The best programming guide money can buy!

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Learn how to program the easy and fun way

LEARN
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WorldMags.net

Learn how to program the easy and fun way

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 WorldMags.net

Welcome!
Learning to code will change the way you think
about the world. Its an exciting journey!
Coding is the new cool. pushing coding to the fore of education.
With the internet So no matter if youre looking to relive
driving a new world of those heady 80s coding days or are a
information exchange, newbie looking to take your first steps into
business start-ups and the coding world, you hold in your hands
online gaming, coders the ideal guide to start coding. Thanks to
have suddenly become a new generation of open free software,
the gatekeepers to we all can access operating systems,
these new realms. Combine the huge development tools, compilers and the
interest in learning how to create and programming languages needed to create
control these worlds with the surge of professional programs, apps and tools.
cool devices, such as the Raspberry Pi, Well show you how to get up and running
and youve got a head of technological with a Linux system, then access
steam the world hasnt seen since the everything you need freely online.
coding craze of the early 1980s. Coding is easy, exciting and fun. Well
Back then, it was more Code Britannia explain the basics, move on to more
than Cool Britannia jump forward to advanced topics, explain how you can use
today, and Britain is again firmly at the the Raspberry Pi, and provide you with
heart of a web and coding revolution. A exciting and easy-to-follow projects. So
Brit invented the web, a Brit designed what are you waiting for? Get coding!
the Raspberry Pi, and Britain is firmly Neil Mohr, Editor

Made Simple books are designed Break instructions down into Teach you new skills you can take
to get you up and running quickly easy-to-follow steps so you wont with you through your life and apply
with a new piece of hardware or be left scratching your head over at home or even in the workplace
software. We wont bombard you what to do next
with jargon or gloss over basic Make it easy for you to take our
principles, but we will Help you discover exciting new advice everywhere with you by
things to do and try exploring giving you a free digital edition of
Explain everything in plain English new technology should be fun and this book you can download and take
so you can tackle your new device or our guides are designed to make with you on your tablet, smartphone
software with confidence and really the learning journey as enjoyable as or laptop see page 146 for more
get to know how to use it possible for you details on this offer

How are we doing? Email [email protected] and let us know if weve lived up to our promises!

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 5

 WorldMags.net

Contents
Get coding
Get started with Linux .................................................................................................... 10
Get coding in Linux Mint ......................................................................................... 16
Join the Coding Academy .................................................................................... 19
How to use an IDE ..................................................................................................................... 28

Coding basics
Lists ..................................................................................................................................................................................32
Functions and objects .................................................................................................... 34
Conditionals .............................................................................................................................................. 36
Variables ............................................................................................................................................................. 38
Program structure ................................................................................................................. 40
Recursion ........................................................................................................................................................ 44
Sorting algorithms .................................................................................................................. 46
Integers ................................................................................................................................................................. 48
Using loops .................................................................................................................................................. 50
Compilers ........................................................................................................................................................ 52
Common mistakes ............................................................................................................... 54

6 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
Further coding
Data types 58
......................................................................................................................................................

More data types ............................................................................................................................60

Abstraction 62
..................................................................................................................................................

Using files ........................................................................................................................................................64

UNIX programs part 1 ...................................................................................................66
UNIX programs part 2 ..................................................................................................68
UNIX programs part 3 70
...................................................................................................

Modules 74
.................................................................................................................................................................

Persistence 76
...................................................................................................................................................

Databases 78
.......................................................................................................................................................

Raspberry Pi
Getting started 82
..................................................................................................................................

Starting Scratch 84
............................................................................................................................

Further Scratch 88
...............................................................................................................................

Coding with IDLE 92

..........................................................................................................................

Python on the Pi 94
...........................................................................................................................

Python 3.0 on the Pi 98

..........................................................................................................

Advanced sorting .................................................................................................................. 102

Hacking Minecraft .............................................................................................................. 108
Image walls in Minecraft ...................................................................................... 110
2048 in Minecraft .................................................................................................................. 114

Coding projects
Python 3.0 primer .............................................................................................................. 120
Build a Gimp plug-in ..................................................................................................... 124
Image filters .......................................................................................................................................... 128
Sound filters ........................................................................................................................................ 134
Twitter scanner ......................................................................................................................... 138
Build a GUI ............................................................................................................................................... 142

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 7

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
WorldMags.net

Get coding!
Everything you need to
start coding today
Get started with Linux ........................................ 10
Get coding in Linux Mint ............................. 16
Join the Coding Academy ........................ 19
How to use an IDE........................................................ 28

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 9

 WorldMags.net

GET STARTED
WITH LINUX
It runs on most desktop and
laptop PCs, its free and you
dont even need to install it.
Lets look at Linux!

A
s you read through this Coding with many languages built in or ready to install you can get hold of Mint and then get it up and
Made Simple bookazine, youll from a central server. No scouting round running on your PC.
notice that most of the screens dodgy sites; just run a command or fire up a Its not scary, it wont damage your PC and
dont look like Microsoft software centre to get what you need. you dont even have to install anything if you
Windows or Apple Mac OS X. Theres a Thats the beauty of Linux its built by dont want to. If you currently have a Windows
good reason for that: theyre not. Just as geeks for geeks to do geeky things. Once PC, there are three options: run Linux in
there are different car VirtualBox, run it off a DVD or
manufacturers or makes of USB drive, or install it on your
TV, theres more than one Its not scary, it wont damage PC dual-booting with Windows.
operating system that can
run your PC or Mac. Its just
your PC and you dont even Were only going to look at
the first two as theyre the least
that Linux happens to be
free because its developed
have to install anything. likely to cause any damage. The
walkthrough opposite explains
by thousands of coders around the world. youre used to its slightly different interface how to run Mint within VirtualBox on top of
All the coding projects in this bookazine are and way of working, youll find how easy it Windows (or Mac OS X), while the next
based on someone running Linux on their really is to get along with. We recommend that walkthrough shows you how to create a live
desktop. You dont have to the code works you use a version (known as a distro) called image that you can boot and run from either a
on Windows or Mac OS X but Linux comes Linux Mint, and were going to look at the ways DVD or a USB flash drive.

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VirtualBox

1 Get VirtualBox 2 Create a machine 3 Start virtual Mint

Head to www.virtualbox.org and download Choose Ubuntu and the bits should match the A prompt asks for a disc. Locate the Mint ISO
Virtual Box 5 for your operating system, be ISO you downloaded. Click Next. Under file you downloaded and click Start. Linux
that Windows or OS X. Install it and be aware Memory, we recommend 2048, but if you Mint starts and, once loaded, youre free to try
youll need around 20GB of spare drive space have an 8GB PC, 4096 is best. You can leave it out or use the Install icon to properly install
to store the virtual OS file. You also need the all the rest as default settings, apart from the Mint to the virtual machine. For extended use,
Mint ISO file from www.linuxmint.com. Once dynamic hard drive size. The default is 8GB, in the virtual machines settings under
installed, start VirtualBox, click New Machine, but we suggest 32GB just in case. Finish and Display, you should enable 3D acceleration
choose Linux and call it Mint. click Start to get going. and allocate 16MB of memory.

I
f youve never tried Linux, we think youll developers. In many ways, the key weakness of
be surprised at how easy it is to use, and
how good a development platform it
Linux has been its lack of ease of use (Mint is
an exception to that rule) but then, when its
Top tip
makes. You should also know that Linux designed and created by developers, ease of Whats a distro?
runs the majority of the internet, from its use is going to come at the bottom of the to-do Unlike Windows and Mac OS X, because
core servers to websites, alongside powering list. The upshot of this history is that theres a Linux is free software, anyone can take it and
97% of the worlds supercomputers, and wealth of the most advanced tools freely effectively create their own OS to distribute.
being used widely in science and industry. available on all Linux platforms. As long as In the Linux world, these are called distros for
So its not such a bad thing to understand, youre willing to seek out help yourself and short, and there are literally hundreds out
after all. contribute back to the community, youll find there not all good, not all maintained, but
No matter which tutorial you follow, youll a very welcoming and rich development hundreds nonetheless.
need a copy of the Linux Mint Cinnamon distro. ecosystem waiting for you.
Head to www.linuxmint.com/download.php programs has always been from a central
and download the 32-bit build, unless you Getting apps repository of software, protected and
know your system is 64-bit, in which case get With Windows, in the past youve been used to maintained by the distros creators.
that. If you have an older or slower machine, getting programs by downloading them from This is one of the reasons why Linux has
opt for the MATE edition, which is less here, there and everywhere. More recently, the remained so secure (its not infallible) but
graphically demanding. introduction of the Windows Store has at least people downloading dodgy software is a key
centralised where software comes from and way that machines become infected. With
Up and running removed the worry of getting infected by Linux Mint, theres the Software Center, which
A big reason why Linux makes such a good viruses and malware. The fact is that with gives you access to hundreds of programs and
development platform is that it was created by Linux, the key way of getting new tools and all the programming development tools you

The GNU of GNU/Linux

The GNU project (GNU stands for GNUs Not GNU; glibc is the core C library used in Linux and
Unix) predates Linux by several years. It had it also comes from GNU. So just about any time
created most of the basic tools needed by a you do anything on your computer every time
computer of the early 1980s compilers, you type a command or click an icon GNU
text editors, file and directory manipulation software is being run at some level.
commands, and much more but did not have No wonder the GNU die-hards get upset
a usable kernel (some would say its kernel, GNU when we refer to our operating system as
Hurd, is still not that usable). When Linus Linux and not GNU/Linux. It is worth mentioning
Torvalds started tinkering with his small project that no one really denies the importance of the
in 1991, he had a kernel without the tools to run GNU aspect; calling the OS Linux rather than
on it. The two were put together and GNU/Linux GNU/Linux has far more to do with convenience
was born an operating system using the Linux and laziness than politics the full title is just
kernel and the GNU toolset. It is not only the too cumbersome.
programs in /bin and /usr/bin that come from

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 11

 WorldMags.net
Easy ways to run Linux
If youre not a big Linux user, then youll probably a DVD. When you first turn on a PC, you can virtual optical drive. There are more options
not want to destroy your existing Windows or usually get it to boot from alternative media by available, including writing the ISO file to a
Mac system, and we dont blame you. The truth pressing F11/F12, or hold down C on the Mac suitable USB thumb drive and, following a
is, you dont need to Linux is flexible enough some PCs boot from a suitable optical disc by similar boot process as discussed above,
that it can be run in a number of ways beside, on default. running Linux from this. To get this to work, you
top of or alongside most other operating Another option is to install VirtualBox from need to use a write tool such as UNetbootin
systems, and on most types of hardware from www.virtualbox.org (see previous page). Install from http://unetbootin.github.io.
virtual versions to versions running off spare and run this it looks complex, but creating a For the brave-hearted, you can also install
USB drives, DVDs or on low-cost hardware such virtual PC is pretty easy if you stick to the default Linux on your system directly. Most versions
as the Raspberry Pi. The standard way, once settings. The main stumbling block is ensuring of Linux create space alongside Windows and
youve got your hands on the ISO, is to burn it to under Storage that you add the ISO file to the make a dual-boot system.

could wish for. Its not why were here but you called the Terminal. This can be called a a Terminal and use the ls command to list a
can also download Valves Steam gaming client number of different things, depending on the directory, and cd to change directory.
and take advantage of over 1,700 Linux games system, such as the command line, command
it has to offer. prompt or command-line interface. It is a direct Linux isnt Windows
interface to the operating system and all of its One thing to keep in mind when you first use
Drivers tools, which you access through text Linux is that its not Windows or Mac OS X.
Were not really here to talk about using Linux commands. Going back to the early days of This largely means things youre used to in
in every detail but there are a few standard computers and Linux, as computers were so Windows wont work the same in Linux, or be
questions that often crop up when people much slower, there werent any graphical in the same place, nor does it offer the same
move over from Windows. One key one is interfaces, so computers were controlled set of programs. So big commercial products
where are all the drivers? The cool thing with entirely through text commands. such as Microsoft Office, Adobe
Linux is that, on the whole, theres no need to Linux was developed originally in this type Photoshop and development
worry about drivers theyre built into the of environment, so all of its core tools are tools such as Microsoft Visual
Linux kernel. That isnt to say you cant add based on Terminal use. Many of them or all Studio arent directly made for
drivers, but theyre generally not required. the ones youll care about do have graphical Linux you can run them via a
There are a couple of exceptions: certain more interfaces these days. The fact is, the Terminal system called Wine but the
obscure laptop wireless cards can cause remains an efficient way of controlling Linux, Linux open-source community
issues, while if you want maximum 3D gaming and when it comes to troubleshooting, it offers has created its own tools
performance, you need to install the dedicated a consistent set of tools and interfaces to such as LibreOffice, Gimp,
graphics driver from your cards manufacturer. resolve problems. Krita and a whole range of
You dont need to know anything about the freely available and
The Terminal Terminal to use Linux on a day-to-day basis, open-source products
If youve heard of Linux, then one area you but its good to know that its there just in case. that offer the
might fear or just wonder about is a thing However, we would advise you to at least open same capabilities.

Mint on a USB drive

1 UNetbootin Linux 2 Install Mint 3 Boot and run

To run Mint from a USB stick, you first need a The tool can directly download the Mint ISO You can now boot your PC from the USB
USB drive at least 4GB in size 16GB would image for you, but its best practice to do this drive. However, you need to ensure your PC
be ideal. Youll need the Mint ISO file from yourself, then you have a local copy to hand if selects the USB drive as the boot device.
www.linuxmint.com, as discussed in the you want to create a DVD copy or redo the Usually, when you first turn on your PC, a
VirtualBox walkthrough, and well use the process. Select Diskimage and locate the file message says to press F11 or F12 to select the
download tool UNetbootin from http:// in the Download folder. Ensure you have the boot device. Some PCs have their own
unetbootin.github.io. This installs the live correct USB drive selected in the pull-down specific button consult your manual or
disc ISO file directly to your USB drive. menu and click OK to create the drive. manufacturer. Linux Mint will now run.

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Linux distro guide
A tantalising taste of the many different flavours of Linux.
n the Linux world, because its hardcore Linux geeks to servers, science, older PCs and people who want modern

I free software that can be redistributed

by absolutely anyone, this has lead to a
proliferation of different versions of the
Linux OS appearing. There are Linux distros
tailored to a host of common uses, from
media editing and so many more. The
majority are general-use distros, which aim
themselves at different types of users, such
as experienced hands-on Terminal types,
complete beginners, businesses, those with
fancy interfaces. The choice can be
bewildering, so to help you get started if
youre interested in finding out more about
Linux, heres our rundown of the major
distro groups.

running commercial Linux distro called

Debian Red Hat Mandriva, which eventually went bust. From its
www.debian.org www.redhat.com ashes comes a fresh and powerful desktop
One of the older distributions Its highly unlikely youll distro, which offers a powerful but easy-to-use
on the block, Debian is also come across Red Hat as desktop and complete software library. It
technically the father of the its the big-business distro stands alongside Ubuntu and Mint for its ease
most number of spin-off distros, including one used by enterprises and corporations. It is, of use yet manages to bring new features, too.
of the most popular in the world Ubuntu (see however, worth mentioning because it funds
below). Debian itself can be thought of a bare- a couple of high-quality distros that can be Arch
bones distro, because it comes with just freely used. Red Hat is a billion-dollar business www.archlinux.org
enough to get it installed and up and running. and is, unusually, a paid-for Linux distro, but A super-advanced version of
Its really designed for servers and experts, but there are ways of effectively getting the same Linux that you almost have
its very stable and has complete repositories technology with a freely available distro. to build from scratch. This
of software, which means that it is also very means you need to be an expert to have any
easy to extend. Fedora luck with it, but it also means you get an
http://getfedora.com awesome OS thats exactly what you want. A
Ubuntu The Fedora project was big advantage is that Archs active community
www.ubuntu.com created by Red Hat as a test of experts delivers the latest builds of software
This is arguably the most platform for cutting-edge before anyone else gets them.
popular or at least the most Linux technology. Features are tested in Fedora
widely known Linux distro and, when theyre deemed stable enough, they Manjaro
in the world. As we mentioned above, Ubuntu are merged into the Red Hat distribution. This https://manjaro.github.io/
was spun out of the Debian project to create an isnt as scary as it sounds, as Fedora only gets Arch Linux but without all the
easy-to-use distribution that would be suitable these features when theyre stable. Its an complexity. The Manjaro
for anyone and everyone to use. Over the years, excellent way of testing the latest technologies community has taken the base
a huge number of spin-offs have been created because Fedora tends to get them before most of Arch and created a pre-built Linux distro that
both official, such as Ubuntu Server, but also other distros. is constantly updated, also called a rolling-
unofficial because it became such an easy release distro. While it does lean to the more
base to start from, with an easy installation, OpenSUSE technical side of distro releases, the developers
easy interface and easy software centre. www.opensuse.org have gone out of their way to try to make it
Another business- accessible to all levels of users.
Mint orientated distro that
www.linuxmint.com also has a long-standing pedigree. It might not SteamOS
Based on Ubuntu, Mint be the sexiest distro on the block but its widely http://store.
took the crown of the most used and often ranked in the top five distros, as steampowered.
popular distro after its super-stable and can be put to many uses, com/steamos
Ubuntu moved to a more from standard desktop use to server. This is Heres more of
modern, touch-like desktop, whereas most largely because its another corporate- an example of how Linux is used in a fully
Linux users wanted a traditional keyboard/ sponsored project and is much admired by commercial way. SteamOS is created by Valve
mouse design, with a program menu and developers and software vendors. Software, the company behind the PC digital
desktop icons. Mint offers the simplicity of distribution system called Steam. SteamOS is
installation, ease of use and the large software Mageia based on Debian and is a custom OS that
base of Ubuntu, but with optimised versions www.mageia.org drives a front for the Steam Big Picture mode,
for older, slower computers, and a more fancy Showing you how fluid the integrating controllers, home streaming and
version thats known as Cinnamon. Linux distro world is, Mageia was the store into one experience that you can
created off the back of a long- enjoy from a box under your TV. Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 13

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WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 15

 WorldMags.net
Get started with
Mint and Python
Take a crash course in how to use the command line and follow our guide to
create your very first Python program.

