Coding User

Within Coding User, our team of industry experts and professional coders cover all the tools you need to get coding. From those first few lines of code that will change your world forever to insider tips and tricks to advance your skills and programming abilities. Each issue features up-to-date user tutorials, put together in an easy to follow step-by-step manner, building to create a multi-volumed series that will see you get to grips with code but also improve your knowledge, job prospects, and expand your horizons. Let’s get coding, where the only limit is your own imagination. Subscribe today! 100% Independent! Please note: ALL free content and gifts are also available via this digital edition.

Welcome…

Essential AI Coding Tools • The arrival of artificial intelligence has created new opportunities for coders, can you shortcut the entire coding process via AI? Which coding languages are accessible with AI tools? Where should you start?

Code With Python

Why Python? • There are many different programming languages available for the modern computer, and some still available for older 8 and 16-bit computers too. Some of these languages are designed for scientific work, others for mobile platforms and such. So why choose Python out of all the rest?

What Can You Do with Python? • Python is an open-source, object-oriented programming language that’s simple to understand and write with, yet also powerful and extremely malleable. It’s these char acteristics that help make it such an important language to learn.

Equipment You Will Need • You can learn Python with very little hardware or initial financial investment. You don’t need an incredibly powerful computer and any software that’s required is freely available.

How to Set Up Python in Windows • Windows users can easily install the Python programming language via the main Python Downloads page. While most seasoned Python developers may shun Windows as the platform of choice for building their code, it’s an ideal starting point for beginners.

How to Set Up Python in Linux • While the Raspberry Pi’s operating system contains the latest, stable version of Python, other Linux distros don’t come with Python 3 pre-installed. If you’re not going down the Pi route, then here’s how to check and install Python for Linux.

Python on the Pi • If you’re considering on which platform to install and use Python, then give some thought to one of the best coding bases available: the Raspberry Pi. The Pi has many advantages for the coder: it’s cheap, easy to use, and extraordinarily flexible.

Starting Python for the First Time • We’re using Python 3 under Windows 11 for these following examples. Don’t worry if your version of Python is 3.4.2, or something lesser than the current version, as long as you’re using Python 3, the code will work.

Your First Code • Essentially, you’ve already written your first piece of code with the print(“Hello everyone!”) function from the previous tutorial. However, let’s expand that and look at entering your code and playing around with some other Python examples.

Saving and Executing Your Code • While working in the IDLE Shell is perfectly fine for snippets of code, it’s not designed for entering longer program listings. In this section, we’ll introduce you to the IDLE Editor, where most of our code will be entered from now on.

Executing Code from the Command Line • While we’re going to be working from the GUI IDLE, it’s worth taking a moment to look at Python’s command line handling. Sometimes, depending on the code you write, executing via the command line is a better solution over the IDLE.

Numbers and Expressions • We’ve seen some basic mathematical expressions with Python, simple addition and the like. Now let’s expand on that, and see just how powerful Python is as a...