Question

I am currently beginning "The Machine" MOOC coursework, Can anyone give me a quick dissertation of the prestudy lessons I should be working on? Thanks

Answer 1

Hi Russell,

First off, I would say get your tools in order if you haven't already: Get a good text editor (not word processor) to use with the command line, and get IDLE as a supplement.

As far as lessons and exercises there are two things I would check out:
http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/python

And this book, which is excellent and has exercises:

http://www.google.com/books?id=aJQILlLxRmAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

The resources page from my real live intro to CS with Python course is super useful too:
http://cs.marlboro.edu/courses/fall2012/python/home

Answer 2

Nice answer there...
www.python.org
I programmed with different languages for a long time, but Python is my favorite. If you are doing MOOC, you should download the 2.7.x version.
You can choose what you want depending on your system or OS.
Keep up the good work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)
You can have a basic background about Python.
If you are new to python, or just new to the Programming World, make sure you download 2.7.x.
The "recent" 3.3.0 version is not fully supported and the syntax is quite a bit "confusing"
Along with Python, i recommend you buy some books about it. Also, if possible, study Perl at the same time.
To actually learn how to use python and make use of it, go to www.codecademy.com they have explanation, excersises and all the good stuff you need for programming. If you get frustrated with the exercise you can't solve, there is the Q&A forums. The common mistakes and errors are already answered and you can learn a LOT from it.
They also have a glossary that basically shows you all those basic syntaxes.

Answer 3

http://www.python.org/
http://www.codecademy.com/

Answer 4

You can already get ahead with the MIT materials:

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-189-a-gentle-introduction-to-programming-using-python-january-iap-2011/lectures

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-189-a-gentle-introduction-to-programming-using-python-january-iap-2011/assignments

and

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-189-a-gentle-introduction-to-programming-using-python-january-iap-2011/readings

Answer 5

If You want something challenging, try Project Euler ( http://projecteuler.net/about) after You have some Python basics. Its just a set of questions (50% programming, 50% math I'd say). You can solve them in any programming language You want. It is really fun, and some questions are very hard (for example, you need to "fight" with bad code performance). I find this project very, very useful while learning new language, and I really recommend it!

Answer 6

Awesome replies everyone, though technically the course will use 2.6.x not 2.7.x, though shouldn't make too much of a difference which you are using. And yes, perfectly fine to work ahead if you are itching to get started.

Answer 7

thanks to all for their responses to my query. I'll probably be in contact with you all during this endeavor.

Answer 8

I would go with http://www.codeacadamy.com it has some nice tutorials, just don't use Firefox, it bugs out.