Python files: playpen.zip 

Python.org main site: https://www.python.org/about/ 
Software install: https://www.continuum.io/downloads

Introductory Python:

• pythonCrashCourse.py: for those familiar with programming but not Python.
• pythonIntro.py: also including list comprehensions (pythonIntro3.py)

We will use the Anaconda platform, a curated collection of hundreds of the most popular Python modules.
Further, I will use the included Spyder development environment. You can use the Python 2.7 or 3.5 installer.
3.5 includes some syntax not recognized by 2.7, but our code will be generally interoperable.
You may decide to use Python 2.7 if only because the OpenStack command-line clients and
some other modules do not yet support 3).

Session 1: Friday June 3, 2016

•  Language fundamentals: variables and assignment, arithmetic, conditions, iteration, functional abstraction.
•  Scripting for simple interactive applications.
•  Sprinkled throughout: syntactic sugar (list comprehensions)
•  Assignment: a few functions to try writing.

Session 2: Monday June 6, 2016:

•  Advanced function programming
•  Object-oriented programming: data abstraction, modules, inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism
•  Efficiencies: generators, recursion.
•  Assignment: what might you want to use Python for?
  OpenStack Python API (http://docs.openstack.org/user-guide/sdk.html),
  parallel/distributed computing (https://wiki.python.org/moin/ParallelProcessing),
  web development (https://www.fullstackpython.com/web-development.html), …

Session 3: Tuesday June 7, 2016:

•  Brief participant problem descriptions.
•  Review and discussion.
•  Data science and visualization demos.