Hello World!: Computer Programming for Kids

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Summary Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners, Third Edition introduces the world of computer programming in a clear and fun style using Python, a programming language designed to be easy to learn. About the Technology Learn to talk to your computer in its own language! Whether you want to create a game, start a business, or solve an important problem, the first step is learning to write your own programs. About the Book Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners, Third Edition introduces the world of computer programming in a clear and fun style. Using Python, a programming language designed to be easy to learn, each engaging lesson teaches skills that apply to any kind of programming. It brings to life the basic concepts of computing--looping, decisions, input and output, graphics, and more. Written by father-and-son team Warren and Carter Sande, this international bestseller is kid-tested and reviewed by professional educators. Now in its third edition, Hello World! has been fully updated to Python 3 and includes a new chapter about how the internet works. What's inside • Colorful pictures, clever cartoons, and fun examples • Practice questions and exercises • Updated to Python 3 About the Reader You don't need to know anything about programming to use the book. If you can open an app and save a file, you're ready to go! Hello World! Contents Preface What is programming? Python—a language for us and the computer Why learn programming? Why Python? Acknowledgments Acknowledgments for the First Edition Acknowledgments for the Second Edition Acknowledgments for the Third Edition About this book What you need What you don’t need Using this book Follow along with the examples Installing Python Type in the programs Do the quiz questions Carter says What’s new in the Third Edition Note to parents and teachers Chapter 1 Getting Started Installing Python Starting Python with IDLE Instructions, please If it doesn’t work Interacting with Python Time to program Running your first program If something goes wrong Syntax errors Runtime errors Our second program What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 2 Remember This: Memory and Variables Input, processing, output Names What’s in a name? Numbers and strings Long strings How “variable” are they? The new me What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 3 Basic Math The four basic operations Operators Order of operations Integer division: Quotient and remainder Exponentiation: Raising to a power Increment and decrement Really big and really small E-notation Exponents vs. E-notation What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 4 Types of Data Changing types Changing an int to a float Changing a float to an int Changing a string to a float Getting more information: type() Type-conversion errors What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 5 Input input() Putting the input on the same line A shortcut for input() prompts Inputting numbers Using int() with input() Input from the web What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 6 GUIs: Graphical User Interfaces What’s a GUI? Our first GUI Let’s get GUI-ing GUI input Pick your flavor Dialog box with multiple buttons Choice box Text input Default input What about numbers? The number guessing game … again Other GUI pieces What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 7 Decisions, Decisions Testing, testing Indenting Am I seeing double? Other kinds of tests What happens if the test is false? Testing for more than one condition Using and Using or Using not What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 8 Loop the Loop Counting loops Runaway loops What are the square brackets for? Using a counting loop A shortcut: range() A matter of style: Loop variable names A range() shortcut Counting by steps Counting without numbers While we’re on the subject … Bailing out of a loop: break and continue Jumping ahead: continue Bailing out: break What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 9 Just for You: Comments Adding comments Single-line comments End-of-line comments Multiline comments Triple-quoted strings Commenting style Comments in this book Commenting out What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 10 Game Time Skier Try it out Chapter 11 Nested and Variable Loops Nested loops Variable loops Variable nested loops Even more variable nested loops Using nested loops Counting calories What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 12 Collecting Things Together: Lists and Dictionaries What’s a list? Creating a list Adding things to a list What’s the dot? Lists can hold anything Getting items from a list Why does the index start at 0, not 1? “Slicing” a list Slice shorthand Modifying items Other ways of adding to a list Adding to the end: append() Extending the list: extend() Inserting an item: insert() The difference between append() and extend() Deleting from a list Deleting with remove() Deleting with del Deleting with pop() Searching a list The in keyword Finding the index Looping through a list Sorting lists Sorting in reverse order Another way to sort: sorted() Mutable and immutable Tuple: An immutable list Lists of lists: Tables of data Getting a single value from the table Dictionaries A bit more about dictionaries What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 13 Functions Functions: The building blocks Creating a function Calling a function Passing arguments to a function Functions with more than one argument How many is too many? Functions that return a value Returning a value Variable scope Local variables Global variables Forcing a global A bit of advice on naming variables What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 14 Objects Objects in the real world Objects in Python What are attributes? What are methods? Object = attributes + methods Creating objects Creating an instance of an object Initializing an object A “magic” method: __str__() What’s self? An example class: HotDog Hiding the data Polymorphism and inheritance Polymorphism: Same method, different behavior Inheritance: Learning from your parents Thinking ahead What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 15 Modules What’s a module? Why use modules? Buckets of blocks How do we create modules? How do we use modules? Namespaces What’s a namespace? Importing namespaces Importing using from Whew! Standard modules Time Random numbers What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 