M
ints Cinnamon desktop (unlike Ubuntus Unity) is We shall begin this tutorial by opening the Terminal
cosmetically quite similar to Windows: theres a program from the menu. We find ourselves confronted with
menu in the bottom-right; open windows will appear an arcane prompt of the form
in the taskbar; theres a system tray area to which diverse user@host:~$
applets may be added; right-clicking on things gives the usual and a rather menacing flashing cursor. The ~ is shorthand
context menus; and so on. Perusing the aforementioned for our home directory, which lives at /home/user/ in the
menu, you will find a plethora of pre-installed software, Linux directory hierarchy. The $ shows that we do not have
including (but not limited to) the LibreOffice suite, the Firefox root access, which limits the amount of damage we can do.
web browser, VLC for playing movies, Gimp for image Root is the superuser in Linux and, as such, access to the
manipulation and the Transmission BitTorrent client. Besides account is limited. On a standard Linux Mint installation, root
navigating the program groups in the Places menu, you can access is granted through the sudo command (take a look
quickly access things by typing a few characters into the at https://xkcd.com/149/), which temporarily elevates our
livesearch box. privileges. If things were arranged differently, we would see
The idea of working at the command line sends shivers that a root shell has not a $ in its prompt, but a # . Let us
down the spines of many people, not least because it stirs up ignore our hungry cursor no more, and start doing some
long-repressed memories of darker times, viz. MS-DOS. But command line-fu.
dont worry, its a very powerful way to work, and thanks to If we want to see a listing of all the files in the current
tab-completion, you wont have to painstakingly transcribe directory, we use the ls command. So if we type that in and
lengthy hit Enter, well see
commands or that weve got
pathnames. Much Pretty much anything you might directories for
of your day-to-day
computing can be
be used to doing in a GUI can be Documents,
Downloads, Music
done at the done from the command line. and a few others.
terminal. File We can access the
management, text directory one level
editing and music playing can all be done with not one single up through the .. operator. So if we do
click. In fact, pretty much anything you might be used to $ ls ..
doing in a GUI can be done or at least instigated (for we will see a listing of the directory /home/ in which well see
example, playing a video) from the command line. our users directory, together with the directories of any other
users that are on the system (of which there probably none).
If required, we can get more information by using the -l
(long) option:
$ ls -l
This shows us file metadata such as permissions, ownership
information, last modified date and file size.
We can navigate the directory hierarchy using the cd
command. For example, to jump to the very top of the
filesystem and see what the view is like from up there, you
should issue:
$ cd /
$ ls
We see all kinds of tersely named directories, but we
recognise /home/ from being there a couple of sentences
ago. The /etc/ directory houses configuration files, which
advanced users enjoy manipulating, but apart from that,
LibreOffice Writer is a more than adequate word processor for almost theres generally no reason to do anything with the filesystem
everybodys needs. Its compatible with Microsoft Word files. outside of our home directory its all taken care of by Mints

16 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net Mint comes
bundled with
some pretty
wallpapers, which
you peruse by
right-clicking
the desktop
and choosing
Change Desktop
Background.

package manager. That said, its fun to explore and familiarise get confused with actual programming directives or variable
yourself with how Linux does its filing. For example, the /dev/ names. Since strings can contain spaces, its easy to see how
directory contains device nodes representing all the hardware such confusion may arise. There isnt a reasonable notion for
attached to your system. Disk partitions get names such as subtracting or dividing by strings, so attempting to do that
sda1 or sdb2, and the primary video card lives in /dev/dri/ results in an error. Programmers encounter diverse error
card0. This is quite a radical idea to digest, but on Linux, messages as a matter of course, so you may as well try that
everything is a file. now. Your first ever type error congratulations! Exit
For a more thorough look at the command line, see the the interpreter by pressing Ctrl+D or typing exit() . The
five-minute introduction at http://community.linuxmint. interpreter is good for trying out code snippets but its no use
com/tutorial/view/100. Were going to focus our attention for proper coding. Were going to create our first Python
towards Python programming now. We can return to our program and run it, all from the command line.
home directory at any time simply by calling cd with no All programming begins with simple text files, and we can
arguments. So lets do that to start with, and then create a use the humble nano editor to create one. Lets navigate to
new directory in which to store our Pythonic labours. our newly created directory and create our Python script:
$ cd ~ $ cd ~/python
$ mkdir python $ nano helloworld.py
Mint currently uses the older Python 2.7 by default but its Python programs all use the .py extension, and our
worth adopting the newer 3.x series, unless youre morally particular program, as is tradition in such matters, is going to
opposed. So start the Python 3 interpreter by typing: issue a worldly greeting. The nano text editor is pretty easy to
$ python3 work with you can press Ctrl+X at any time to exit (youll be
We are presented with some version information, terse prompted to save any changes). There are some helpful
guidance and a different prompt: >>>. This enables us to shortcuts displayed on the bottom for searching (Ctrl+W),
enter Python commands and have the results immediately saving (Ctrl+O) and the like. If youve never used a terminal-
returned to us. Its known as a Read-Evaluate Print Loop based text editor, then you might dismayed to learn that the
(REPL). For example, we can use it as we would a standard mouse cant be used as you might expect here. It is possible
calculator to perform basic arithmetic: to select text and paste it using the middle mouse button, but
>>> 32 * 63 positioning of the cursor is done with and only with the
2016 cursor keys.
>>> 9 ** 2 Getting Python to print messages to the terminal is easy
81 we use the print() function. Type the following into nano:
>>> 1 / 3 print(Hello world)
0.3333333333333333 As before, weve had to enclose our string in quotes. Now
Weve put spaces around each operator, which is not commence departure from nano with Ctrl+X, press Y to save
necessary but does improve readability. And readable code is and then press Return to use our existing file. Back at the
A Good Thing. But its not just numbers that we can add up command line, the moment of truth lets see whether
we can do it with strings, too. We call them strings because Python can run our program:
they are strings of characters, but that doesnt stop them $ python3 helloworld.py
being added or multiplied: If all goes to plan, a friendly greeting should be displayed. If
>>> hello * 3 that didnt happen, welcome to the world of programming, in
hellohellohello which careless typing is punished. Rinse, lather and repeat
>>> hello there, + friend the editing and running stages until it works. Then settle down
hello there, friend with a cup of tea, satisfied in the knowledge that you wrote a
Notice that we enclose strings in quotes. This is so they dont program and lived to tell the tale. Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 17

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Coding isnt scary. Promise. If youve always wanted

to learn, jump straight in with our quick-start guide.

C
oding is the new cool. If you knowledge is more than useful its an time to pick up, theres also no cost and, as a
dont know how to Python, all essential skill, particularly now that coding is FLOSS user, access to every language under
your friends are going to be being taught in schools. the sun is just waiting an apt-get away.
laughing at you Knowing a bit of code helps with using So grab our hand and lets take just a few
Were not being flippant. Knowing how Linux itself, helps you get more out of the minutes to create a fun game in Python, learn
to code is almost an essential for the open- terminal, can open doors to a new career or which languages are right for you and your
source fiend. Be it basic Bash scripting or help you troubleshoot why that webpage projects, then see how you can tackle the new
knowing how to read a bit of PHP, coding wont work correctly. Other than taking a bit of school curriculum and web development.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 19

 WorldMags.net
Get with the program
T
his is going to be a very gentle
introduction to programming in
Python, in which well explore the
basics of the language, then use the Pygame
module to make a simple game. That we are
able to do this is testament to the power of
Python and Pygame much of the tedium
inherent in game work is abstracted away
and, once weve covered some elementary
programming constructions, for the most
part we work with intuitive commands.
Follow the instructions in the box below to
check which version of Python you have and
install Pygame. Whether on a Raspberry Pi or a
larger machine, start at the command line. So
open up a terminal (LXTerminal in Raspbian)
and start Python 2.7 with:
The IDLE development environment is purpose-built for Python. You can install it on
$ python2
Ubuntu (or in this case, ElementaryOS) with apt-get install idle .
Alternatively, start up IDLE and start a
command prompt from there by choosing
Python 2.7 Shell from the Window menu. them to our hearts content, and use print but this will only work if the original string
Both methods start the Python interactive statements to see them. Technically, the looks something like its target type: for
interpreter, wherein Python commands can brackets in the print line are only required in example, float('10.0') will work,
be typed at the >>> prompt and evaluated Python 3, but they dont do any harm and its but float('Rumplestiltskin') will not.
immediately. It is here that we will forge our good practice to write, wherever possible, Just as division works differently for
first Python program, by carefully typing out ambidextrous code that will run in both floats and ints, so addition works differently
the following incantation: versions. Variables in Python are automatically for strings. Here the + operator stands for
>>> print('Hello World') assigned a type based on their content. So concatenation, tacking the latter string on to
As you might suspect, pressing Enter name is a string (short for a string of the end of the former. Thus:
causes Python to display a global greeting. characters) and age is an integer (a whole >>> 'Hello ' + 'world'
You can exit the interpreter at any point by number). You can check this by typing 'Hello world'
pressing Ctrl+D or using the exit() command. type(name) and so on. >>> str(123) + str(456)
For larger programs, it makes sense to work in Some types can be coerced to other types '123456'
a text editor, or an Integrated Development we can transmute age to a floating point >>> 'Betelgeuse' * 3
Environment (like IDLE), but the interpreter number (one with a decimal part) with: 'BetelgeuseBetelgeuseBetelgeuse'
is a great way to test smaller code fragments. >>> age = float(age) The last line shows that we can also
So well use it to now to introduce some >>> age multiply strings division and substraction,
fundamental coding concepts and constructs. Just typing the variable name into the however, are not defined for strings.
First, lets introduce the idea of variables: interpreter will show you its value, so you can Data types dictate how data is
>>> name = 'Methuselah' easily see the changes you have enacted. We represented internally, and the effects of this
>>> age = 930 can convert ints or floats to strings, using the can be quite subtle. For example, in Python 2
>>> print(name, ' is ', age, ' years old.') function str() . Python can also go the other the division operator / works differently if
We can assign values to variables, change way, converting a string to a float, for example, one of its arguments is a float:

Installing Python and Pygame

If youre using Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi everything is fine. If, on the other hand, you see $ sudo apt-get install python-pygame
or any flavour of desktop Linux, then the 3-point-something, then check Python 2 Users of other distributions will find a similarly
chances are that you already have at least one availability with the command: named package (on Arch its called python2-
(probably two) versions of Python installed. $ python2 -V pygame) and should be able to install it through
While the latest release (1.9.2) is now Python 3- Some distros, notably Arch Linux and the the appropriate package manager pacman
compatible, no distributions are shipping this recently released Fedora 22, dont ship the 2.7 yum, zypper or whatever. Most distributions
version yet, so well stick with Python 2 (2.7 to series by default. Installing Pygame, however, will bundle the IDLE environment with each version
be precise) for this tutorial. Check your default pull it in as a dependency, so lets do that now. of Python installed; if you cant find an icon for it,
Python version by typing: Users of Debian-derived distributions (including try running the commands
$ python -V Raspbian on the Pi) should use the following idle or idle2 . If that fails to produce the goods,
If this returns a result that begins with 2, then command to install Pygame: then go hunting in your distros repos.

20 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 >>> 3/2
WorldMags.net
>>> 1
>>> 3/2.
>>> 1.5
Funny the difference a dot can make.
Note that we have been lazy here in typing
simply 2. when we mean 2.0 . Python is
all about brevity. (Besides, why make life
hard for yourself?) Sooner or later, youll
run into rounding errors if you do enough
calculations with floats. Check out the
following doozy:
>>> 0.2 * 3
0.6000000000000001
Such quirks arise when fractions have a
non-terminating binary decimal expansion.
Sometimes, these are of no consequence,
but its worth being aware of them. They can
be worked around either by coercing floating
point variables to ints, or using the round()
function, which will give you only the number
of decimal places you require. Well see this
in practice when we program our Gomoku
game later.

Going loopy
Often, programmers desire to do almost the
same thing many times over. It could be
appending entries to a list, adding up totals
for each row in a table, or even subtracting
energy from all enemies just smitten by a
laser strike. Iterating over each list item,
table row or enemy manually would be
repetitive and make for lengthy, hard-to-read
code. For this reason, we have loops, like the
humble for loop below. When you hit Enter There are all kinds of Pygame-powered games. This one, You Only Get One Match, features
after the first line, the prompt changes to lots of fireworks but limited means of ignition. Check it out at http://bit.ly/LXF202-onematch.
because the interpreter knows that a
discrete codeblock is coming and the line(s) >>> for count in range(5): isolation, returns a list consisting of a range of
following the for construct belong to it. print('iteration #', count) integers. Well cover lists in just a moment, but
Such codeblocks need to be indented, Theres a few things going on here. We have for now we just need to know that range(5)
usually using four spaces, though you can introduced a new variable, an integer by the looks like [0, 1, 2, 3, 4], which you can verify in
use as many as you like so long as youre name of count . Giving sensible names to your the interpreter. So our variable count is going
consistent. If you dont indent the second variables is a good idea; in this case, it implies to iterate over each of these values, with the
line, Python shouts at you. Entering a blank (even in the absence of any other coding print() line being issued five times once for
line after the print statement ends the knowledge) that some counting is about to each value in the range. Another type of loop is
codeblock and causes our loop to run. happen. The range() function, when used in the while loop. Rather than iterating over a

How to play Gomoku

Gomoku is short for gomokunarabe, which is friend/other personality with which to play. perfect player) can force a win if they start. To
roughly Japanese for five pieces lined up. The Alternatively, there are plenty of online versions mitigate against this, big tournaments use a
game, in fact, originated in China some 4,000 you can play, and KDE users get the similar starting strategy called swap2. The first player
years ago. Players take turns to each place a Bovu game with their desktop. places two black counters and one white one
counter on the intersections of a square grid Its easy to figure out some basic strategies, on the board, and the second player either
with the goal of forming unbroken lines such as always blocking one side of your chooses a colour or places another black and
(horizontal, vertical or diagonal) of length 5. opponents open three line or obstructing a another white counter on the board and allows
Traditionally, the board has 19x19 intersections, broken four. Yet to become a master takes player one to choose colours. You are free to
but weve gone for the smaller 15x15 board years of practice. The basic rule set as weve modify the code to force use of swap2, but its
used in some variations. We havent included implemented it heavily favours the starting entirely possible to obey this rule without any
an AI (that would be somewhat too complicated player (traditionally black). Work by L Victor code modification: just disobey the first few
for a beginner tutorial), so youll need to find a Allis has shown that a good player (actually a Player x, make your move prompts.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 21

