Python Fans

It was really nice to see some students from Hymers College today. They'd dropped by to talk about Python, which was great. I hope I said some things that you found useful. I did find time to gratuitously plug my new book (see left).

Incidentally, anyone can get the final four chapters of the book as free downloads from here.

These chapters are the ones where you actually deploy what you've learnt in the previous parts.

It makes sense to have them as downloads as you can have the book open while you work on the sample code. 

I hope you find them useful. 

Begin to Code with Python goes to print today

I spent a big chunk of yesterday going through the final drafts of "Begin to Code with Python". And today the files will be going off to the printers.

I started work on the book in March, and we now have a 630 page book with over 170 example programs. Thanks to everyone at Pearson and Microsoft Press for letting me write it and being so helpful during the process..

The book will be in the shops at the start of December. The perfect Christmas present. 

Begin to Code Python Snaps

Creating pretty menu screens, Snaps style

As you might know, I'm working on Begin to Code Python. You can order a copy below. It will be out once I've finished writing it....

When I wrote the Begin to Code with C# book (which you can buy now - see below) I wrote a library of functions I called Snaps. The idea was to use these to make it easy for people to create impressive applications right from the start. Snaps for C# became an enormous library that you can find on GitHub here. I'm using it for my Monday Snaps which you can read each, er, Monday. 

Anyhoo, when I started the Python book I wondered about writing a Snaps library for Python. I've always been concerned that people might think that they are getting a book about Snaps, not programming, and so I wasn't sure whether another library would be a good idea. And the libraries do take a while to build. 

To cut a long story short, I've decided to make some Snaps for Python. They're much more lightweight than the ones I wrote for C#. They're built on the pygame framework so that I can get some nice graphical and audio elements with minimal effort. I've put the first version of Python Snaps, along with all the sample programs for the first five chapter's worth of examples, on GitHub here.

I must admit I'm really (and I mean really) enjoying writing Python at the moment. As a language that lets you go quickly from idea to implementation I think it is very hard to beat. It requires a different approach to programming from a language like C#.  but that's not a bad thing. 

Return of the Kaossilator

The Korg Kaossilator is a nifty device for making weird sound effects. I got one quite a while back and it has provided the sounds for quite a few projects. Today I was working on Begin To Code Python and I needed a suitably awakening tone for an alarm program that I'm writing. So I dug out Mr. Kaoss.

I remember years ago that one of the marketing pitches behind Duracell batteries was that they didn't leak.

That is not the case now. Ugh. But after a thorough clean up we are back in business and making amazing sounds again. If you're interested, the sound I ended up with is here: