch of free python classes offered as MOOCs for free. I believe they have “free” and “pay a bit for a certificate if you pass. They were quite good, going rapidly from the very basics to popular libraries for processing web data like xml and json...
Be aware there are frequent updates to Python. Because Robin mentions it quite often, I downloaded Python for Win 10 and bought a book on Python on Ebay. I knew the book was out of date, but learned a lot finding the new syntax to match the book. Learned enough to understand it, but will never put it to use! Thanks, Robin.
Paul_KD7HB:
Be aware there are frequent updates to Python.
The major change was from Python2 to Python3 with the latter deliberately having features that were not backwards compatible. I have not been aware of changes within either of those systems that caused backwards compatibility problems.
A lot of people still use Python 2, and a lot of the stuff is common or at least similar.
And many of the magic libraries are set up so that they work with either one.