 WorldMags.net
list, our while loop keeps going over its code 0 up to and including 99, which could equally really only scratching the surface with some
block until a condition ceases to hold. In the well be achieved with range(100) in Python 2. basic graphics and font rendering. We need
following example, the condition is that the However, the concept is more powerful for a single function, exit() , from the sys
user claims to have been born after 1900 and example, we can get a list of squares using the module so that we can cleanly shut down
before 2016. exponentiation (to the power of) operator ** : the game when were done. Rather than
>>> year = 0 >>> squareList = [j ** 2 for j in range(100)] importing the whole sys module, we import
>>> while year < 1900 or year >= 2015: And after that crash course, were ready to only this function. The final import line is just
year = input("Enter your year of birth: ") program our own game. Youll find all the code for convenience we have already imported
year = int(year) at http://pastebin.com/FRe7748B, so it pygame, which gives us access to pygame.
Again the loop is indented, and again youll would be silly to reproduce that here. Instead, locals , a bunch of constants and variables.
need to input a blank line to set it running. were focusing on the interesting parts, in some We use only those relating to mouse,
Weve used the less than ( < ) and greater than cases providing an easier-to-digest fragment keyboard and quitting events. Having this
or equal to ( >= ) operators to compare values. that you can play with and hopefully see how it line here means we can access, for example,
Conditions can be combined with the logical evolves into the version in the program. To dive any mouse button events
operators and , or and not . So long as year in and see the game in action, download with MOUSEBUTTONDOWN without
has an unsuitable value, we keep asking. It is gomoku.py and copy it to your home directory, prefixing it with pygame.locals .
initialised to 0, which is certainly less than and run it with:
1900, so we are guaranteed to enter the loop. $ python2 gomoku.py Its all in the (Py)game
Weve used the input() function, which returns On the other hand, if you want to see Throughout the program, youll notice that
whatever string the user provides. This we some code, open up that file in IDLE or your some variables are uppercase and some are
store in the variable year , which we convert to favourite text editor. Starting at the first line is a not. Those in uppercase are either
an integer so that the comparisons in the reasonable idea It looks like: from pygame.locals or should be
while line do not fail. It always pays to be as #!/usr/bin/env python2 considered constants, things that do not
prudent as possible as far as user input is This line is actually ignored by Python (as change value over the course of the game.
concerned: a malicious user could craft some are all lines that begin with # ) but it is used by Most of these are declared after the import
weird input that causes breakage, which while the shell to determine how the file should be statements and govern things like the size of
not a big deal here, is bad news if its done, say, executed. In this case we use the env utility, the window and counters. If you want to
on a web application that talks to a sensitive which should be present on all platforms, to change the counter colours, to red and blue,
database. You could change 1900 if you feel find and arm the Python 2 executable. For this for example, you could replace the values
anyone older than 115 might use your program. nifty trick to work, youll need to make the of WHITE and BLACK with (255,0,0)
Likewise, change 2015 if you want to keep out gomoku.py file executable, which is achieved and (0,0,255) respectively. These variables
(honest) youngsters. from the command prompt (assuming youve are tuples (a similar structure to a list, only it
copied the file to your home directory, or cant be changed), which dictate the red,
The opposite of listless anywhere you have write permission) with: green and blue components of colours.
We mentioned lists earlier, and in the exciting $ chmod +x gomoku.py Next youll see a series of blocks
project that follows well use them extensively, Youll find you can now start the game with beginning with def: these are function
so it would be remiss not to say what they are. a more succinct: definitions and, as is the case with other
Lists in Python are flexible constructions that $ ./gomoku.py codeblocks in Python, they are demarcated
store a series of indexed items. There are no Next we have three import statements, by indentation. The initGame() function
restrictions on said items they can be strings, two of which ( pygame and sys ) are initialises the play area. Heres a simple
ints, other lists, or any combination of these. straightforward. The pygame module makes version that shows what this function does:
Lists are defined by enclosing a comma- easy work of doing game-related things were WIN_WIDTH = 620
separated list of the desired entries in square GRID_SIZE = (WIN_WIDTH) / 14
brackets. For example: WHITE=(255,255,255)
>>> myList = ['Apple', 'Banana', 'Chinese BLACK=(0,0,0)
Gooseberry'] BGCOL=(80,80,80)
The only gotcha here is that lists are zero- def initGame():
indexed, so wed access the first item of our screen.fill(BGCOL)
list with myList[0] . If you think too much like a for j in range(15):
human, then 1-indexed lists would make more pygame.draw.line(screen, WHITE, (0, j
sense. Python doesnt respect this, not even a * GRID_SIZE), (WIN_WIDTH, j * GRID_
little, so if you too think like a meatbag, be SIZE))
prepared for some classic off-by-one errors. pygame.draw.line(screen, WHITE, (j *
We can modify the last item in the list: GRID_SIZE, 0), (j * GRID_SIZE, WIN_
>>> myList[2] = 'Cthulhu' WIDTH))
Lists can be declared less literally for pygame.init()
example, if we wanted to initialise a list with pygame.display.set_caption(LXF Gomoku)
100 zeroes, we could do: screen = pygame.display.set_mode((WIN_
>>> zeroList = [0 for j in range(100)] WIDTH,WIN_WIDTH))
This is what is known as a list comprehension. initGame()
Another example is Many tense counter-based battles can be pygame.display.update()
>>> countList = [j for j in range(100)] had with your very own self-programmed If you add the three import lines to the
which results in a list containing the integers version of Gomuku. beginning of this, it is actually a perfectly

22 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net the display, hence the last line. track of the game, we use a two-dimensional
Astute readers will notice that the grid square array (a list of lists) in the variable grid .
overruns ever so slightly at the edges. This This is initialised as all 0s, and when a player
is because drawing 15 equispaced parallel lines makes a move, a 1 or a 2 is entered accordingly.
divides the board into 14, but 620 (our window The first job of the tryCounterPlace() function
size) is not divisible by 14. However, when we is to reconcile the mouse coordinates where
add in some window borders since we want the user clicked with a pair of coordinates with
to place counters on the edge lines as well which to index the grid variable. Of course, the
620 turns out to be a very good number, and user may not click exactly on an intersection,
we were too lazy to change it. Although rough so we need to do some cheeky rounding here.
around the edges, its still testament to If the player clicks outside of the grid (e.g. if
Pygames power and Pythons simplicity that they click too far above the grid, so the y
we can do all this in just a few lines of code. coordinate will be negative) then the function
Still, lets not get ahead of ourselves our returns to the main loop. Otherwise, we check
game still doesnt do anything. that the grid position is unoccupied and if so
Joel Murielles graphical Gomoku is
draw a circle there, and update our state array
available from the Pygame website.
Pygame takes all the pain out of working
Finer points grid . A successful move causes our function to
From here onwards, well refer to the actual return a True value, so looking at line 111 in the
with sprites notorious troublemakers.
code, so any snippets we quote wont work in code, we see this causes the next players turn.
isolation theyre just there to highlight things. But before that is enacted, by
valid Python program. The initGame() Youll notice that the FONT variable isnt the updatePlayer() call at the top of the loop,
function doesnt do anything until it is called defined with the other constants; this is we call the checkLines() function to see if the
at the last line, by which time weve already because we cant use Pygames font support latest move completed a winning line. Details of
initialised Pygame, set our window title, and until after the Pygames init() method has how this check is carried out are in the box.
set the window size to 620 pixels. All been called. Lets look at the main game loop When a winning counter is detected by
variables set up outside of function right at the end of the code. The introductory our state-of-the-art detection algorithm,
definitions the five all-caps constants at clause while True: suggests that this loop will the winner() function is invoked. This replaces
the beginning and screen are accessible go on for ever. This is largely correct we want the text at the top of the screen with a
inside function definitions; they are known to keep checking for events, namely mouse message announcing the victor, and the
as global variables. Variables defined inside clicks or the user clicking the exit button, until gameover loop is triggered. This waits for a
function definitions are called local they the game is done. Obviously, we exit the loop player to push R to restart or rage quit. If a
cease to exist when the function exits, even when the application quits clicking the restart is ordered, the player order is preserved
if they have the same name as a global button triggers a QUIT event, which we react and, as this is updated immediately before
variable again, something to be aware of in to with the exit() function from the sys checkLines() is called, the result is that the
your future coding endeavours. The variable package. Inside the main loop, the first thing loser gets to start the next round.
screen refers to the canvas on which our we do is call the updatePlayer() function, This is a small project (only about 120 lines,
game will be drawn, so it will be used which youll find on line 32. This updates the not a match for the 487-byte Bootchess you
extensively later on. The initGame() text at the top of the screen that says whose go can read about at www.bbc.co.uk/news/
functions first act is to paint this canvas a it is, drawing (blitting) first a solid rectangle so technology-31028787), but could be extended
delightful shade of grey (which youre very any previous text is erased. in many ways. Graphics could be added,
welcome to change). Then we use a loop Next we loop over the events in the events likewise a network play mode and, perhaps
to draw horizontal and then vertical lines, queue; when the player tries to make a move, most ambitiously, some rudimentary AI could
making our 15x15 grid. None of this artwork the tryCounterPlace() function is called, with be employed to make a single-player mode.
will appear until we tell Pygame to update the mouse coordinates passed along. To keep This latter has already been done

Reading between the lines

Part of Key Stage 2 involves learning to elements to its right have the same value. In check row positions further right than this
understand and program simple algorithms. Python, it would look like this: because our algorithm will reach out to those
Weve already covered our basic game flow positions if a potential line exists there. Our
algorithm wait for a mouse click (or for the for j in range(15): variable idx effectively measures the length of
user to quit), check whether thats a valid move, for k in range(10): any line; it is incremented using the +=
check if theres a line of five, and so on. At the pl = grid[j][k] operator, short for idx = idx + 1 .
heart of that last stage lies a nave, but if pl > 0: The algorithm is easily adapted to cover
nonetheless relevant, algorithm for detecting idx = k vertical and diagonal lines. Rather than four
whether a move is a winning one. while grid[j][idx] == pl and idx < 14: separate functions, though, weve been clever
Consider the simpler case where were idx += 1 and made a general function lineCheck() ,
interested only in horizontal lines. Then we if idx - k >= 5: which we call four times with the parameters
would loop over first the rows and then the # game winning stuff goes here necessary for each type of line checking. Said
columns of our grid array. For each element, parameters just change the limits of the for
we would check to see that it is non-zero (i.e. Note that the inner loop variable k reaches a loops and how to increment or decrement grid
there is a counter there) and whether the four maximum value of only 9. We do not need to positions for each line direction.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 23

 WorldMags.net
Languages: An overview
O
ne of technologys greatest curly brackets used by so many other allocate memory as it is required
achievements was IBMs Fortran languages for containment purposes. Likewise, and free it when its no longer
compiler back in the 1950s. It theres no need to put semicolons at the end of required. Failure to do so
allowed computers to be programmed using every line. Python has a huge number of extra means that programs
something a bit less awkward than machine modules available, too weve seen Pygame, can be coerced into
code. Fortran is still widely used today and, and our favourite is the API for programming doing things they
while some scoff at this dinosaur, it remains Minecraft on the Pi. shouldnt.
highly relevant, particularly for scientific Unfortunately, 40
computing. That said, nobody is going to Beginner-friendly years of widespread C
start learning it out of choice, and there are Other languages suitable for beginners are usage have told us that
all manner of other languages out there. JavaScript and PHP. The popularity of these this is not a task at which
Traditionally, you have had the choice comes largely from their use on the web. humans excel, nor do we seem
between hard and fast languages such as JavaScript works client-side (all the work is to be getting any better at it. Informed by
Java, C and C++ or easy and slower ones, done by the web browser), whereas PHP is our poor record, a new generation of
such as Python or PHP. The fast languages server-side. So if youre interested in languages is emerging. We have seen
tend to be the compiled ones, where the code programming for the web, either of these languages from Google (Go), Apple (Swift)
has to be compiled to machine code before it languages will serve you well. Youll also want to and Mozilla (Rust). These languages all
can be run. Dynamic languages are converted learn some basic HTML and probably CSS, too, aim to be comparable in speed to C, but at
to machine code on the fly. However, on some so you can make your programs output look the same time guaranteeing the memory
level, all programming languages are the same nice, but this is surprisingly easy to pick up as safety so needed in this world rife with
there are some basic constructs such as you go along. PHP is cosmetically a little malicious actors.
loops, conditionals and functions, and what messier than Python, but soon (as in The Rust recently celebrated its 1.0 release,
makes a programming language is simply how Matrix) youll see right through the brackets and maybe one day Firefox will be written
it dresses these up. using it, but for now there are
For those just starting
coding, its simply baffling.
Although any language will by a number of quirks and
pitfalls that users of
Opinions are polarised on what
is the best language to learn
turns impress and infuriate you, traditional languages are
likely to find jarring. For one
first of all, but the truth is that Python has a lot going for it. thing, a program that is
there isnt one, though for very ultimately fine may simply
small people we heartily recommend Scratch. and dollar signs. Its also worth mentioning refuse to compile. Rusts compiler aims for
Any language you try will by turns impress and Ruby in the accessible languages category. It consistency rather than completeness
infuriate you. That said, we probably wouldnt was born of creator Yukihiro Matsumots desire everything it can compile is largely
recommend C or Haskell for beginners. to have something as powerful as Perl, and guaranteed, but it wont compile things
There is a lot of popular opinion that favours more object-oriented than Python. where any shadow of doubt exists, even
Python, which we happily endorse, but many Barely a day goes by without hearing about when that shadow is in the computers
are put off by the Python 2 versus 3 some sort of buffer overflow or use-after-free imagination. So coders will have to jump
fragmentation. Python has a lot going for it: its issue with some popular piece of software. Just through some hoops, but the rewards are
probably one of the most human-readable have a look at https://exploit-db.com. All of there besides memory safety and type
languages out there. For example, you should, these boil down to coding errors, but some are inference, Rust also excels at concurrency
for readability purposes, use indentation in easier to spot than others. One of the problems (multiple threads and processes),
your code, but in Python its mandatory. By with the fast languages is that they are not guaranteeing thread safety and freedom
forcing this issue, Python can do away with the memory safe. The programmer is required to from race conditions.

Programming paradigms and parlance

With imperative programming, the order of have its own variables (attributes) and its own is not for the faint-hearted. This very abstract
execution is largely fixed, so that everything code (methods). This makes some things style is one in which programs emphasise
happens sequentially. Our Gomoku example is easier, particularly sharing data without more what they want to do than how they
done largely imperative style, but our use of resorting to lengthy function calls or messy want to do it. Functional programming is all
functions makes it more procedural global variables. It also effects a performance about being free of side-effects functions
execution will jump between functions, but toll, though, and is quite tricky to get your head return only new values, there are no global
there is still a consistent flow. around. Very few languages are purely OO, variables. This makes for more consistent
The object-oriented (OO) approach extends although Ruby and Scala are exceptions. C++ languages such as Lisp, Scheme, Haskell
this even further. OO programs define classes, and Java support some procedural elements, and Clojure. For a long time, functional
which can be instantiated many times; each but these are in the minority. Functional programming was the preserve of academia,
class is a template for an object, which can programming (FP) has its roots in logic, and but its now popular within industry.

24 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

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Coding in the classroom
I
n September 2014, the UK embarked
on a trailblazing effort that saw
coding instilled in the National
Curriculum. When the initiative was
announced in 2013, then education
secretary Michael Gove acknowledged
that the current ICT curriculum was
obsolete about as much use as
teaching children to send a telex or
travel in a zeppelin. Far more important
was imparting coding wisdom unto the
young padawans. Coding skills are much
sought after, as evidenced by industry
consistently reporting difficulties in
finding suitably qualified applicants for The FUZE box gives you
tech jobs in the UK. everything you need to start
The Year of Code was launched to much fiddling with registers or
making GPIO-based mischief.
fanfare, though this was slightly quelled as
details emerged: a mere pittance was to be
added to the existing ICT allocation, and
most of this would be spent on training just do just this. All the software you need is free, requiring instead to be programmed
400 Master Teachers who could then pass and distributions such as Mint and Ubuntu are from a more capable device. Microsoft
on their Master Skills to lesser teachers easy enough to get to grips with. is generously providing the software
around the country. Fans of schadenfreude Besides a stray PC, the Raspberry Pi (see and training for this venture, and we
will enjoy the BBC Newsnight interview with page 82 for more) is another great way to are relieved to hear it will not tie the
the then Year of Code chief, wherein she provide a learning platform. If youre willing to product to its Windows 10 platform.
admits not knowing how to code, despite settle for the older B+ model, then you can get The devices have gravity and motion
claiming it is vital for understanding how the one for about 25, and itll plug straight into sensors, as well as Bluetooth and
world works. your telly. Of course, youll need to scavenge a some buttons. There are five GPIO
keyboard, mouse, SD card, HDMI cable and rings that could connect further
Learning opportunities possibly a wireless adapter, too, if trailing an sensors or contraptions. They can be
Criticism and mockery aside, were Ethernet cable to your router is not an option. programmed in a number of languages
genuinely thrilled that children as young as Mercifully, there are many kits available (for including C++, Python, JavaScript and Blocks
five are, even as we speak, learning the dark example, the Kano, billed as a DIY computer), a visual programming language. The
arts of syntax, semantics and symbolism. which will provide these additional peripherals, Microsoft-provided code editors are all web-
Fear now, ye parents, when based, and code entered here
your progeny hollers at you
(thats what kids do, Without any coding, the ICT must be compiled before being
downloaded to the Micro:bit. At
apparently), Whats the
plural of mongoose? and
curriculum was as much use as present, amidst the pre-launch
hush (though it should be
then follows through seeking teaching kids to send a telex. available in schools now),
clarification on the finer details are sketchy, but it seems
points of recursion and abstraction. Rightly not to mention a glorious array of Pi cases as though this compilation all takes place on
or wrongly, many private firms will benefit available to protect it from dust and bumps. We Microsoft servers. Itll be disappointing if the
from the concerned parents and confused particularly like setups such as the FUZE box, code editors cant be used offline or no option
kids resulting from the new computing which embed the Pi into a more traditional, to compile locally is offered. You can find out
curriculum. But there are more wholesome albeit chunkier, all-in-one device. Yes, the more about it at www.bbc.co.uk/
directions in which one can seek help. Raspberry Pis tiny form factor is appealing, mediacentre/mediapacks/microbit.
For one thing, youll always find great but with a heavy rotation of USB devices Micro:bit spokesbods have been keen
tutorials monthly in magazines such as thrown in, its all too easy to end up in cable- to stress that the device is in no way intended
Linux Format https://linuxformat.com. induced tiny hell. to compete with the Raspberry Pi, but rather
There are also many free resources on the Speaking of tiny things, to coincide with the to complement it. The Micro:bit features a
web. Some of them (such as the official new learning regimen, the BBC will distribute 20-pin edge connector, which connects it
Python documentation) are a little dry for about a million Micro:bit computers to Year 7 to the Pi or another device, so that the
kids, but wed encourage adults to learn pupils. These are even smaller than the Pi, but machines can work in tandem. Such a pairing
these skills alongside their offspring. have no means of output besides a 5x5 LED will be necessary for the Micro:bit to have a
Refurbishing an old machine with a clean array. Unlike the Raspberry Pi, then, they means of communicating with the outside
Linux install will provide a great platform to cannot function as standalone computers, world. The device indeed the combination

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 25

 WorldMags.net
of the device and the Pi has a great deal of
potential but there exists some scepticism
over whether anything like the excitement
generated by the 1982 launch of BBC Micro will
be seen again. Back then, computers were new
and exciting, while these days kids expect them
to provide a constant barrage of entertainment
in the form of six-second cat videos or
140-character social commentary. Not all
of them are going to be thrilled at having to
program them. But anything that lowers, if not
entirely obliterates, any entry barrier to getting
into coding is fine by us. We also look forward
to neer-do-well students hacking each others
Micro:bits or engaging them in a collaborative
DDOS attack on their schools infrastructure.

