Treehouse: Python Programming Language

Python is a widespread, general-purpose, open-source programming language used for many different purposes. Focusing on a clean syntax and ease of use, it’s great for beginners and professionals alike.

Python programming language first appeared in 1991, and the latest stable release (Python 3.5.0) was made in September 2015. Python is always growing and expanding, and its open-source nature is part of what makes it so appealing.

This popular programming language is part of an outlook, a philosophy, which was summarized in the document “Zen of the Python”, written in 2004:

Beautiful is better than ugly

Explicit is better than implicit

Simple is better than complex

Complex is better than complicated

Readability counts

Python

Python

Treehouse online courses contains a Python category of 15 courses and 6 workshops. There is also a Python learning track, which is 16 hours long. The track will teach students what it takes to begin a career with companies that use Python, and can even provide them with the knowledge to start freelancing or even start their own company.

Treehouse has another track, Learn Flask, which is Python-related. This track runs 17 hours in length, and includes 7 courses. Flask is a Python framework, used to turn Python programs into web sites and applications. Flask is considered a small framework, but it manages to deliver in a big way. It is the ‘go to’ web framework for many Python developers. Students who complete this track will know the basics of Python, Flask installation and usage, how to use Databases and Python with a Flask app, and more.

Examples of Python courses are Functional Python, Using Databases in Python, Regular Expression in Python, and Setting up a local Python environment.

Course Review: Python Basics

This course is taught by Kenneth Love, a Treehouse teacher. It is the place to start for Python noobs. The course teaches some of the most common and important bits of the language. Love instructs students how to use them, and then how to put them together into several different scripts. At the final stage of the course, students will build a small console game using the knowledge they have gained.

Instructor Kenneth Love

Instructor Kenneth Love

The topics covered in this course are:

  • Using Python
  • Strings
  • Numbers
  • Lists
  • Control structures and functions

This course runs over two hours in length, and has six modules. Each of these modules includes lectures, code challenges, and short assessment quizzes.

Course Review: Django Basics

This is an intermediate course, also taught by Kenneth Love. It explores the Python framework that is Django, and students who complete the course end up building a prototype of an e-learning site. The course goes in-depth, and goes over Django’s admin, ORM, migrations, and template system. By the end of the course, students will have created a project that they can use to intuitively explore even more of the Django framework.

This is an intermediate course, and it has several prerequisite courses. Treehouse highly recommends that students take the following courses, before enrolling in Django Basics:

  1. Django Basics

    Django Basics

    Python Basics

  2. Python Collections
  3. Object-Oriented Python
  4. Python Testing

The topics of Django Basics are:

  • An introduction to Django
  • Administration
  • Templates
  • Details

This course runs four hours in length. It has six modules in it, which contain lectures, coding challenges, and a number of short assessment quizzes along the way.

About the Instructor: Kenneth Love

Love is a web developer and designer. He has been a freelancer and consultant for years, mostly doing Python & Django development. He is also versed in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Love is a Treehouse teacher and an educator at heart. He is a frequent speaker at DjangoCon & PyCon.

Python is a lot like PERL, but its syntax and readability make it even more popular. It is easy to learn, and it gets great results. Python is highly accessible, which is why so many web developers are using it. Python has a long and illustrious history, and its future is also looking up. It is growing even more popular and gaining a greater following with every release. Definitely a language which you should consider getting under your programming belt.

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