16 Graphics Getting some help: Pygame A Pygame window Drawing in the window What’s the “flip”? How to make a circle Pygame surfaces Colors in Pygame Locations: Screen coordinates Size of shapes Line width Modern art? Individual pixels Connect the dots Connect the dots, again Drawing point-by-point Images Let’s get moving! Animation Erasing images What’s under there? Smoother animation Keeping the ball moving Bouncing the ball Bouncing in 2-D Wrapping the ball What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 17 Sprites and Collision Detection Sprites A sprite class A move() method Bump! Collision detection Rect collision vs. pixel-perfect collision Counting time Controlling the frame rate with pygame.time.Clock() Checking the frame rate Scaling the frame rate What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 18 A New Kind of Input: Events Events The event loop The event queue Event handlers Keyboard events Key events Repeating keys Event names and key names Mouse events Timer events Time for another game—PyPong The ball The paddle Controlling the paddle Keeping score and displaying it with pygame.font Keeping track of lives Adding a life counter Game over What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 19 Sound More help from Pygame: mixer Making sounds vs. playing sounds Playing sounds Using pygame.mixer Controlling volume Playing background music Repeating music Adding sounds to PyPong More wacky sounds Adding music to PyPong What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 20 More GUIs Working with PyQt Qt Designer Adding a button Changing the button Saving the GUI Making our GUI do something The return of event handlers What is self? Moving the button More useful GUIs TempGUI TempGUI components Creating the new GUI Converting Celsius to Fahrenheit Converting Fahrenheit to Celsius A small improvement Squashing a bug What’s on the menu? Adding a menu item Hotkeys What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 21 Print Formatting and Strings New lines print and end='' Adding our own newlines Special printing codes Horizontal spacing: Tabs How do we print a backslash? Inserting variables in strings Number formatting Integers: %d or %i Floating point numbers: %f or %F E-notation: %e and %E Automatic float or E-notation: %g and %G How do we print a percent sign? More than one format string Storing formatted numbers Formatting, the new way F-strings Strings ’n’ things Splitting strings Joining strings Searching for strings Searching anywhere in a string: in and index() Removing part of a string Changing case What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 22 File Input and Output What’s a file? Filenames File locations Finding where you are Enough about paths! Opening a file Reading a file Reading one line at a time Going back to the start Text files and binary files Writing to a file Appending to a file Writing to a file using write mode Writing to a file using print() Saving your stuff in files: pickle Pickling Unpickling Game time again—Hangman The Hangman GUI Getting words from the word list Revealing the man Checking the letter guesses What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 23 Take a Chance: Randomness What’s randomness? Rolling the dice More than one die Ten in a row Creating a deck of cards Shuffling the deck A card object Crazy Eights The main loop The up card The active suit The player’s turn Displaying the hand Getting the player’s choice The computer’s turn Keeping score What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 24 Computer Simulations Modeling the real world Lunar Lander Simulating the landing Pygame returns Keeping time Time objects Difference between two times Small pieces of time Saving time to a file Virtual Pet The GUI The algorithm Simple animation Try, try again What did you learn? Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 25 Skier Explained The skier The obstacles Creating individual obstacles Creating a map of obstacles What did you learn? Try it out Chapter 26 Making Network Connections with Sockets What’s the difference between text and bytes? Servers Getting data from the client Making a chat server A little about IP addresses Creating a chat client What did you learn? Test your Knowledge Try it out chapter 27 What’s Next? For younger programmers Python Game programming and Pygame Other game programming (non-Python) Keep it BASIC Websites Mobile apps Look around APPENDIX A Variable Naming Rules APPENDIX B Differences Between Python 3 and 2 print input() Integer division range() Bytes and character encodings Python 2 to 3 conversion APPENDIX C Answers to Self-Test Questions Chapter 1: Getting Started Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 2: Remember This: Memory and Variables Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 3: Basic Math Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 4: Types of Data Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 5: Input Test your knowledge Try It Out Chapter 6: GUIs: Graphical User Interfaces Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 7: Decisions, Decisions Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 8: Loop the Loop Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 9: Just for You—Comments Try it out Chapter 10: Game Time Try it out Chapter 11: Nested and Variable Loops Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 12: Collecting Things Together— Lists and Dictionaries Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 13: Functions Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 14: Objects Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 15: Modules Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 16: Graphics Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 17: Sprites and Collision Detection Test your knowledge Chapter 18: A New Kind of Input: Events Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 19: Sound Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 20: More GUIs Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 21: Print Formatting and Strings Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 22: File Input and Output Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 23: Take a Chance—Randomness Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 24: Computer Simulations Test your knowledge Try it out Chapter 26: Making Network Connections with Sockets Test your knowledge Try it out List of Code Listings Index Symbols Math and comparison operators Numerics A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Hello World! back