Get with the program

The syllabus comprises three Key Stages. The Cortex M0 ARM
The first, for five- to six-year-olds, covers processor is at the heart of the
algorithms in a very general sense. Algorithms battery-powered Micro:bit.
will be described in terms of recipes and
schedules, to introduce the idea of formalising
instructions. The second stage (ages 7 to 11) information theory, at least as far as how governmental blunder. Its an ambitious
introduces core ideas, such as loops and different types of information can all be project, but perhaps such a radical step is
variables. Alongside this, candidates will be represented as a string of bits. They will also necessary to address the skills shortage in
learning to use web services and how to gather gain insights into the relationship between this area. With luck, the scheme will also lead
data. The final stage, for secondary students hardware and software. to much-needed diversification among the
aged 11 to 14, requires students to learn at least Throughout the curriculum, students will coding populace. If it works out, and pupils
two programming languages and understand also learn the vital skills of online privacy and are learning Python alongside Mandarin, or
binary arithmetic, Boolean algebra, functions information security skills the want of which studying Kohonen or Knuth alongside Kant,
and data types. Students will also touch on has led to many an embarrassing corporate or then well be thrilled. Q

Code Clubs
There are also over 2,000 volunteer-run code an access-for-all gateway to coding free from as Bahrain and Iceland. The project materials
clubs across the UK. Code Club, armed with commercial interest and corporate control. have already been translated into 14 languages,
100,000 courtesy of Google, provides the The Code Club phenomenon is spreading with more on the way. You can find out more at
material, and schools (or other kind venues) worldwide, too. Youll now find them as far afield www.codeclub.org.uk.
provide space and resources for this noble
extracurricular activity.
The Code Club syllabus is aimed at 9- to
11-year-olds and consists of two terms of
Scratch programming, then a term of web
design (HTML and CSS), concluding with a final
term of grown-up Python coding. Projects
are carefully designed to keep kids interested:
theyll be catching ghosts and racing boats in
Scratch, and doing the funky Turtle and keeping
tabs on the latest Pokmon creatures in
Python, to name but a few.
If you have the time and some knowledge,
its well worth volunteering as an instructor.
All the tutorials are prepared for you and if you
can persuade a local primary school to host
you, youll get a teacher to maintain order
and provide defence against any potential
pranksters. You will require a background
check, though. Code Club also provides three
specialist modules for teachers whose duty it is
to teach the new Computing curriculum.
This kind of community thinking is very
much in the spirit of open source, providing

26 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

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The home of technology

techradar.com

WorldMags.net
 WorldMags.net
Get started
with IDEs
Speed up your programming workflow by using Geany, a lightweight
integrated development environment.

T
he cycle of editing, running and debugging even The grown-up way to begin Python files is with a directive
simple programs can rapidly become painful. So known as a shebang. This is a line that tells the shell how it
imagine how ugly things can get when working on a ought to be run. So our Python 3 code should begin:
huge project involving complex build processes. This is why #!/usr/bin/env python3
integrated development environments (IDEs) exist so that The env program is a standard Linux tool that is always
the editing, compiling, linking and debugging can all take accessible from the /usr/bin/ directory. It keeps track of
place on a unified platform (and you have a single point at where various programs are installed, because this can differ
which to direct programming rage). Some IDEs are tailored wildly from distro to distro. On Mint, our shebang could
for a particular language, such as IDLE for Python (see page equally well call /usr/bin/python3 directly.
92). Were going to look at a more general purpose tool called Now well change up our program slightly. Were going to
Geany. Geany is pretty basic as far as IDEs go in fact, by show how variables can be used as placeholders, and in doing
some measures, its more of a text editor on steroids than an so make our greeting a little more customisable. Edit the code
IDE, but it is more than sufficient for this tutorial. (keeping the shebang above, unless you have some personal
Youll find Geany in Mints repositories, so you can install it grievance) so that it looks like this:
either from the Software application or by doing: name = Dave
$ sudo apt-get update print(Hello , name)
$ sudo apt-get Note the space
install geany after Hello ,
Now start
Geany from the
Variables allow us to abstract otherwise the
output would look a
Places menu.
Theres a quick
away specifics and deal with bit funny. We have
declared a variable
run-through of the quantities that, well, vary. called name
interfaces major containing the string
features opposite. We can start by opening up our helloworld. Dave . We can test our code by pushing F5 or clicking the
py program from before: Select File > Open and then navigate Run button (see annotation). You probably knew what was
to our python/ directory to select the file. going to happen, and you probably realise that the same
effect could be achieved just by changing world to Dave
in the original program but there is something much more
subtle going on here. Variables allow us to abstract away
specifics and deal with quantities that, well, vary. We can
elaborate on this concept a little more by introducing a
new function, input() , which takes a line of user input and
returns that string to our program. Change the first line to
name = input()
and run your code. In the terminal window, type your name, or
whatever characters you can muster, and press Return. The
program took your input and courteously threw it back at you.
The input() function can also be given a string argument,
which will be used to prompt the user for input. Our print()
function above does our prompting for us, so we have no
need for this.
Before we go further, its worth talking about tabs and
spaces. Python is terribly fussy about indentation, and even if
it wasnt, you still should be. Correctly indenting code makes
it easy to demarcate code blocks lines of code
that collectively form a function or loop so we can see,
Before you start, you need to install Geany from Mints repositories. for example, which level we are at in a nested loop. A tab

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The Geany interface
Run button
The Run button (or F5) will
save and execute your Python
program in a terminal. When the
program finishes or breaks, you
can study any output or error
messages here before closing it.

Tabs
By default, Geany opens your
recent files in tabs. So if youre
working on a more involved,
multi-file project, related code is
just one click away.

Symbols
The Symbols tab lists all the
functions, variables and
imports in the current file,
together with the line on
which they are declared.
Clicking will take you
straight there.

Code folding Code editor

Code folding is de rigueur for any IDE. The main area where you enter or edit code.
Clicking on the + or - will reveal or collapse Geany is good at guessing the language
the block of code on the adjacent line. youre typing, and keywords are highlighted.

represents a fixed amount of white space decided by the text greeting is issued. We can put as many lines as we want in
editor, but just because an editor renders a tab character as this clause so long as they respect the indentation, Python
eight spaces, that doesnt make it equivalent to pushing the knows that they all should be run when the condition is met.
space bar eight times. Python happily works with files that The else block is run when the condition is not met, in this
use tabs or spaces, so long as theyre consistent. case, the program behaves exactly as it had done before.
The reason Python is fussier than other languages about Note that strings are case-sensitive, so someone called
these matters is because indentation levels actually form part agamemnon would not be recognised as an old acquaintance
of the code. So just adding a random indent to your code is of our program. As well as testing for equality, we can also use
likely to break it. We need some more coding concepts at our the greater than ( > ) and less than ( < ) operators. The len()
disposal to illustrate this. Lets start with the if conditional. function returns the length of a string, so we could instead
Suppose we want our program to behave differently when make our if statement:
someone named, say, Agamemnon uses it. Replace the last if len(name) > 9:
line of our code with the following block, noting that Geany print(My what a long name you have)
automatically indents your code after the if and else Now anyone whose name is 10 characters or more gets
statements. recognition. Of course, the else block from above can be
if name == Agamemnon: included, too, if that behaviour is still desired.
print(Ah, my old friend...) There are many other IDEs besides Geany. If you want to
else: check out something more advanced, see PyCharm or
print(Hello , name) perhaps the PyDev plugin for Eclipse. Or maybe youre
It can be hard to get used to the autotabbing, but it saves happier with a couple of terminals open you wouldnt be the
you considerable effort. The code weve just introduced is first. Also, dont forget IDLE, which is packaged with Python
highly readable we use the == operator to test for equality we cover it in the Raspberry Pi chapter on page 92. However
and use a colon to indicate a new code block is starting. If the you choose to do it, though, we wish you good luck with your
condition is met (ie Agamemnon is visiting), then a special continued adventures in Linux and coding. Q

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Coding basics
Now you have the tools, its time
to grasp the basics of coding
Lists
......................................................................................................................32
Functions and objects ........................................ 34
Conditionals .................................................................................. 36
Variables ................................................................................................. 38
Program structure ..................................................... 40
Recursion ............................................................................................ 44
Sorting algorithms ..................................................... 46
Integers ..................................................................................................... 48
Using loops ...................................................................................... 50
Compilers ............................................................................................ 52
Common mistakes ................................................... 54

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 WorldMags.net
Get to grips with
Python lists
Lets start by exploring some of the fundamental ideas behind programming
logic, beginning with the concept of lists.
ts difficult to know where to start when it comes to remind you whats on your shopping list, it would make much

I explaining the basic programming concepts. When

someone begins coding, theres an overwhelming number
of different ideas to understand, absorb and eventually turn
more sense to put these values together. In Python, for
example, you could create a list of those values with the
following line:
into solutions. And thats on top of the syntax and >>> shoppinglist = [milk, bread, baked beans]
peculiarities of your chosen language. This is technically a list of lists, because each value is itself
One of the best approaches is to just start writing code, a list a string of characters. Some languages like to make
either by following an example project, such as the ones we that distinction, but most prefer the convenience.
provide in this book, or by piecing together examples from Each of these items has been added to the freshly created
documentation. Both methods work, and theyre the only real shoppinglist list. But lists are dynamic, and one of the first
way to get to grips with the problems and complications of things you often want to do is add new values.
any particular concept. This is where lists start to become interesting, because
Wed like to make this challenge slightly easier by looking the method for adding and removing values can help to
at basic approaches that apply to the vast majority of define the lists function. For example, its faster for the CPU
circumstances and languages. And our first target is lists. to add a new item to the end of a list because all the
You dont get far with any moderately complex task application has to do is link the last element to the new one.
without a list, whether thats a holiday to Diego Garcia or If you insert an item into the middle of a list, the process
a trip to the supermarket. And list logic in code is just like in first splits the links between the two items on either side of
real life. A list is a convenient place to store loosely-related the insertion point, then links both the preceding item and the
snippets of information. Programmers like to call loosely- following one to the new item.
related snippets of information a data structure, and a list is
just another example. With a shopping list, for instance, the Stacks and queues
relationship might be something as simple as food milk, The most important characteristic for a list is that the chain
bread and baked beans. If you were writing an application to of data it contains is in a specific order. It might not be
important what that order is, but its the order that
differentiates a list from a random array of values, such as
a chunk of memory.
Its for this reason that some of the earliest lists are stacks,
with values either pushed on to the end or pulled off, rather
than lists with values inserted and removed from the middle,
which are more processor intensive.
Processing speed means that stacks arent a necessity
If youre any more, but theyre still useful for temporarily holding
learning values, for example before retrieving them in reverse order
Python, the like a stack of cards. The list could be your terminal command
tab completion history, or a browsers Back button.
in the Eric In Python, you can execute a function called append to
programming
the same effect:
environment is
>>> shoppinglist.append(soup)
a great helper.

POP PUSH
A QUEUE
With a queue,
the values you
put on the list
first are the
1 2 3 4 5
first out (FIFO).

32 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
This will add soup to our shopping list. When weve added
it to our shop, it can be removed easily with pop:
>>> shoppinglist.pop()
Using Pythons interpreter
If youre running these commands from the interpreter,
You might wonder why we have three > and data. If you execute a function that
youll see the contents of the last value in the list as its symbols preceding the snippets of code returns a value, for example, such as
popped off the stack, in our case the word soup. If youve got on these pages, as well as in our more len(list) to return the length of a list, the
processing limitations in mind, you might wonder why there comprehensive Python tutorials. value is output to your terminal
isnt an option to pop the first value off the stack, too. These symbols represent the cursor immediately, rather than needing any
This would require the same amount of relinking as of Pythons interactive interpreter, and explanation in a script or assigning to
popping off a value from the end. Its perfectly possible, and they help to distinguish between another variable. You can quit the
turns a list into something called a queue the values you something you might want to build into interpreter by pressing [Ctrl]+[D]
put on the list first are first out, known as FIFO. This is in a script and something you can try together, but you will obviously lose the
immediately by typing in to the current state of your code.
contrast to a stack, which is LIFO.
interpreter although they are,
There are many ways to use a queue, but the most
in fact, interchangeable.
obvious is to preserve the order of incoming data. As we Launching the interpreter is as simple
explained, the only difference between a queue and a stack is as typing python from the command
where the pop value comes from, which is why Python line without any further arguments. Its
doesnt have any special commands for accessing the first at this point youll see the cursor
value, it just uses an argument for the pop command. The symbols, and you can now start typing
following will remove the first item in the list, and should lines of Python code.
output milk from the interpreter: This is a brilliant way of learning
>>> shoppinglist.pop(0) how the language works, as well as
experimenting with syntax and the
concepts youre working with. Errors in a
Modern lists single line are far easier to spot than
Lists are no longer limited by processor speed to stacks and those in a 20-line script thats being run If youre learning to program, the
queues, and most modern languages and frameworks for the first time, and you can also get Python interpreter can teach you
provide a vast number of handy functions for dealing with a really good feel for how Python, and a great deal, regardless of your
them. These offer a big advantage over the original primitive programming in general, handles logic chosen language.
operations, and can turn lists into super-flexible data types.
Python is particularly good at this, and includes plenty of
built-in functions for manipulating lists without having to write all things code-wise, 0 is the real first element in a list and
your own code. You can output a value from any point in the array, making 1 the second. And if you want to output the
list by treating it as an array. Typing shoppinglist[1], for entire list, you typically need to construct a simple loop that
instance, will return the second value in the list. As with nearly shuffles through these values from beginning to end.
Python is an exception, because simply typing
shoppinglist will output the lists contents, but for other
languages, you might have to construct something like:
A STACK >>> for x in range(0,len(shoppinglist)):
Quick
... shoppinglist[x]
POP ... print tip
PUSH The for loop here gives a value to x that steps from 0 to Were using Python
len(shoppinglist), which is a method to return the length of for our examples
a list. Each location in the list is output as we loop through it in because its
the order they were added (FIFO). a great language
for beginners. But
You can change the order in lots of ways, but Pythons
4 sort method is tough to beat:
>>> shoppinglist
every concept we
discuss works with
other languages,
[baked beans, bread, milk, soup] too its just a
matter of finding
>>> shoppinglist.append(apples)
the correct syntax
>>> shoppinglist
3 [baked beans, bread, milk, soup, apples]
>>> shoppinglist.sort()
for the functionality.

