This course aims to show you what the Python language is and what it is used for. Let's start from the absolute basics.

A program makes a computer usable. Without a program, a computer, even the most powerful one, is nothing more than an object. Similarly, without a player, a piano is nothing more than a wooden box.

Do you remember Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142 and Battlefield Heroes - strategy and first person shooter games from EA DICE? All the games use Python for logic and server controls. Python is frequently used for creating open-source, free games, e.g., OpenRTS, PySol, Metin 2, or Frets On Fire - famous Guitar Hero-like games written in pygame.

And what about the major websites and services? Dropbox? UBER? Spotify? Pintrest? BuzzFeed? Yes. They were all written, to a greater or lesser extent, in Python. Other examples?

• Internet Applications (BitTorrent, Jogger Publishing Assistant, TheCircle, TwistedMatrix)
• 3D CAD/CAM (FreeCAD, Fandango, Blender, Vintech RCAM)
• Enterprise Applications (Odoo, Tryton, Picalo, LinOTP 2, RESTx)
• Image Applications (Gnofract 4D, Gogh, imgSeek, MayaVi, VPython)
• Mobile Applications (Aarlogic C05/3, AppBackup, Pyroute)
• Office Applications (calibre, faces, Notalon, pyspread)
• Personal Information Managers (BitPim, Narval, Prioritise, Task Coach, WikidPad)
  (Source: https://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonProjects)

Learn the basics of Python programming here!

In this short-course, you will learn about:

• the fundamentals of computer programming, i.e., how the computer works, how the program is executed, how the programming language is defined and constructed;
• the difference between compilation and interpretation
• what Python is, how it is positioned among other programming languages, and what distinguishes the different versions of Python.