Recently, Microsoft released a learning series for the programming language Python on YouTube. It is targeted specifically as an introduction to those wanting to learn this popular language.
Having knowledge of Python (in a data analysis arena), made me want to give it a go. I want to see if there are some parts of Python that I could spruce my skills up on. I eagerly went through this series with the hope I would pick up something new.
The basic list of contents for the course are:
- Introduction
- Setting up Visual Studio Code
- Comments
- Data Types
- Error Handling
- Conditional Logic
- Collections
- Loops
- Defining functions and parameters
- Modules and Packages
- Virtual Environments
- APIs
- JSON
- Keys
- Decorators
The entire playlist is here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlrxD0HtieHhS8VzuMCfQD4uJ9yne1mE6
Along with the base topic, demo sessions are given. This is where they dive into the material presented for the given chapter. In total, there are 44 separate videos to this series. Surprisingly, most are less than 10 minutes in length.
The presenters of the topics are Microsoft’s Christopher Harrison (Senior Program Manager) and Susan Ibach (Business Development Manager). They have a good presence about them in the videos. They actually have a rare combination of being a programmer type and a presenter type.
The videos are supplemented by material loaded up on GitHub. You can find that here:
https://github.com/microsoft/c9-python-getting-started
This is a good bit of knowledge to be putting into an introduction course. Managing it in these bite sized videos gives basic enough information that someone with existing programming experience in other languages could pick this up. I would suggest that someone without any experience search YouTube and online for a general introduction to programming course. Based on how that goes, you could pick up Python afterwards.
I watched the videos fairly quick. It did not take more than a few evenings of casual viewing to get through the series. Chris and Susan do a good job of keeping your attention. It is basic but I would say that there are a few tricks that I picked up here and there. At the very least, this series acts as refresher in the basics of Python.
I will note that this is not going to make a Powerhouse Python Developer out of you. However, it will give you that introduction that could be used as a springboard into learning and experimenting with more advanced techniques. It is up to you how far you take it. More than likely, you will want to go through the examples with your own install of Python while watching.
If I would have one “wish” for this is that I would like to see is the addition of the basics of Object Oriented Programming with Python. Understood that this can be an entire course of videos by itself. Still, I think providing the basics of defining a class would be very useful. Hopefully, Microsoft will have good feedback on this series and follow-up with intermediate and advanced training material.
There really is no good reason for programmers that want to learn Python to not watch this series. It is simple, straightforward and only requires a bit of your time up on YouTube. You probably spend too much time on YouTube already so make the best out of it with something educational.
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