>>> shoppinglist
[apples, baked beans, bread, milk, soup]
If you can follow the logic of that simple piece of code,
2 then its safe to assume youve grasped the logic of lists.
Theres really nothing more to it, and now we hope youre
wondering what all the fuss is about. The main problem is
that it can get complicated quickly, and because lists are
shorthand for so many different data types, it can be difficult
1 working out what might be happening in any one chunk of
code. This is especially true of Python because it has so
many convenience functions, unless you know what they do,
With a stack, the values you put youre unlikely to grasp the logic. But at their heart, theyre
on the list last are the first out (LIFO).
just a chain of values, and thats the best place to start. Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 33

 WorldMags.net
Understanding
functions & objects
After introducing the concept of lists, its time for us to tackle the
fundamental building blocks behind any application.
eve already covered a concept called a list. Lists

W have been around since people started to write

one line of code after another because, in essence,
they simply store one value after another.
But what must have come soon after lists in the mists of
language creation is the idea of a function, because a function
is a kind of list for code logic. Its not built at runtime, but while
youre constructing your project, and much like their
mathematical counterparts, functions are independent
blocks of code that are designed to be reused.
Functions are fundamental for all kinds of reasons. They
allow the programmer to break a complex task into smaller
chunks of code, for instance, and they allow you to write
a single piece of code that can be reused within a project. You
can then easily modify this code to make it more efficient, to
add functionality or to fix an error. And when its one piece of BBC BASIC was the first programming language many of
code thats being used in lots of places, fixing it once is far us came into contact with.
easier than trawling through your entire project and fixing
your same broken logic many times. theres a good chance it was written in BASIC a language
Functions also make program flow more logical and easier embedded within the ROMs of many of the home computers
to read, and you can keep your favourite functions and use of the early eighties.
them again and again. When you break out of single-file BASIC code was mostly sequential, with many systems
projects, functions become the best way of grouping even using line numbers, and theres a good chance that the
functionality and splitting your project into different source following might have been your first program:
files, naturally breaking complex ideas into a group of far 10 PRINT Hello world!
easier ones. If you then work with a team of programmers, This led to one of the most primitive hacks of the day. You
they can work on functions and files without breaking the had to find a computer shop displaying a selection of
operation of the application, and its this idea that led to the machines. Youd then sneak in and quickly type the above line
creation of objects. These are a special kind of function that followed by 20 GOTO 10, RUN and a carriage return. This
bundle both the code logic and the data the logic needs to would create an infinite loop that printed Hello World for ever
work into completely encapsulated blocks. But lets start at or for the 10 minutes it took for the store staff to notice and
the beginning. If your first programming project was from wearily turn it off and on again. The cooler kids would change
about 30 years ago, and written on a home computer, then the text to say something rude and add colour to the output.
Either way, its a basic example of a function if you can
execute it from another part of your project.
BASIC programming without functions can be a little like
writing assembly language code. If you want to repeat a series
of lines, you need to remember where you are in the code,
jump to the new code, and jump back after execution. BASIC
provided some of this functionality with procedures, but
functions give that chunk of code a label, which can then be
called from any other point in your project. Functions can also
return a value, such as the sum of a group of numbers, and
accept arguments. That could be a list of numbers to be
added, for example. But youd have needed to be a wealthy
Acorn Archimedes owner to get those facilities out of BASIC.
With Python, you can try these ideas without getting too
BASIC wasnt
retro. From the interpreter, for example (just type python on
always put to
the command line and add our code), type the following:
the best uses.

34 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 >>> def helloworld():
WorldMags.net
... print (Hello World)
... return The art of objects
...
An object bundles functions and the refers to when specification is used
As ever with Python, you need to be very careful about
type of data they accept together, so within your code. In our example, the
formatting. After creating a new function called helloworld()
that theres less ambiguity on how class is the structure of Shopping while
with the def keyword, the interpreter precedes each new line a function should be used, and better the object is instance. The function
with .... Any lines of code you now add will be applied to the separation from the main flow and called __init__ is run when the object is
function, and youll need to press [Tab] at the beginning of side processes. Dealing with objects can created, and we pass the two values
each to indent the code and make sure Python understands quickly get complicated, partly because one for the items name and the other
this. Other languages arent so picky. After the return there are so many different concepts, for its price. You should be able to see
statement, which signals the end of the function, press language-specific features and how this class could be quickly
[Return] to create a blank line. Youve now created a function, implementations, and partly because it expanded to include other functions (or
and you can execute it by typing helloworld() into the requires the programmer to think about methods), and how the world of classes
problems differently. This simple and objects can transform your coding
interpreter. You should see the output youd expect from a
example creates a class that contains projects for the better.
function with a name like helloworld(), and youve just
both the item and the price from our
jumped forward 30 years. previous shopping list:
>>> class Shopping:
Passing arguments ... def __init__(self, item, price):
Theres a problem with our new function: its static. You cant ... self.item = item
change anything. This can be solved by opening the function ... self.price = price
up to external influence, and you can do that by enabling it to ...
pass and process arguments. If you alter the function >>> instance = Shopping(Bread, 0.85)
definition to def helloworld( str ), for instance, Python will >>> instance.item
Bread
expect to find a string passed to the function whenever its
>>> instance.price
called. You can process this string within the function by
0.85 You can still create classes and
changing print (Hello World) to print str, but you should A class is a bit like the specification functions from within the interpreter,
obviously be doing anything other than simply printing out for an object, whereas the term object but it begins to make less sense.
whats passed to the function. It can now be executed by
typing helloworld(something to output) and youll see
the contents of the quotes output to the screen. definitions before the program logic, and why types are often
To show how easy it is to create something functional, well declared in header files because these are read before the
now build on the idea of lists from the previous tutorial. main source code file.
Instead of a shopping list, well create a list of prices and then Working out what your language requires and where is
write a function for adding them together and returning the more difficult than working out how to use functions. And
total value. Heres the code: thats why they can sometimes appear intimidating. But
>>> def addprices( plist ): Python is perfect for beginners because it doesnt have any
... return (sum (plist)) convoluted requirements apart from its weird tab
... formatting. All weve done in our code is say theres going to
>>> pricelist = [1.49, 2.30, 4.99, 6.50, 0.99] be some data passed as an argument to this function, and
Quick
>>> addprices(pricelist) wed like Python to call this plist. It could even have had the
tip
16.27 same name as the original list but that might look confusing. When youre using
Python is very forgiving when it comes to passing types to The only slight problem with this solution is that youll get other packages,
only the functions
functions, which is why we didnt need to define exactly what an error if you try to pass anything other than a list of are exposed. You
plist contained. Most other languages will want to know numbers to the function. This is something that should be dont need to know
exactly what kind of types an argument may contain before checked by the function, unless you can be certain where how they work, just
its able to create the function, and thats why you often get those numbers come from. But it does mean you can send what input theyre
expecting and what
a list of values in exactly the same way you define a list:
output they return.
>>> addprices([10, 12, 13, 18]) Thats functional
53 programming in
The biggest challenge comes from splitting larger a nutshell.
problems into a group of smaller ones. For a programmer, this
task becomes second nature, but for a beginner, its an
intimidating prospect. The best way is to first write your
application, regardless of functions or programming finesse.
Often, its only when youre attempting to write your first
solution that better ones will occur to you, and youll find
yourself splitting up ideas as the best way to tackle a specific
issue within your project. The best example is a GUI, where its
common sense to give each menu item its own function,
which can be launched from either the icons in the toolbar or
by selecting the menu item. Many developers consider their
first working copy to be a draft of the final code, and go to the
trouble of completely rewriting the code after proving the idea
An IDE, such as Eric, can make working with functions
works. But dont worry about that yet. Q
and objects easier.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 35

 WorldMags.net
Adapt and evolve
using conditionals
Any non-trivial program needs to make decisions based on circumstances.
Get your head around codings ifs and buts.
urray Walker, the great Formula 1 commentator,

M used to say IF is F1 spelled backwards. Ifs, buts

and maybes play a vital role in motor racing, as they
do in computer programming. If youre writing a program that
IF condition...
simply processes and churns out a bunch of numbers,
without any user interaction, then you might be able to get THEN ELSE
away without any kind of conditional statements. But most of
the time, youll be asking questions in your code: if the user
has pressed the [Y] key, then continue. If not, stop. Or if the Consequent Alternative
variable PRICE is bigger than 500, halt the transaction. And action action
so forth.
A condition is just a question, as in everyday life: if the At its core, a conditional statement is something like this.
kettle has boiled, turn off the gas. (We dont use newfangled
electricity around here.) Or if all the pages have gone to the
printers, go to the pub. Heres an example in Python code: print X is ten
x=5 somefunction()
else:
if x == 10: anotherfunction()
print X is ten In this case, if X contains 10 we print the message as
else: before, but then call the somefunction routine elsewhere in
print X is NOT ten the code. That could be a big function that calls other
functions and so forth, thereby turning this into a long branch
print Program finished in the code.
Here, we create a new variable (storage place for There are alternatives to the double-equals weve used:
a number) called X, and store the number 5 in it. We then use if x > 10 If X is greater than 10
an if statement a conditional to make a decision. If X if x < 10 If X is less than 10
contains 10, we print an affirmative message, and if not (the if x >= 10 If X is greater than or equal to 10
else statement), we print a different message. Note the if x <= 10 If X is less than or equal to 10
double-equals in the if line: its very important, and well come if x != 10 If X is NOT equal to 10
on to that in a moment. These comparison operators are standard across most
Here, were just executing single print commands for the programming languages. You can often perform arithmetic
if and else sections, but you can put more lines of code in inside the conditional statement, too:
there, providing they have the indents, Python style: if x + 7 == 10:
if x == 10: print Well, X must be 3

Comparing function results

While many if statements contain mathematical tests such
as above, you can call a function inside an if statement and
perform an action depending on the number it sends back.
Look at the following Python code:
def truefunc():
return 1

Python doesnt def falsefunc():

have switch/ return 0
case. Why? Read
the explanation print Execution begins here...
at www.python.
org/dev/peps/
if truefunc():
pep-3103/

36 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 print Yay
WorldMags.net
if falsefunc():
Assignment vs comparison
print Nay value of X to be 1! Well actually, we did,
In some languages, especially C, you
The first four lines of code define functions (subroutines) have to be very careful with but in the if line we then performed an
that arent executed immediately, but are reserved for later comparisons. For instance, look at this assignment, not a comparison. Thats
use. Theyre really simple functions: the first sends back the bit of C code try to guess what it does, what the single equals sign does.
number 1, the second zero. Program execution begins at the and if you like, type it into a file called Were not saying if X equals 5, but
print line, and then we have our first if statement. Instead of foo.c, run gcc foo.c to compile it and rather, put 5 in X, and if that succeeds,
doing a comparison, we call a function here, and act on the then ./a.out to execute it. execute the code in the curly brackets.
result. If the if statement sees the number 1, it goes ahead #include <stdio.h> Ouch. If you recompile this code with
gcc -Wall foo.c (to show all warnings),
with executing the indented code, if not, it skips past it. So
int main() youll see that GCC mentions
when you run this, youll see Yay but not Nay, because if here
{ assignment used as truth value. This
only does its work if it receives the number 1 back from the int x = 1; is an indication that you might be doing
function it calls. In Python and many other languages, you can something wrong.
replace 1 and 0 with True and False for code clarity, so you if (x = 5) The solution is to change the if line to
could replace the functions at the start with: puts(X is five!); if (x == 5) instead. Now the program
def truefunc(): } runs properly. Its a small consideration,
return True If you run this program, you might be but if youve just written a few hundred
surprised to see the X is five message lines of code and your program isnt
def falsefunc(): appear in your terminal window. Shurley behaving, this could be the root cause.
shome mishtake? We clearly set the Its caught us out many times...
return False
and the program will operate in the same way.
This is neater and easier to read. Note that the break
Clearing up code instructions are essential here they tell the compiler to end
In more complicated programs, a long stream of ifs and elses the switch operation after the instruction(s) following case
can get ugly. For instance, consider this C program: have been executed. Otherwise, it will execute everything
#include <stdio.h> following the first matching case.
Another way that some programmers in C-like languages
int main() shorten if statements is by using ternary statements.
{ Consider the following code:
int x = 2; if (x > y)
result = 1;
if (x == 1) else
puts(One); result = 2;
else if (x == 2) This can be shortened to:
puts(Two); result = x > y ? 1 : 2;
else if (x == 3) Here, if X is bigger than Y, result becomes 1; otherwise its
puts(Three); 2. Note that this doesnt make the resulting code magically
} smaller as powerful optimising compilers do all sorts of
C, and some other languages, include a switch statement tricks but it can make your code more compact.
which simplifies all these checks. The lines beginning with if So, thats conditionals covered. Although weve focused on
here can be replaced with: Python and C in this guide, the principles are applicable to
switch(x) { nigh-on every language. And it all boils down to machine code
case 1: puts(One); break; at the end of the day the CPU can compare one of its
case 2: puts(Two); break; number storage places (registers) with another number, and
case 3: puts(Three); break; jump to a different place in the code depending on the result.
} Remember to thank your CPU for all the hard work it does. Q

Big ifs and small ifs

In C, and other languages that share its syntax, you but it will print the second. Thats because only the
dont need to use curly brackets when using an if first is tied to the if statement. To attach both
statement followed by a single instruction: instructions to the if, put them in curly braces like
if (a == 1) the following:
puts(Hello); if (x == 5) {
But only one instruction will be executed. If you puts(X is 5);
do something like this: puts(Have a nice day);
int x = 1; }
Contrast this with Python, where the
if (x == 5) indentation automatically shows which code
puts(X is 5); belongs to which statement. C doesnt care about Here we see how indentation isnt
puts(Have a nice day); indentation you have to explicitly show what you good enough for C we need to use
When you execute it, it wont print the first message, want with curly brackets. curly braces to bundle code.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 37

 WorldMags.net
Variable scope of
various variables
Caution! That variable youre accessing might not be what you think it is. Why?
Because variables are variable. Have we said variable enough now?

O
nce upon a time, programs were just big lists of and therefore its a good thing to get right in the early days of
instructions, and these instructions could do your programming journey.
anything with variables and the contents of memory. Lets start with a bit of Python code. Try this:
This was fine for simple, low-level programs but as time went def myfunc():
on and people starting making bigger and more complicated x = 10
programs, the idea that one part of the program could do print x
anything with memory became less appealing.
For instance, you might have a program that controls
a robotic arm, and stores the state of the arm in a variable x=1
called X. Your program calls lots of different subroutines, print x
some of which may have been programmed by other people. myfunc()
How do you know that those routines arent messing about print x
with the RAM where X is stored? If youre totally new to Python: the def bit and the
The results could be disastrous, especially when the arm following two lines of code are a function which we call later.
starts punching people instead of stroking puppies as Program execution begins with the x = 1 line. So, we create a
originally envisaged. variable called x and assign it the number 1. We print it out to
This is where the concept of variable scope comes into confirm that. We then call a function which sets x to 10, and
play. In programming, scope defines how a variable is visible prints it. As control jumps back to the main chunk of our
to the rest of the program. In most high-level languages, we code, we print x again and its back to 1. How did that
Most well- can control the scope of a variable that is, we can choose happen? Didnt we just set x to 10 in the function?
documented whether it should be visible to the current chunk of code, to Well, yes, but the function had its own copy of the variable.
languages have the current source code file, or absolutely everywhere in all of It didnt do anything with the x variable that was declared
explanations
the programs files. outside of it. The function lives happily on its own, and doesnt
of variable
This level of control is absolutely fundamental to good want to interfere with data it doesnt know about. This is
scope, so once
youve got the program design, so that multiple programmers can work essential to keeping code maintainable imagine if all
basics from this together on a project, implementing their own routines variables were accessible everywhere, and you were writing a
article, you can without accidentally trampling over one anothers data. Its routine to be dropped inside a 50,000-line software project.
explore specific good for modularisation and keeping data safe and secure, Youd be totally terrified of choosing variable names that
implementations. might be in use elsewhere, and accidentally changing
someone elses data.

