Python is a remarkably powerful dynamic programming language used in a wide variety of situations such as Web, database access, desktop GUIs, game and software development, and network programming. Fans of Python use the phrase "batteries included" to describe the standard library, which covers everything from asynchronous processing to zip files. The language itself is a flexible powerhouse that can handle practically any application domain.

This task-based tutorial on Python is for those new to the language and walks you through the fundamentals. You'll learn about arithmetic, strings, and variables; writing programs; flow of control, functions; strings; data structures; input and output; and exception handling. At the end of the book, a special section walks you through a longer, realistic application, tying the concepts of the book together.

Toby Donaldson is a senior lecturer in the School of Computer Science at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. He has more than a dozen years of experience teaching programming and computer science to students of all levels. He has a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence and is still looking for ways to apply it to his robotic vacuum. When he is not teaching Python, he likes to juggle anything he can get his hands on.

Chapter 1 Introduction to Programming
Chapter 2 Arithmetic, Strings, and Variables
Chapter 3 Writing Programs
Chapter 4 Flow of Control
Chapter 5 Functions
Chapter 6 Strings
Chapter 7 Data Structures
Chapter 8 Input and Output
Chapter 9 Exception Handling
Chapter 10 Object-Oriented Programming
Chapter 11 Case Study: Text Statistics
Appendix A Popular Python Packages
Appendix B Comparing Python 2 and Python 3
Index