Chapters

• Foreword - Why Learn Programming?
• 1   Understanding and Setting Up Your System
  • 1.1   The Python Programming Language
  • 1.2   Setup the Programming Environment
  • 1.3   Setup the Distributed Version Control System
  • 1.4   Viewing File Extensions
• 2   How to Draw with Your Computer
  • 2.1   Creating a New Program
  • 2.2   Comments
  • 2.3   Import the Arcade Library
  • 2.4   How to Open a Window for Drawing
  • 2.5   Clearing the screen
  • 2.6   Specifying Colors
  • 2.7   The Coordinate System
  • 2.8   Drawing a Rectangle
  • 2.9   Drawing primitives
• 3   Drawing with Functions
  • 3.1   How to Define a Function
  • 3.2   How to Use Variables
  • 3.3   How to Create Expressions
  • 3.4   How to Create a Custom Drawing Function
  • 3.5   Make Everything a Function
  • 3.6   Returning and Capturing Values
  • 3.7   Documenting Functions
  • 3.8   Variable Scope
  • 3.9   Pass-by-Copy
  • 3.10   Functions Calling Functions
• 4   Quiz Games and If Statements
  • 4.1   Basic Comparisons
  • 4.2   Indentation
  • 4.3   Using And/Or
  • 4.4   Boolean Variables
  • 4.5   Else and Else If
  • 4.6   Text Comparisons
  • 4.7   Example if Statements
• 5   Guessing Games with Random Numbers and Loops
  • 5.1   For Loops
  • 5.2   Example for Loops
  • 5.3   While Loops
  • 5.4   Example while Loops
  • 5.5   Random Numbers
• 6   Advanced Looping
• 7   Introduction to Lists
  • 7.1   Data Types
  • 7.2   Working With Lists
  • 7.3   Iterating (Looping) Through a List
  • 7.4   Adding to a List
  • 7.5   Summing or Modifying a List
  • 7.6   Slicing Strings
  • 7.7   Secret Codes
  • 7.8   Associative Arrays
• 8   Introduction to Classes
  • 8.1   Why Learn About Classes?
  • 8.2   Defining and Creating Simple Classes
  • 8.3   Adding Methods to Classes
  • 8.4   References
  • 8.5   Constructors
  • 8.6   Inheritance
  • 8.7   Static Variables vs. Instance Variables
• 9   Classes, Animation and User Control
  • 9.1   Creating a Window with a Class
  • 9.2   Extending the Window Class
  • 9.3   Drawing with the Window Class
  • 9.4   Animating
  • 9.5   User Control
  • 9.6   Starting Template
• 10   Sound Effects
  • 10.1   Loading Sounds
  • 10.2   Playing Sounds
  • 10.3   Triggering Sounds
  • 10.4   Finding Sounds
  • 10.5   Sound File Formats
• 11   Sprites
  • 11.1   Basic Sprites and Collisions
  • 11.2   Moving Sprites
  • 11.3   Rotating Sprites
  • 11.4   Using Sprites to Shoot
• 12   Review
• 13   Sprites and Walls
  • 13.1   The Simple Physics Engine
  • 13.2   Using a View Port for Scrolling
• 14   Libraries and Modules
  • 14.1   Why Create a Library?
  • 14.2   Creating Your Own Module/Library File
  • 14.3   Namespace
  • 14.4   Third Party Libraries
• 15   Searching
  • 15.1   Reading From a File
  • 15.2   Reading Into an Array
  • 15.3   Linear Search
  • 15.4   Linear Search Algorithm
  • 15.5   Variations On The Linear Search
  • 15.6   Binary Search
• 16   Array-Backed Grids
  • 16.1   Introduction
  • 16.2   Application
• 17   Platformers
• 18   Sorting
  • 18.1   Swapping Values
  • 18.2   Selection Sort
  • 18.3   Insertion Sort
• 19   Exceptions
  • 19.1   Vocabulary
  • 19.2   Exception Handling
  • 19.3   Example: Saving High Score
  • 19.4   Exception Objects
  • 19.5   Exception Generating
  • 19.6   Proper Exception Use
• 20   Recursion
  • 20.1   Where is Recursion Used?
  • 20.2   How is Recursion Coded?
  • 20.3   Controlling Recursion Depth
  • 20.4   Recursion Factorial Calculation
  • 20.5   Recursive Rectangles
  • 20.6   Fractals
  • 20.7   Recursive Binary Search
• Appendix: Selecting Python