Change of routine
So most programming languages provide this level of
protection. Still, there are legitimate reasons why you might
want to make a variable accessible to other routines, and in
Python you can do this by inserting the following line into the
start of the myfunc() routine:
global x
This makes all the difference. Previously, the version of x
we were using in myfunc() was a local variable that is, it
affects only the code located inside the function. By adding
the global command, we access x as a global variable that
is, its the same one as we used in the main body of the code.
So if we run this Python code now, we see that x is set to 1 at
the start, but then the myfunc() routine grabs that x as a
global variable and sets it to 10, and it stays that way back in
the main code.
How variable scope is handled varies from language to
language, so lets look at another implementation here, this

38 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
time in C. Whereas Python is pretty flexible about using
variables that you havent defined previously, C is a little more
strict. Consider this:
Automatic variables
#include <stdio.h> int x = 0;
Most local variables are automatic
that is, they are only created in RAM x = x + 1;
void myfunc(); when program execution reaches the printf(x is %d\n, x);
point of their initialisation. Once the }
int main() routine containing the local variable has Here, we call myfunc() three times,
{ finished, that variable will no which creates a variable x containing
int x = 10; longer be useful, because outside zero, adds 1 to it and prints it out. Youve
printf(x is %d\n, x); routines cant access it. So, the compiler no doubt already guessed that running
will typically reclaim memory used by this produces 1 with each call of
myfunc();
that variable, making room for other bits myfunc(), because x is being created
printf(x is %d\n, x);
and bobs. each time. But what happens if you
} There is, however, a way to stop that, change the declaration in myfunc() to
and thats by declaring a static variable. static int x = 0;? Well, the output
void myfunc() This is still a local variable that can be becomes this:
{ manipulated only by code inside the x is 1
int x = 20; current function, but it retains its state x is 2
printf(x is %d\n, x); every time the function is called. For x is 3
} instance, look at the following C code: The static keyword here tells the
Here, because were explicitly creating variables with int, #include <stdio.h> compiler that it should preserve the
state of the variable between calls. So
its somewhat clearer that myfunc() has its own version of
void myfunc(); on the very first call it sets up x as zero,
the variable. But how do you go about making the variable
but in future calls it doesnt initialise the
global in this particular instance? The trick is to put the int main() variable as new again, but retrieves its
variable declaration outside of the functions. Move int x = 10; { state from before. The compiler doesnt
from inside main() to after the void myfunc(); line at the top, myfunc(); ditch it at the end of the function, as it
and now the variable has become global that is, its myfunc(); does with automatic variables. So, using
accessible by all functions in the file. myfunc(); static variables is
However, thats not the only job you need to do. Inside the } a great way to get some of the benefits
myfunc() routine, we still have a line that says int x = 20;. of global variables (retaining its state
The int here is still creating its own version of the variable, so void myfunc() throughout execution) without exposing
{ it to the rest of the program.
take it away so that the line just reads x = 20;. Run the
program, and youll see the intended result, that x is global
and can be modified everywhere.
Note that while putting the x declaration outside of personal choice for your particular program, but the general
functions makes it global to the current source code file, it rule is: use global variables only when necessary. Try to keep
doesnt make it global absolutely everywhere in all of the data isolated inside functions, and only use a global variable
source code. If youve got a big project with multiple C files, when you have no other option.
youll have to use the extern keyword. So if you have int x = There are usually ways to access the local variables from
10; in foo.c and you want to use that in bar.c, youd need the one function in another (for example, pointers in C and
line extern int x; in the latter file. references in C++), but those features are specific to
All of this leads to one final question: when should you use individual languages, so thats something to look up in your
global variables, and when local? Ultimately, thats a matter of own time. Pointers are a tricky business! Q

Remember to initialise!
By default, most C compilers dont dont blindly use variables that
set newly-created automatic havent been initialised with some
variables to zero. This is especially kind of value!
true in the case of automatic Now, why dont compilers just set
variables, because they might be the variable to zero? That would
created somewhere in RAM that was make everything a lot safer, right?
used previously by other data. Well, yes, but its extra work for the
So if you have a program like this: CPU and adds a performance hit.
#include <stdio.h> The compiler allocates space for
variables in RAM that may have been
int main() used for other data before, so theres
{ no guarantee that the RAM is zeroed-
int x; out.
printf(x is %d\n, x); Setting that chunk of RAM to zero
} requires an extra CPU instruction,
then compile and run it, and then and GCC tries to be pretty efficient.
compile and run it again, the number You can tell GCC to warn about the
will probably be different each time use of uninitialised variables with the If you try to use automatic variables that havent been
you do. The moral of the story is: -Wall flag. given any value, prepare for some horrors.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 39

 WorldMags.net
Building proper
programs
Learn to break problems down into manageable chunks, as we show you how
to design a well-sculpted program.
n this article, were going to do something a little different. separate the data into input and output.

I Instead of looking at a specific feature that shows up in

many programming languages, were going to look at the
art of designing programs.
Output data: monthly payments and total interest
Input: mortgage value, annual interest rate, duration
Great, that was pretty easy; but what was the point? Well,
Knowing about if clauses, for loops, lists and functions take a look at the output data; there are two types of data
(and much more) is vital if you want to learn to program. But there. If we have to come up with two pieces of output data,
you can get to a point where you know all of the elements, but that sounds like two problems instead of one sneaky!
you dont have the faintest clue where to get started when Youll find that many programming problems look like this
faced with a new programming challenge. youll start with a grand description of what you want to do:
There are, however, some set processes recipes of I want to make Space Invaders, but on closer inspection
a kind that you can follow that will help to direct your youll see that the problems actually made up of many
thinking and make solving a problem much easier. smaller ones.
Some of the Python features we use to solve problems Identifying these smaller issues, by looking at the data
might be unfamiliar, but thats not really the important thing involved, is often the first step to finding a solution. This is
in this tutorial (you can always look those up on the internet called top-down development.
yourself) the important thing is the thought process that we
must go through. Functions: one task at a time
To demonstrate, we need an example problem, and weve Once youve identified the smaller problems, your next task
settled on a simple mortgage calculator. Lets say that Mike will be to focus in on one. Were going to start with the
needs a mortgage of 150,000 to buy a nice house in monthly payments problem.
Innsbruck. A bank has agreed to loan him the money at a rate If you look back at the tutorial on page 10 of this
of 6% per annum, with Mike paying it back over 25 years at a bookazine, youll see us explaining that functions are great
fixed monthly rate. Another bank agrees to lend him the because they allow you to break a complex task into smaller,
money, but at 4% per annum, paying it back over 30 years. easier ones. Since that sounds exactly the same as what
Mike wants to know what his monthly repayments will be in were doing now, lets try to create a function for our monthly
each situation, and how much interest hell have paid in the payments problem.
end. He wants us to help him. The first step when tackling a def monthlyPayments(mortgage, interest, term):
programming problem is to closely examine the specification. monthlyPayments = 0
Read through the above text carefully and pick out all the return monthlyPayments
types of data that are described. As youre doing this, Theres not much to this function yet; its more of a sketch
than something that might be useful, but its often helpful to
start with a sketch and fill it out later. Lets take a look and see
what we have so far.
Weve given the function a name, and weve specified all
the input data as arguments to the function. Since we know
that were trying to work out the monthly payments, weve
created a variable to hold this information, and instructed the
function to return it when its finished.
The next thing we need to do is figure out how to combine
all those arguments all that input data to get the output
were after monthlyPayments. This is what might be called
specific knowledge. Its not really anything to do with
programming, but its some extra knowledge that we need to
solve the problem. This is often a vital step in successfully
completing a programming problem: identifying and finding
the specific knowledge necessary to complete the problem.
You can use any source you like, so long as youre confident
that its reliable (your program wont work properly if its
Check often for bugs in your program. (Picture from:
based on faulty assumptions). Knowing that we need some
www.flickr.com/photos/fastjack/282707058)

40 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
information about how to calculate mortgage repayments, a
quick Google search turned up this handy and entirely
relevant formula on Wikipedia:
c = rP / (1 - (1 + r)^N)
Here, c is the monthly payment, r the monthly interest as
a decimal, P the amount borrowed and N the number of
monthly payments. Notice how all the variables needed to
calculate c in this formula are already provided to our
function as arguments?

Putting it all together

Now we must convert this knowledge into our programming
language of choice, filling out our function sketch.
One important thing to be wary of is that all of the inputs
that we have are in the same units as the formula expects.
Mike wants to live here, and he needs us to figure out whether he can afford it!
Because theyre not here, weve added a couple of lines to
(From Wikipedias Innsbruck page.)
convert them.
Also, note that we have changed the argument names to The simplest way to do this is to create a third function that
match the formula. This isnt necessary, but consistency can calls both the others and prints their output in a pretty
help avoid mistakes. format. This is what our final program looks like:
import math import math

def monthlyPayments(P, r, N): def monthlyPayments(P, r, N):

r = r / 100.0 / 12.0 ...
N = N * 12
monthlyPayments = (r * P) / (1 - math.pow (1 + r), def totalInterest(c, N, P):
(N * 12 * -1))
return monthlyPayments def mortgageComp(P, r, N):
And thats our function for calculating monthly payments print Monthly Payments:, monthlyPayments(P, r,
finished. At this point, its worth testing what we have put N)
together so far. print Total Interest:, totalInterest(monthlyPayment
Its obviously not the complete program, as it doesnt tell s(P, r, N), N, P)
us anything about the amount of interest paid, but testing
regularly will make spotting and fixing bugs much easier. mortgageComp(150000, 6, 25)
This is a vital step in the development process, and
working like this is known as incremental development. Designing programs
Before you can test code, you need some test cases to So, at the end of all this, what did our whole development
check it with. In this case, come up with a few values of P, r process look like?
and N, and work them out using a calculator. We began by critically reading the problem specification,
Be sure to take note of the expected result. Heres one and identifying the input and output data involved. By looking
that we came up with: closely at this information, we managed to find
monthlyPayments (200000, 8, 30) = 1467.52 a way to split the problem in two, making it easier and more
Now that weve established a test case, modify the code manageable. We called this top-down development. We then
so that the function gets called with these arguments, and developed solutions to each of these as separate functions,
print the result. beginning with sketches and testing each as we progressed.
If everything matches, thats great. If it doesnt, a good This was called incremental development.
way of finding out where the problem lies is by adding more Also remember that, where we had to, we looked up
print statements specific knowledge
to check that which allowed us to
certain variables
are what youd
A good way of finding out solve the problem.
Finally, with
expect them to where the problem lies is by working solutions
be at that point to all of the
in the code. adding more print statements subproblems, we
For example: combined them to
r = r / 100.0 / 12.0 come up with a solution to the original, larger problem.
print r The steps are simple, but this is exactly what you would do
would allow us to check that r was what we expected. to tackle almost any programming problem. For some, you
With the first problem solved, were ready to move on to might have to further divide the subproblems, but you would
the second: calculating interest paid. Well leave you to do just keep going until you reached a level that was easily
that, following the method laid out here, and instead look at solvable and then work your way back, solving each level as
how you can tie these two functions together. and when you reached it. Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 41

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Recursion: round
and round we go
Jump down the ultimate rabbit hole of programming ideas, but be careful
you may well land on your own head.
ecursion is one of those concepts that sounds far weve been doing with previous tutorials a strategy known

R more intimidating than it really is. Honestly. To make

use of it, you dont need to grasp complicated
mathematical ideas; or start thinking in four dimensions; or
as iterative programming wed maybe write a function that
multiplied two values within a for loop which was counting
down through the factorial input value. In pseudo code, this
invade one level after another of someones dreams to might look something like the following:
implant an idea into their subconscious; or even understand function factorial(c)
the meaning of recursive acronyms, such as GNU (GNUs for i =c, i >= 1, i--
not Unix). total = total *i
For the most part, many uses of recursion are well print total
documented and explored. You can then just copy and paste Pseudo code like this is used to explain a concept and to
them into your code without necessarily understanding how create a template to show the logic of a program, but the
they work, or why they do what they do. But if you do this, syntax isnt from any one specific language. It needs to be
youre missing out, because recursion is cool. Its one of the detailed and clear enough for the reader to understand the
best ways of letting the CPU do all the hard work while you logic, without being weighed down by the peculiarities or
write a few lines of code; and as a result, it can save you from eccentricities of one implementation. Weve used a more
bending your brain around what might be a more complex C-like syntax for the for loop, for instance, because we think
problem without recursion. this is easier to read than the range keyword wed need to
This is because recursion is simply a way of solving a more use if we wrote the same code in Python. If youre working on
complex problem by repeating a simple function. The trick is a problem and dont know how to approach it, writing
that this function repeats from within itself. Rather than being a pseudo code sketch of any potential solution is a great way
run manually from another function, it calls another instance of communicating your ideas or proving your concept works.
of itself from within its own code. Its the programming In the above snippet, we create a for loop that uses a variable
equivalent of pointing two mirrors together to create a called i (thats a common name for variables within a for
seemingly infinite corridor, or connecting to the same virtual loop) to step through a range of values. Weve used the
desktop from within a virtual desktop. C-syntax to say this value needs to hold a number more than
(>) or equal (=) to the value 1, and that it should be increased
X factorial by one with every iteration of the loop. In other words, the
In programming, one of the classic, and easiest, examples of value of i steps down from c, the input value, to the value 1.
recursion is a function to give a numbers factorial. The Each iteration of the multiplication is controlled by the code,
factorial of a positive integer (we have to say this because the which is why this is an iterative approach.
function would change otherwise) is the product achieved by You might already see from the previous piece of code
multiplying the whole numbers it contains against one that theres a slightly more efficient way of achieving the
another. The factorial of 4, for example, is 4x3x2x1, which exact same result.
equals 24. And that way uses recursion. Instead of controlling the
If we wanted to approach this problem in the same way function from a for loop, were going to ask the function to
control itself knowing that it has been called from within itself.
Thats confusing to read, but its a concept much clearer in
code. Heres the pseudo code for an updated factorial
function that uses recursion instead:

function factorial(c)

4 3 2 1 1 2 6 24 if c > 1

else
return c * factorial(c-1)

return 1

All thats happening here is that weve replaced the old

factorial function with one that calls itself and expects a value
To calculate the factorial of a number, we can use a function that calls itself in return. Dont forget that as well as passing values to
and returns the correct answer. Thats recursion! a function, the function itself can return a value, usually using

44 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
the return keyword, so that the code that called the function
can use the value. You can see that while its harder to
understand the logic of how the final value is calculated,
theres a lot less code than with the iterative approach,
making this solution more efficient and less prone to errors.
This is true of the majority of recursive solutions.
As long as the incoming value is greater than 1, factorial
calls itself with a new value thats one less than the one it was
called with, and multiplies this by the value thats returned. If
you call factorial(4), for example, factorial() will be executed
from within itself with the values 3, 2 and then 1. When it hits
We generate this fractal with just 16 lines of code. But its complexity is
1, the return values start to trickle back because factorial() is potentially infinite.
no longer being called recursively. 1 is returned and multiplied
by 2, which itself returns (2x1) to the previous call, which
returns (3x2x1) which, in turn, returns (4x3x2x1). If you want
to see this as Python code so you can try it out, type the can also see exactly what our script is doing as its doing it,
following into the Python interpreter: because the cursor moves slowly along the path as our fractal Quick
is being drawn. tip
>>> def factorial(c): The fractal were going to create is called a star fractal.
If you want your
... if c > 1: This is a five-pointed star, with another star drawn on to the Python application
... return c * factorial(c-1) end of each of its limbs, and a further one on each of those to pause before
... else: limbs, and so on, and on. But to start with, were going to quitting, or doing
... return 1 create a function to draw a star, then expand this to draw anything else, add
from time import
... another star at the correct point. Drawing with Turtle graphics sleep to the top of
>>> factorial(4) is perfect for fractals because it doesnt draw lines with your script and use
24 co-ordinates, but instead uses the relative position of the sleep (seconds)
>>> factorial(5) a cursor and an angle to draw the path with the cursor as it command within
your code. This is
120 moves forward.
very useful if you
>>> import turtle as trtl want to see the
def fractal(length=100): final Turtle graphic
The last two lines in that example are simply executing the if length < 10: rendering before the
factorial() function with the value we want to calculate. When return window closes.

the function finishes and returns the final calculation, the trtl.fd(length)
Python interpreter prints this out without us needing to do trtl.left(144)
anything else, which is why you see the results under this line. trtl.fd(length)
Congratulations youve solved the problem using recursion! trtl.left(144)
You should now be able to see how recursion can be used in trtl.fd(length)
all sorts of places that require an indeterminate amount of trtl.left(144)
repetition, such as many sorting algorithms, other trtl.fd(length)
mathematical solutions and filesystem searches. Even if you trtl.left(144)
cant think of a solution yourself, if you have an idea that trtl.fd(length)
something can be approached using recursion, then a simple trtl.left(144)
Google search will reveal whether it can and what the code, or return
pseudo code, should look like.
If you run the above piece of code, either from the
Generating fractals interpreter, by typing fractal(200), or by adding that
But if you want to visualise recursion in action, which is one of command to the last line in a script, youll see the Turtle
the quickest ways to understand the concept, theres one cursor first move forward before turning left 144 degrees and
particularly effective set of functions that can be used to drawing another line. It does this four more times to complete
illustrate both its advantages and its complexities, and these the star. To turn this into a fractal, we want to execute the
are fractals. Fractal algorithms use recursion to add infinite same function from within the function itself at the end of
levels of detail to whats a much simpler algorithm. Some of each limb, and this can be easily achieved by adding
the most famous were documented by the French fractal(length*0.3) after every trtl.fd(length) line. This will
mathematician Benot B Mandelbrot in his book, The Fractal call the fractal function again, only this time with a length
Geometry of Nature, but there are many easier algorithms value around a third smaller than the original. This star, too,
that can be created with just a few lines of code, which is what will launch other iterations, but the reason why this doesnt go
were going to do using Python. on for ever is because we first check whether the length of
Before we start, though, you will need to make sure you each line is going to be greater than 10. If it isnt, then we
have two dependencies installed. The first is Pythons Turtle return from the function, and stars will stop being indefinitely
graphics module, but it should be part of any default Python drawn. As with the factorial function, this means that all the
installation. We use this to draw and display lines with as little other part-completed stars can draw their respective limbs
code as possible. The Turtle module itself needs you to install until the main star itself has finished and the fractal is
tk-8.5 for its drawing routines, which means if your complete. With just a few lines of code, you end up with what
distribution doesnt add this automatically, youll have to could be an infinitely complex image. And thats the never
install it yourself. Using the Turtle graphics module means we ending beauty of recursion. Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 45

