MCS-177: Introduction to Computer Science I (Fall 2016)

Internal Links

External Links

A fun interactive Python textbooks
Textbook Errata
Python Documentation
Python Visual Execution (so fun!)
CS Circles - free Python website with lessons and programming exercises
Solo Learn Free (in exchange for your email) Python app/website with Python quizzes and lessons
Udacity: Programming foundations with Python Free (in exchange for your email) list of entertaining short videos and quizzes

Installing Python

For this class, the computers in the lab (Olin 326) should have Python and all the libraries installed for you to do the projects. However, if you want to work on the projects at home, you need to install both Python and the turtle and graphics libraries which go with the book in your own computer. We will use these two libraries in later projects. At the start of the course, if you want to, you can follow these steps and install Python first:

First go to the Download Python site and get the version of Python for your particular computer operating system. Be sure, however, to get Python 3, not Python 2. As of Feb 2017, the version you would get is 3.6.0. The version installed in lab computers is Python 3.5.2. Both 3.6 and 3.5 versions would work fine this semester.
Save the following two files in some convenient location on your computer: cTurtle.py and cImage.py.
Now move these two files to the appropriate folder for your operating system:

On the Mac: in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/lib/python3.6/site-packages
In Windows: in C:\Python36\Lib\site-packages
In Linux: in /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages

Test this out by running Python and trying to load the Turtle library by typing import cTurtle at the command prompt.

More on installing Python (and using the shell)

Python Beyond the Browser