Python Programming

We have reached the end of Lesson 2. Hopefully that wasn’t too hard!

Lesson 2 was an introduction to the basic ‘atoms’ in programming (more specifically in Python).

I hope that you have gained a firm understanding of these basic components, so that you can start writing programs for real in the next lessons.

Let’s check your understanding. Do you understand the following concepts? Go back and find out the answers before proceeding otherwise.

• What are objects in Python (broadly)? I will go into more detail on objects in future lessons. For now, think of an object as an entity occupying some space in memory and has a type and some value.
• What basic data types are there in Python?
• What is a literal?
• What is an operator?
• Which operators can be used with Python strings?
• What is a variable?
• How is a variable related to an object or a literal?
• How should you name your variables?
• What is an identifier?
• What is a keyword?
• What is an expression?
• What is a statement?

You have also looked at what Git is (at a high level), and have initialised a Git repository for your robot project.

Now that you have an understanding of the basic components that make up the “basic building blocks” (from Lesson 1), we will start looking at these blocks in more detail in the next lessons.

You will start to write programs and apply your knowledge to solve computational problems for real. Hopefully things will get more interesting from here on!

Take a break to let your mind consolidate what you have learnt so far, and I will see you in the next lesson!