 WorldMags.net
Super sorting
algorithms
Lets take our coding further and introduce you to the unruly world of
algorithms, efficiency and sorted data.
ython is a great language. Youre happily writing a little Well, its pretty simple: youd look at them, and if the card

P program, and youve got a huge list that you need to

put in order. What do you do? Easy, just call the sort()
method on the list, and youre away. It works amazingly
on the left was worth more than the card on the right, youd
switch them around; if the card on the right was worth more,
youd leave them as they were.
quickly, and it doesnt even care how big the list is it could What would that look like in Python?
be millions of elements long and still take virtually the same cards = [8,2]
amount of time to return the sorted list. if card[0] > card[1]:
This is really handy, but have you ever stopped to wonder card[0] = card[1]
how on earth it works? Its a fascinating question, and in the card[1] = card[0]
next two articles were going to introduce you to some of the print cards
techniques that are used to solve this kind of problem. Along That seems pretty straightforward. Theres a list of cards,
the way, youll also get a gentle introduction to algorithms and with the values 8 and 2. We then check to see whether the
how to think about their performance. first card is more valuable than the second, and if it is, copy
So, where do we start? Sorting a list with a computer, like each card to the correct location in the list.
many programming problems, seems incredibly abstract and Run that code and see what happens. You should find that
difficult when you first begin. If you start off trying to think you dont get [2,8], but [2,2]. Thats obviously not what we
about how to sort a Python list with a million items in it, you want, so what happened?
wont get anywhere very quickly. Because theres no operator in Python that enables us to
switch the position of two elements, we did what seems most
Sorting two cards natural to us we used the assignment operator to copy the
But what if you step back, away from the computer and the value of the two cards. The problem is that after the first copy
list of a million items? Imagine, for example, that you have two statement, we ended up with both cards having the same
hearts cards from a deck. How would you put these two cards value. When we tried to do the second assignment, we just
in numerical order? copied two identical cards.

8 5 2 9
Bubble sort

5 8 2 9
works by
comparing
adjacent
elements in the
list. As it does
so, the largest
element bubbles
its way to the
end of the list.

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 WorldMags.net
The way to get around this is to store a copy of the first
cards value outside of the list, and before we do any copying.
Take a look at this code:
cards = [8,2]
card0 = cards[0]
if card[0] > card[1]:
card[0] = card[2]
card[1] = card0
print cards
If you run that, you should get the correct answer.
Because we stored a copy of the first cards value when we
overwrote it with the first assignment statement, we could
use the copy to set the second card to the correct value.
In the end, its not quite how we would do things in real life,
but its pretty close.

Bubble sort
OK, so sorting a list two elements long isnt particularly Bubble sort
impressive. But we can extend the same technique to sort a is an algorithm
list that has an infinite number of elements this is known as When we add a third card, assuming that theyre in with O(n2)
bubble sort. reverse order, bubble sort has to do the most work possible; performance
The idea is that we loop over the entire list, comparing it has do two comparisons on each loop, and three loops. that means
(and swapping, if necessary) each set of adjacent elements In total thats six operations. it takes
in turn. The element with the greatest value will always end up What about if we add a fourth? It will take three increasingly
longer for every
on the right-hand side of the comparison, so will always be comparisons on each loop, and four loops. Thats 12
element added.
compared in the next pair of elements. Eventually, it will end operations this time. Five cards? Thats four comparisons and
up at the very end of the list, where it belongs. five loops: 20 operations.
Notice that, if we were to loop over the list only once, wed Theres a definite pattern here. The work done by bubble
get only the largest element in the correct position. The way sort seems to conform to the formula:
to get around this is to keep looping over the list; on each num. operations = num. loops x num. comparisons
loop, well encounter another largest element that always And we can see that the number of loops is always equal
ends up on the right-hand side of each comparison that is, to the number of elements in the list, and the number of
until it reaches the largest element from the previous comparisons is always equal to one less than the number of
iteration. At this point, it wont move any further, because its loops. This means that, if we have n elements, the amount of
now in the correct position. work done by bubble sort is:
Well know the list is sorted when we run a loop in which num. operations = n x (n - 1) = n(n - 1) = n2 - n
nothing gets swapped. This code shows how a bubble sort
might be implemented in Python: Big O
cards = [8, 3, 7, 4, 2, 1] What this means is that the amount of work bubble sort does
swapped = True increases in polynomial time for every item added to the list.
while swapped: #sort until swapped is False That is to say the increase in the amount of work becomes
swapped = False #assume nothing is swapped more and more rapid for every element added to the list. This
for i in range(len(cards) - 1): #loop entire list is why its so slow for large lists a 10-element list may take
cur = cards[i] only 90 operations, but a 1,000-element list will take 999,000
j=i+1 operations, and it will simply get worse for every card from
if cards[i] > cards[j]: there on.
cards[i] = cards[j] In the general case given above, the n2 term is always
cards[j] = cur going to be far larger than the n term, and hence will always
swapped = True #reset swapped to True if anything have a much larger influence on how well the algorithm
is swapped performs. Because of this, when discussing the performance
print cards of an algorithm, in computer science its only ever the largest
term thats considered.
Speed matters The terminology used for this is big O notation, and we
Its pretty clever, right? You can now use this program to sort say that bubble sort is a O(n2) algorithm. Bubble sort is
any size list and it will get the job done. However, if you try to actually considered to be one of the worst-performing sorting
use it on a large list, youll find that its painfully slow even algorithms, and its definitely not how Python does it. That
on a fast computer. said, dont discard it entirely. Its easy to implement, and
To understand why this is, lets think a little about how works all right for small lists on fast computers. There may be
much work our bubble sort algorithm has to do. When we had times when you just want to get the job done, and bubble sort
just two cards, bubble sort had to do two comparisons once makes the most sense here.
to get the cards in the correct place, and then again to check If you fancy looking at sorting algorithms that are much
that theres nothing else to sort. In total, it had to perform just faster, albeit harder to implement, jump to page 102, these
two operations. are much closer to how Python does it. Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 47

 WorldMags.net
Hidden secrets
of numbers
Allow us to channel the living spirit of Dan Brown, and uncover the hidden
meaning behind 1, 2 and -1b1010101.

Y
ou wouldnt think that numbers would be a relevant represents a number thats double the bit to the right of it,
topic in the 21st century. After all, if theres one thing giving a sequence of bits the ability to represent every value
computers can do well, its count them. Billions of between zero and double the value of the most significant bit
times a second. But for better or worse, having some minus 1 (or 28-1). Thats a difficult couple of sentences to
knowledge of how computers deal with numbers, and the digest, so here are some examples:
systems used to process them, will help you to write better The positions within an 8-bit binary number have the
programs. And its not all for low-level stuff like assembler following values: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128. But rather than
either. Number systems are just as important for high-level assign them in that order, the most significant bit the one
languages. If you write a PHP script for the web, for example, holding the largest value is usually on the left. So, the binary
small changes in the way you process numbers within the number 10, or 00000010, is equivalent to 2. If we move that
script can have a huge impact on the performance of your bit to the left so that the 1 occupies the third slot along, the
servers. Your code total value
might be run doubles to 4, and
thousands of
times a second,
The position of each bit within a so on. If we
enable more than
making any small binary value represents a number one bit at a time,
discrepancy in then all the values
how those thats double the bit to the right are added
numbers are together, so that
calculated or stored have an impact on performance. 00000011 represents 3 (1+2) and 10000011 represents 131
Numbers are important because they engage the CPU at (128+2+1). If we enable every bit in an 8-bit binary number,
its lowest level, right down to hardware and design. Typically, a we get a maximum value of 255.
single operation of the CPU can deal only with a value held
within one of its internal registers. And that value can be as 2s compliment
If you want large only as the number of bits the CPU supports. These Consider the following question: what does 10101010
to see binary days, that means either 32 or 64 bits. But whats a bit? Its represent in 2s compliment? You might think, after the last
registers update literally a switch thats turned on or off a single bit of couple of paragraphs, that the binary value represented here
in real time, information, and this is normally represented by a 1 for on is 170 (2+8+32+128). But youd be wrong. The clue is the
KCalc has a and a 0 for off. Computers use a numeral system called reference to 2s compliment. This is, in fact, a scheme for
handy display
binary to store these on/off values within their registers and representing negative values in binary, and it changes the
mode for up to
memory. The position of each bit within a binary value meaning of the bits and what they represent. It does this by
64 bits of data.
reversing the configuration of bits, so that 1 becomes 0, a
process known as flipping, and adding 1 (there is a single
exception to this).
So, the negative of 00000010 is first 11111101, then with 1
added 11111110, which is the 2s compliment representation
of -2. Using this logic with the above question, we first
subtract 1 from 10101010 to get 10101001 and flip the bits to
01010110, which gives a decimal value of 86, so the answer
to the question is -86. The reason this method was chosen
rather than swapping the most significant bit is because most
binary arithmetic can still be performed on these negative
values in exactly the same way theyre performed on positive
values. Adding 1 to 10101010 (-86), say, yields 10101011,
which is -85 the correct value.
While were in the binary zone, its worth mentioning
a couple of other numeral systems sometimes used when
programming. The first is octal, a base 8 system that uses the
numerals 0-7 to hold 8 values. 7+1, for example, is 10 in octal,

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 WorldMags.net
just as 9+1=10 in decimal. It takes exactly three binary bits to
BITWISE OPERATORS
represent a value in octal, which is why its often used when
you play with binary values. Similarly, hexadecimal, which is
base 16, uses the characters 0-9 and a-f to represent decimal
NOT AND
values 0-15, and thats the equivalent of four bits of data. So, 1 1 1
the number 6c in hex is 0110 (6) and 1100 (12 = c) in binary,
1 1
which as an 8-bit value equates to 108. Hex is a more
1 1 1
readable equivalent to binary, which is why its often used for
memory and binary editors, and for storing raw binary data = 1 1
within your program.
You can avoid using these numeral systems in your code
= 1 1
and your projects wont suffer. But understanding a little
about what they mean and how they relate to one another OR XOR
can help you when looking at other projects, and how the
underlying systems that take your code and make it run work. 1 1 1 1 1 1
If you want to play with numeral systems, you can do so using
Pythons interpreter, and this is a great way of getting familiar
with how the numbers work. From version 2.6 onwards, for
1 1 1 1 1 1
example, you can enter a binary value using the 0b prefix
thats a zero followed by the b. Typing a binary number will
output the decimal value:
=1 1 1 1 = 1 1
>>> 0b01010110
86 Binary and
You can convert values to binary using the bin function: that reason, like early bytes, theres no standard storage size bitwise operators
bring logic to
>>> bin(86) for many data types. It always depends on your computers
your programs.
0b1010110 hardware and its internal representation of a value as bits.
>>> bin(-85) The best example is an ordinary integer, which is most often
-0b1010101 defined as int in programming languages such as C and C++.
As you can see with the last example, this also works with The largest number an int can hold depends on the
negative integers, returning a 2s compliment binary. If you architecture of your CPU, and this limit is hidden within
want to input a 2s compliment binary, you need to prefix the something called an include file for C and C++, and an
data with -0b. You can do similar things with octal by equivalent for other languages. On most machines, youll find
replacing the 0b with 0c and with hexadecimal by using 0x, that an unsigned int can hold a maximum value of
and both of these numeral types have supporting functions 4294967295, and if you paste this value into a binary
for converting integers: calculator, youll see this requires 32 bits of storage
>>> hex(85) probably the most common architecture in use. Even 64-bit
0x55 machines can properly interpret 32-bit values.
>>> oct(85) This is why an int is usually the most generic variable
0o125 type; it can store large numbers and can be addressed
Quick
efficiently by most recent x86 CPUs. If you need larger, theres tip
Data types long int and if you need smaller, theres short int. You Understanding
In many programming languages, you need to specify the generally dont need to worry about any of this in languages how bits and bytes
type of a variable before you can use it. This can cause such as Python, unless you want to, because the designers hold together is
essential if you want
confusion in the beginner, because they wonder how theyre have decided to forgo the advantages of specifying the size of to read or write to
supposed to know what they need to use before they write a variable for the simplicity it gives to programming. This is an binary formats, or
the code. But, in reality, you write the declaration for each example of something known as Duck typing, and its another create a utility that
variable as you come to use them. reason why Python is such a good beginners language. communicates with
external hardware.
The compiler or interpreter needs to know about type One set of types weve neglected to cover is those that
because it wants to assign only enough memory and include a floating point, such as 0.5 or 3.14159. Rather than
processing to handle that number, and no more. If you know worry about the size of a float, its the precision thats
your variable is never going to have a value greater than 255 important. But unless youre dealing with small fractions, its
(the value held by an 8-bit value), theres no need for the usually enough just to create a variable of type float to deal
compiler to ensure more than this amount of storage is with these numbers.
available. An 8-bit value has become known as a byte. The biggest problems when dealing with floating point
Although the number of bits in a byte used to vary, it has numbers, and why programmers try to stick to integers, are
settled on 8, because this is typically used to store a single introduced by rounding a value up or down from a more
character. A bytes worth of data is still used to store precise number, such as when rounding the value of pi to 3.
characters to this day, which you can view through ASCII While small rounding errors arent likely to cause problems,
codes with any reasonable binary editor. they do when many of these are combined. This problem, and
But computer hardware has moved on, through the its dire consequences, was brilliantly illustrated by Richard
16/32-bit era of the Atari ST and Amiga, to the pure 32-bit Pryors character in Superman III when he siphoned off the
PCs of the last decade and to today, where most machines rounding errors in employees payslips into his own account,
have a processor capable of handling 64-bit instructions. For and amassed a large fortune. Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 49

 WorldMags.net
Using loops and
using loops
If we have explained how to use loops adequately, move to the next page.
Otherwise, try reading this again.

