1.1   How to use these Materials -- suggestions

I carry these materials to class on CDs and flash drives. On the morning of the first day of class, I ask students to copy this directory (Materials) onto their hard drive.

The latest version of these materials is available at my Web site: http://www.davekuhlman.org/#materials-for-python-training

I teach most of the course from the notes in Docs/python_course_03.html.

See section Directory contents for more detailed information on the contents.

1.2   Modifying documentation (HTML) files

Many of the HTML files were produced using Docutils, which is a documentation preparation system written in Python. These HTML files were generated from corresponding source text files containing reStructuredText. For example, the file "abc.txt" would be used to generate "abc.html".

To do this, you will need the following:

• Install Docutils, if you do not already have it. You can find it here: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/
• Learn some reStructuredText, although in many cases, you may be able to simply follow the layout, format, and indentation of an existing document (a .txt file). There is documentation at the Docutils site, and a quick reference is here: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/user/rst/quickref.html

Once Docutils is installed on your machine, you should be able to re-generate an HTML file with the following:

$ rst2html.py --stylesheet=Docs/pytraining_docutils.css abc.txt abc.html

The --stylesheet option is not strictly necessary, but will produce output with an appearance more consistent with other HTML files in these Materials. The file pytraining_docutils.css is in the Docs/ directory, so you may need to adjust the above command depending on your current directory.

2.1   Materials/Docs

Documentation to be used during training.

• agenda_brief.html -- A brief overview of a possible schedule for a beginning course on Python programming.
• agenda_4day.html -- An overview and schedule for a 4 day course.
• outline_03.pdf -- Slides to be used to introduce (and in some cases, summarize) various topics.
• python_book_01.html and python_book_01.pdf -- A Python course book. Also available at http://www.lulu.com/shop/shop.ep and at my Web site http://www.davekuhlman.org. You might consider printing this book as a hand-out to students, although I'm sure that there are better Python texts available.
• python_course_03.html -- The course notes that I use while teaching. When I teach, I often have these open in a Web browser on my screen and in front of the students via an overhead projector.
• python_versions_01.txt -- During the first morning's introduction to Python, I show this on the screen while describing the different versions of Python.

2.2   Materials/Exercises_python

Exercises for various topics -- Solutions are in the Solutions sub-directory. For example:

• numbers1.html -- Exercises on ints and floats.
• lists1.html -- Exercises for lists and tuples.
• strings1.html -- Exercises for strings.
• class_static_method.html -- Exercises for implementing class variables, class methods, and static methods.
• dictionaries1.html -- Exercises for dictionaries.
• files1.html -- Exercises on reading and writing text files.
• sets1.html -- Exercises on the use of sets.
• statements1.html -- Exercises for Python statements.
• functions1.html -- Exercises for defining and calling functions.
• classes1.html -- Exercises for object-oriented programming and implementing classes in Python.
• bonus_exercises.txt -- This file describes a variety of problems. It contains the doc-string for each solution, along with the location of the file that provides that solution.

2.3   Materials/Code_python

If you have extra time at the end of the last day of training, you may want to consider using one or more of the following as exercises. In most cases, each of the following directories contains a Solutions sub-directory containing sample solutions.

• Cmd -- Exercise -- Implement an interactive prompt using the cmd module.

• CommandLineOptions -- Exercise -- Parse and capture command line options using argparser and getopt.

• ConfigParser -- Exercise -- Parse and write a .ini configuration file.

• Database -- Exercise -- Create, write, and query/read a relational database using the sqlite3 module.

• Decorators -- Exercise -- (1) Implement a function that can be applied as a decorator to trace other functions. (2) Implement a descriptor class and a class that uses and tests the descriptor.

• DocServer -- Exercise -- (1) Implement module/library to provide access to a SQLite database containing documents. (2) Implement a ZeroMQ server and ZeroMQ client to access that document database using the above module/library. (3) Implement a command shell using cmd from the Python standard library to access the document database. (4) Implement a Web application using Pyramid to provide access to the document database.

  A Python script which can be used to create an empty SQLite database for this project is in DocServer/create_doc_database.py.

  Sample databases containing a few documents are in DocServer/Data.

  The Anaconda distribution of Python (at http://continuum.io) comes with ZeroMQ for Python (zmq). I suggest that you have students install Anaconda in order for them to work on this DocServer project. To install Pyramid in your Anaconda installation, use:

  $ conda install pyramid
  

  Also see the problem description and notes in: Code_python/DocServer/docserver.html.

• Import -- Sample -- Shows importing a module that imports a module, and demonstrates modifying a value that is global within a module.

• IteratorGenerator -- Exercise -- Implement a generator function -- a function the contains yield and, therefore, returns a generator (an iterable).

• Oop -- Exercise -- Implement a class hierarchy used to track and display a fleet of vehicles and their routes.

• package_sample1 -- An example of a Python package that makes several objects global within the package. To get an idea of what it does, do the following from the directory immediately above it:

  >>> import package_sample1
  >>> print dir(package_sample1)
  

• package_sample2 -- Similar to package_sample2.

• TextAndFiles -- Exercises -- Specifically:

  • CSV -- Comma separated values -- Read and print a report from a CSV file.
  • Count words -- Assignment is in words.html. Sample data is in words.dat. There are several solutions; words3.py is preferred.
  • Various other exercises for string processing and text file processing.

• TreeStructure -- Exercise -- Create, walk, and display tree structures implemented with (1) lists, (2) dictionaries, and (3) instances of a custom class.

• Unittest -- (1) Samples of unit test classes and harnesses to run those tests. (2) Exercise -- Implement a unit test class (sub-class of unittest.TestCase) and a test harness to test several database access functions.

• Xml -- Exercise -- elementtree_walk.html for an exercise using xml.etree.ElementTree.

• ExceptionSubclass -- Exercise -- Define an Exception subclass and catch it in a try:except: statement. A similar exercise is in Exercises_python/statements1.html.

• FixedLenRecords -- Write and read fixed length records, specifically text records that are not separated by newlines.

• VarialbeLenRecords -- Write and read variable length records, specifically text records that are not separated by newlines and where the record length is stored in the first bytes of each record.

• WrapperEnvelopeIterable --

• Zipfiles -- Exercise -- Create and process zip file archives using the zipfile module.

2.4   Materials/Samples_python

This directory contains samples of Python code. It's the place where I put sample files that I do not need immediately, but think that I might during some class in the future, and that I don't want to throw away.

When you need a sample of code to illustrate some Python topic and you can't find it in Exercises_python or Code_python, you might look for it here.