2009 101
Technical Day 1.01: Introductions
Introduction to the Technical Day
Why programming?
What is Python?
Why Python?
Introduction to Computation (including performance)
The Number System is abstract
The way numbers are written today (in English) is based on ancient systems that can be traced back to the Arab and Hindu origins.
There have been alternatives, for instance Roman Numerals. Also see Quipu for an alternative to writing systems.
But key features of this system are that it is positional, and decimal.
The fact that it is positional, is a "clever hack" in that using just 10 symbols (if one includes an explicit symbol for "nothing") you can write down an infinite (unlimited) number of quantities.
Minimalist Math
... [Y]ou can think of programming as the process of breaking a large, complex task into smaller and smaller subtasks until the subtasks are simple enough to be performed with one of these basic instructions.
ThinkPython, p. 3
Exercise
- Human Adding Machine
distribute ThinkPython
A brief introduction to Python
First exercise: A dialog with Python