1. Getting files

1. Getting files
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You will need a working installation of python. If you don't already have python on your machine, go to python download (http://www.python.org/download/) and download and install a version of python for your machine.
To write programs, you will need a programming editor (not needed for the first part of the class).
You will need some standard unix utilities e.g. bash shell and bc if you want to do some of the exercises. bash is the default shell for Linux and is used to retreive/manipulate/input/output information from the computer about its state/condition. bash is run within a terminal (e.g. xterm or a console). bc does arithmetic in different bases (e.g. binary and hexadecimal).
- Linux has bash and bc by default.
- Mac OS/X Jaguar has tcsh by default, Panther has bash by default. Here's an article on installing and running bash on Mac OS (http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/02/24/bash.html).
- To run these unix utilities on windows, you will need Cygwin (http://www.Cygwin.com/) plus a few files (the basic install just installs Cygwin). Start with setup.exe (at bottom, "Install or update now!") and select a download site. You will get an initial menu from which you choose your download/install. The menu is not particularly obvious. You will need bash from "shells", bc from "math" or "util".
  Cygwin is a unix like environment for windows. It's designed for people who know unix and who are forced to work on windows machines. In this class you can choose your OS, so if you're working under windows, you'll be doing so because that's what you want. In this case you should use the version of python for windows. (It would be possible to use the cygwin version of python instead of the native windows version of python and do all of the class within cygwin).
If you're at a terminal and don't know your shell, type
echo $SHELL /bin/bash
Python Tutorial on-line (http://docs.python.org/tut/), Python Tutorial in several formats (http://docs.python.org/download.html).
LiveWires python teaching course (http://www.livewires.org.uk/python/home). I will be using some of the course as examples.
LiveWires worksheets (http://www.livewires.org.uk/python/worksheets)
LiveWires package (http://www.livewires.org.uk/python/package)
pygames (http://www.pygame.org/download.shtml)
David Handy (who I find lives close by me) and is a member of Triangle ZPUG (http://starship.python.net/mailman/listinfo/triangle-zpug) has written Computer Programming is Fun (http://www.handysoftware.com/cpif/) to teach python to home schoolers (i.e. kids about the age of my class). I only knew about the LiveWires course when I started this course. David's book has graphics and audio libraries which will add some fun for kids, who don't want to start with hard boiled code and provably correct constructs.
While looking for clues on validating user input I found CS 107:Computing, Robots, and Python (http://www.cs.usfca.edu/~wolber/courses/107/)

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