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The big news for October is that The Python Coding Place is now live and my first video course is available for beginners starting to learn to code–well, the first few chapters anyway. This is big news! The Python Coding Place has been a gradual project that started with this site–The Python Coding Book. The… Continue reading The Python Coding Place is Live! | October in Review
The Python Coding Stack travelled across timezones, through supermarket aisles, and across a chess board in September. The month started with Butter Berries, An Elusive Delicacy. The inspiration for this article started with a text message from my wife while I was shopping at the supermarket: "Get butter berries and flour. Will be there soon."… Continue reading Butter Berries, Chess, and Timezones | September in Review
I kept myself quite busy May. Not only did I finish running the first The Python Coding Programme cohort and starting running the second. I published seven new articles on The Python Coding Stack. Here's a roundup: The second and third Years at Hogwarts School of Codecraft and Algorithmancy are now out. Year 2 deals… Continue reading From Classes to Turtles via Functools and more | May in Review
Note: This article has now moved here: Sequences in Python (Data Structure Categories #2) – Sequences are different from iterables • Part 2 of the Data Structure Categories Series Here's an introduction to the article: You started your journey through Python's main data structure categories in the first article in this series, which dealt with… Continue reading What’s a Python Sequence? [Python Data Structure Series #2]
Note: This article has now moved here: Iterable: Python's Stepping Stones – What makes an iterable iterable? Part 1 of the Data Structure Categories Series Here's an introduction to the article: You're familiar with data structures such as lists, dictionaries, tuples, sets, and more. You may even know about the similarities and differences between their… Continue reading What’s a Python Iterable? [Python Data Structure Series #1]
When I was young, we played arcade games in their original form on tall rectangular coin-operated machines with buttons and joysticks. These games had a resurgence as smartphone apps in recent years, useful to keep one occupied during a long commute. In this article, I'll resurrect one as a 2D Python game and use it… Continue reading Anatomy of a 2D Game using Python’s turtle and Object-Oriented Programming
The keyword is and the operator == are not the same. Yet, many programmers often use one when they should use the other. Let's look at the difference between is and == in Python with the help of a £5 note and a trip to my local coffee shop. In this article, you'll: Find out… Continue reading Understanding The Difference Between `is` and `==` in Python: The £5 Note and a Trip to a Coffee Shop
You've covered a lot of material in this Intermediate Python Functions Series. In this final article, you'll read about some best practices in Python functions. This topic is different from the previous ones discussed in this series. You won't get a SyntaxError, TypeError or any other error if you don't follow best practices. Your code… Continue reading Some Best Practices When Writing Python Functions [Intermediate Python Functions Series #7]
I first played the board game Risk during my doctoral studies. We occasionally stayed up all night playing this game. I hadn't played it for many years, but I bought it "for the kids" this Christmas, so I got to play it again. And soon, I found myself wondering what the odds are for the… Continue reading Using Python’s NumPy To Improve Your Board Game Strategy: Your Odds When Attacking in ‘Risk’
You've already covered a lot of ground in this Intermediate Python Functions series. In this article, you'll read about a relatively new addition in Python called type hinting or type annotation. Unlike all the other topics you learnt about in the previous articles, this one will not change the behaviour of the function you define.… Continue reading Using Type Hints When Defining A Python Function [Intermediate Python Functions Series #6]