Summary and Setup

This lesson is an introduction to programming in Python 3 for people with little or no previous programming experience. It uses plotting as its motivating example and is designed to be used in both Data Carpentry and Software Carpentry workshops. This lesson references JupyterLab but can be taught using alternative Python 3 interpreters as well (e.g., repl.it, Anaconda).

Prerequisites

  1. Learners need to understand what files and directories are, what a working directory is, and how to start a Python interpreter.

  2. Learners must install Python 3 before the class starts.

  3. Learners must get the gapminder data before class starts: please download and unzip the file python-novice-gapminder-data.zip.

Please see the setup instructions for more details.

Getting the Data

The data we will be using is taken from the gapminder dataset. To obtain it, download and unzip the file python-novice-gapminder-data.zip. In order to follow the presented material, you should launch the JupyterLab server in the root directory (see Starting JupyterLab).

Installing Python Using Anaconda

Please refer to the Python section of the workshop website for installation instructions.