A
fter losing ourselves in the surprisingly complex problem by adding a loop in your code. In many ways, theyre
domain of using numbers in our code, were returning related to the idea of recursion. But where a loop or function
to a simpler concept. Its the idea of a loop, and how in recursion calls another instance of itself, usually to build a
programmers use them to solve problems. A loop, in the more complex solution, a loop on its own is used mostly to
programming sense, is a chunk of the same code thats solve a simple calculation, or for waiting for a specific
designed by the programmer to be run over and over again. condition. Which is why, perhaps, the most common loop
Its different from a function or a method, because while combines a conditional statement within a loops structure
theyre both designed to be re-run over and over again too, and thats the for keyword. The for loop is one of those
theyre self-contained islands of logic. peculiar parts of any language, because it requires a specific
With a method or a function, the programmer needs to syntax that doesnt feel that logical. In the case of Python, a
know only what input is needed and what output to expect. typical for loop looks like the following:
Everything else should be handled by the function. A loop is a >>> for i in range (5):
much more primitive construction, and without loops almost ... print (i)
any programming task would become impossibly tedious. ...
This is because they encapsulate what computers do well: 0
repetition and iteration. Without loops, programmers are 1
forced to write everything in longhand, and write code that 2
cant accommodate unknown values or sizes. Its the 3
difference between sowing a field by hand or by using Jethro 4
Tulls horse-drawn You can see in this snippet
seed drill. that the initial for statement
If you want to
Loops are so
integral to code,
Without loops, almost any requires a variable, which for
some reason is nearly always
build your own
C++ application, weve already programming task would called i in examples. Ours is
used several of no exception. This is followed
add the source
code to a text file them in our become impossibly tedious in Python by the phrase in
and build it with examples in range (5). Range is a special
the command previous tutorials in this bookazine. Theyre used as counters, keyword in Python that well revisit in a couple of paragraphs.
g++ helloworld. as ways to step through data, for when you need to wait for a On the following line, we print the value of i. This line needs to
cpp -o helloworld. condition, and for filling arrays and files. But weve not spent be tabbed or spaced in because its going to be executed as
Just run ./
any time discussing the various kinds of loops you can part of the for loop (as denoted by the :).
helloworld to see
implement, or how you might attempt to solve a linear But without prior experience, you cant really guess at the
the results.
output from the syntax of the for loop, and its the same with
other languages. This is because for is slightly different from
most loops, because it includes the implicit definition of a
variable. You just have to accept that whatever syntax they do
use does the equivalent of defining a variable and creating an
acceptable set of circumstances for the execution of your
program to leave the loop. In our previous example, the
variable i iterates between 0 and 4, leaving the loop when it
gets to 5 (a total of five steps when you include zero). We print
the value of i within the loop so you can see whats
happening. If you write the same thing in C or C++, the syntax
looks slightly different, but it gives you a better insight into
whats happening:
for ( int i=0 ; i < 5 ; i++ ){
cout << i << endl;
}
When compiled, linked and run (this is the big difference

50 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
between compiled languages such as C/C++ and interpreted
languages such as Python and JavaScript), the output is
identical to our Python example from earlier. In the C++ code,
the variable i is declared as an integer (int) and incremented
(i++) one value at a time for as long as it remains less than 5
(<5). This is exactly what the Python loop is doing, and the
cout line is simply printing out the value of i during each
iteration. You should be able to see from this that both the
value of i and the value checked for by the condition can be
changed, so you could get the value of i to count down
instead by changing the loop to:
for ( int i=5 ; i > 0 ; i--){
cout << i << endl;
}
To do the same in Python, we need to take a closer
look at the range keyword used in the first example. Range
is a function in Python that takes a start point, a stop point
and a step size, much the same as the inputs for a C++ for
loop. Its also much more versatile, as you dont need to
restrict yourself to numbers range can use indices of Python is still
a sequence. If you put on one value in the range, as we a great language
did in the original loop, the function counts from zero up to to learn with
the value -1. However, anything else will create a different char c; because it lets
effect. The advantage of farming it out to a function is that do { you experiment
youre no longer restricted to using it in just the for loop, and cin >> c; and see results
youll find many programmers use range for convenience } while (c != x); as soon as youve
throughout their code. If you wanted to count down in Python, This example is oversimplified, and isnt useful in itself, but typed your code.
for example, you could modify the for loop, as follows: it illustrates one example where do...while works well, and
for i in range(5, 0, -1): thats taking input. If you want to check the state of some
print (i) input, whether its from a file or from someone typing on the
keyboard, you need to have first grabbed the input. You could
Infinite loop do this in a normal while loop by asking for the input before
If you dont need the iteration of a for loop, the best you enter the loop, but its slightly more efficient and elegant
alternative is a while loop. This includes only the conditional if you use a do...while loop to encapsulate the entire function.
check, and youre free to make that check positive in any way This is all the above loop is doing in C++. It grabs some input
you choose. You could easily emulate the behaviour of a for from the keyboard using cin, and waits for that input to
loop, for example, by making the while loop wait for a variable consist only of the x character, after which it quits the loop.
to reach a certain value. Then, within your block of code, Another common use for while is to create whats known as
make sure your calculations attain that value at some point. an infinite loop simply a loop that never satisfies its exit
In Python, we could recreate the previous for loop using condition. This might sound like insanity if you ever want the
Quick
while, like this: processor to skip over the remainder of your code, but there
tip
>>> i = 5 are certain times, and languages, where the use of an infinite Nearly all languages
>>> while i > 0: loop is the best way of building your application. One example count zero as a
... i -= 1 is if you want to build a tool to monitor the state of a server or value, such as the
first position in an
... print (i) some other service. array. This seems
... You also find infinite loops watching hardware inputs or illogical at first,
4 controlling the rendering within a game engine. Using an because were used
3 infinite loop means you can be sure your application is to thinking of zero
as nothing, but its
2 running, and hasnt exited under some other condition, and
just something you
1 using while is probably the easiest way of creating one. while have to get used to.
0 (true) {} is all thats needed. However, many languages also
Its simpler this way, and by using while you can make the provide an escape from loops like this, and thats using
conditional checks for leaving a loop as complex as you need, something called the break command. break can be used to
rather than adhering to those required by for. Another trick in escape from an infinite loop, as well as leaving other kinds of
other languages, but not Python, is to place the conditional loops early if you need to. You might want to escape from a
checking at the end of the block of code. This is normally for loop quickly, for example if you have detected that the
called a do...while loop, because the do is used to start the user wants to quit the application. Using break, the execution
section and the while is used to close the section. of your code continues after the loop section, and youd
Most importantly, the while statement at the end of the normally use this section of code to tidy up files, processes
loop is checking the condition, such as do the washing up and memory before an exit. Of course, theres a good case for
while there are still some dirty plates. This can be helpful in arguing against infinite loops, and building into your code the
certain circumstances, such as when you want the loop to ability to escape on a specific condition, but this can take
take some input and then only test against that input at the more effort and might not be as efficient, especially for
end of the test. In C++, this function would look like this: smaller applications. Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 51

 WorldMags.net
The magic of
compilers
A compiler turns human-readable code into machine code, but theres a
difference between compiled and interpreted languages.

C
omputers arent actually very smart. Sure, they can do a compiler, and its one of the most important components of
a million things in the space of a second, and help us an operating system.
to transmit videos of cats around the internet, but Compilers exist for many different programming
they dont understand human languages. Ultimately, languages, but here were going to focus on C, because its
everything in a computer boils down to binary ones and the language used for many important projects, such as the
zeros because thats all that a CPU understands. For us Linux kernel. By far the most common compiler on Linux is
programmers, this makes things a bit complicated. We cant GCC, from the GNU project, and that is what we are going to
directly tell the CPU in English that we want to print a use here.
message on the screen, wait for a key to be pressed and so
forth; we have to somehow tell the machine this information Dissecting a program
in binary. But then, imagine if your programs looked like this: First up, consider this simple C program:
10010010 11100011 #include <stdio.h>
01011011 10001101 int main()
... {
That would be a nightmare, wouldnt it? Finding mistakes puts(Hello, world!);
would be nigh-on impossible, and if you gave your code to }
someone else for modification Well, the entire concept of This simply prints the message Hello world! to the
free/open source software falls apart. So, to fix this problem, screen. If youve never seen C before, you might be a bit
we use compiled puzzled by some of
and interpreted the text, so heres a
languages (more In a compiled language, source brief explanation:
on the latter
later). In a
code is processed, pulled apart the #include line
says that we want to
Try to read
a binary
compiled and converted into binary code use standard input
executable file in language, human- and output routines
a text editor, and readable source (stdio). Then main
youll just see code is processed, pulled apart, jumbled up and eventually says that this is the main part of our program (that is, where
a load of messed- converted into binary code that the CPU can understand. The execution should begin), and the puts command means put
up characters program that does this is called naturally enough a string.
like this. Enter this text into a file called foo.c and then run the
following commands:
gcc foo.c
./a.out
The first command uses GCC to compile foo.c from the
source code into a binary executable file called a.out, and the
second line runs it. You can get more information about the
resulting file by running file a.out youll see output similar
to the following:
a.out: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1
(SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/
Linux 2.6.15, not stripped
If you try to examine the file yourself, using less a.out for
instance, then youll just see gobbledygook, as in the
screenshot shown on the left. This is because we mere
mortals cant read binary, and so less is trying to convert it
into plain text characters.
This final, resulting file isnt intended for human
consumption, but we can peek into some of the stages in the
compilation process. First of all, enter this command:

52 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 gcc -E foo.c > foo.p
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With the -E switch, we tell GCC that we dont want a binary
executable file just yet; instead, we want only to see what
happens after the first stage of processing. Open foo.p in a
text editor and youll see that its much longer than the
original program, because the contents of the stdio.h file
have been included in it. Its only right at the bottom that you
can see the main function and our puts instruction.
In larger, more complicated programs, the compiler does
much more work in this pre-processor stage. It expands
macros, handles #define statements and places additional
information into the file for debugging purposes. This file is
then complete, with all the information that GCC needs to
start converting it into machine code.

Assembly
But wait! Theres an intermediate step between the C code
and binary, and its called assembly language. Assembly is a
human-readable way of representing the instructions that the
CPU executes. Its much lower-level than typical languages On the left, the output from gcc -S, and on the right a disassembled binary.
such as C and Python, where you can simply say print a Weve highlighted the areas showing identical instructions.
string for me. In assembly, you have to move memory around
into the video buffer for instance, telling the CPU exactly a compiler are deep and complex, and many would argue
which instructions it should execute. So, now enter this: that writing a fully-featured compiler for a complicated
gcc -S foo.c language such as C++ is an even harder job than writing an
This produces a file called foo.s that contains the operating system. Think of all the work a compiler has to do
assembly language version of our program. In other words, in terms of managing variables, parsing complicated
its a list of CPU instructions written in a slightly more instructions, passing control around to different functions,
readable form. Most of it will look like complete gibberish if and so on.
you have never touched assembly before, but these are the Dont think for a second that weve completely covered
two most important lines: the compiler here. Shelves full of whopping great books have
movl $.LC0, (%esp) been written about the science of compilers its not a
call puts subject for the faint-hearted! But now you know the
Essentially, this places the location of our Hello world! fundamentals, and you will certainly look at your code in a
text string into a register (a little like a variable), and then calls different way from this point on. Q
the puts (put string) function from the C library. These two
lines are exact CPU instructions as programmers, there is
no way that we can break them down into smaller pieces.
Given that modern CPUs execute billions of instructions per
What are interpreted languages?
second, it can be quite humbling to see single instructions laid There are two main types of quicker. Similarly, the compiler can spot
bare like this. programming language: compiled and errors that might come up and warn the
In the normal process of compilation (that is, without the interpreted. As weve seen in the former, programmer about them.
-E or -S switches), GCC now runs an assembler to convert a program called a compiler takes an An interpreter, on the other hand, is a
entire source code file and converts it much simpler program that simply
those human-readable instructions into their binary
into CPU binary instructions in one fell steps through the program line-by-line.
equivalents. It then adds extra information to the resulting file
swoop. In contrast, an interpreter reads It doesnt know whats coming up, and
(a.out) to make it a valid Linux executable, and we have a
individual lines from a source code file just dutifully executes things as and
program thats ready to run. and acts on them one at a time, when it sees them. This offers some
essentially interpreting each instruction advantages, in that you dont have to
Jump back! at run time. For instance, take this wait for a compilation process to finish
We can take the a.out file and go one step backwards in the BASIC program: before testing your work; and many
process, to the assembly language stage, using the objdump 10 LET A = 1 interpreters allow you to pause them
command, like so: 20 PRINT Hello world and make changes in the middle
objdump -d a.out > list 30 LET A = A + 1 of execution.
40 IF A < 6 THEN GOTO 20 Ultimately, most programmers prefer
Have a look at the list file now its a disassembly of the
50 END compiled languages over interpreted
binary file, and therefore full of assembly language
Its pretty clear what this does it ones because of the performance
instructions. Most of them are unrelated to our program, and benefits. Having your whole work
prints a message five times on the
are used to tell the Linux program loader some useful things screen. Now, how would a compiler look condensed down into CPU-readable
and set up the environment. But tucked away in there, youll at it? Because a compiler processes the binary makes for better performance
find these lines: source code file as a whole, it sees the than a background program parsing
movl $0x8048490,(%esp) bigger picture, knowing in advance that each line step by step during execution.
call 80482f0 <puts@plt> the loop is going to be executed five Interpreted languages can, however,
Those are the exact same instructions as the ones we saw times. Consequently, the compiler can be useful where speed isnt crucially
a moment ago, expressed in a slightly different way. So, thats make various optimisations, such as important, for example the Bash
replacing the whole bunch with five scripting language. Precision and
the process of how human-readable source code is converted
PRINT lines if that makes execution individual execution rule here.
into CPU-understandable instructions. The inner workings of

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 53

 WorldMags.net
Avoiding common
coding mistakes
Bug reports are useful, but you dont really want to cause too many.
Heres what to avoid and how to avoid it.
t doesnt matter how much care you put into writing your becomes important as it starts to grow, and you seldom

I code. Even if youve had four cups of coffee and triple-

check every line you write, sooner or later you are going to
make a mistake. It might be as simple as a typo a missing
revisit these old bits of code.
Whenever you write a decent chunk of functionality, the
second thing you should do is add a few comments to
bracket or the wrong number, or it could be as complex as describe what it does and how it does it. Comments are
broken logic, memory problems or just inefficient code. Either simple text descriptions about what your code is doing,
way, the results will always be the same at some point, your usually including any inputs and expected output. Theyre not
program wont do what you wanted it to. This might mean it interpreted by the language or the compiler they dont
crashes and dumps the user back to the command line. But it affect how your code works, they are there purely to help
could also mean a subtle rounding error in your tax returns other developers and users understand what a piece of code
that prompts the Inland Revenue to send you a tax bill for does. But, more importantly, they are there to remind you of
millions of pounds, forcing you to sell your home and declare what your own code does.
yourself bankrupt. This might sound strange, but no matter how clear your
insight might have been when you wrote it, give it a few days,
Finding the problems weeks or months, and it may as well have been written by
How quickly your mistakes are detected and rectified is someone else for all the sense it now makes. And as a
dependent on how complex the problem is, and your skills in programmer, one of the most frustrating things you have to
the delicate art of troubleshooting. For instance, even though do is solve a difficult problem twice once when you create
our examples of code from previous tutorials stretch to no the code, and again when you want to modify it but dont
more than 10 lines, youve probably needed to debug them as understand how it works. A line or two of simple description
youve transferred them from these pages to the Python can save you days of trying to work out what a function
interpreter. When your applications grow more complex than calculates and how it works, or may even obviate the need for
just a few lines or functions, you can spend more time you to understand anything about what a piece of code does,
hunting down problems than you do coding. Which is why as you need to know only the inputs and outputs.
before you worry about debugging, you should follow a few
simple rules while writing your code. The importance of documentation
The first is that, while you cant always plan what youre This is exactly how external libraries and APIs work. When you
going to write or how youre going to solve a specific problem, install Qt, for instance, youre not expected to understand
you should always go back and clean up whatever code you how a specific function works. You need only to study the
The IDLE end up with. This is because its likely youll have used now- documentation of the interface and how to use it within the
Python IDE has a redundant variables and bolted on functionality into illogical context of your own code. Everything a programmer needs to
debug mode that places. Going back and cleaning up these areas makes the know should be included in the documentation. If you want to
can show how code easier to maintain and easier to understand. And use Qts excellent sorting algorithms, for example, you dont
your variables making your project as easy to understand as possible have to know how it manages to be so efficient, you need to
change over time.
know only what to send to the function and how to get the
results back.
You should model your own comments on the same idea,
both because it makes documentation easier, and because
self-contained code functionality is easier to test and forget
about. But we dont mean you need to write a book. Keep
your words as brief as they need to be sometimes that
might mean a single line. How you add comments to code is
dependent on the language youre using. In Python, for
example, comments are usually demarcated by the # symbol
in the first column of a line. Everything that comes after this
symbol will be ignored by the interpreter, and if youre using
an editor with syntax highlighting, the comment will also be
coloured differently to make it more obvious. The more detail

54 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
you put into a comment the better, but dont write a book.
Adding comments to code can be tedious when you just want
to get on with programming, so make them as brief as you
can without stopping your flow. If necessary, you can go back
and flesh out your thoughts when you dont feel like writing
code (usually the day before a public release). When you start
to code, youll introduce many errors without realising it. To
begin with, for example, you wont know what is and isnt a
keyword a word used by your chosen language to do
something important. Each language is different, but Pythons
list of keywords is quite manageable, and includes common
language words such as and, if, else, import, class and
break, as well as less obvious words such as yield, lambda,
raise and assert. This is why its often a good idea to create
your own variable names out of composite parts, rather than
go with real words. If youre using an IDE, theres a good
chance that its syntax highlighting will stop you from using a good at catching these problems. Another type of problem You have to be
protected keyword. Python is good at avoiding is inaccurate indenting. This is careful in Python
that the colons
where conditions and functions use code hierarchy to split
and indentation
Undeclared values the code into parts. Python enforces this by breaking
are in the correct
A related problem that doesnt affect Python is using execution if you get it wrong, but other languages try to make place, or your
undeclared values. This happens in C or C++, for instance, if sense of code hierarchy, and sometimes a misplaced bracket script wont run.
you use a variable without first saying what type its going to is all thats needed to create unpredictable results. However, But this does
be, such as int x to declare x an integer. Its only after doing this can make Python trickier to learn. Initially, if you dont stop a lot of
this you can use the variable in your own code. This is the big know about its strict tabbed requirements, or that it needs a runtime errors.
difference between compiled languages and interpreted ones. colon at the end of compound statement headers, the errors
However, in both languages, you cant assume a default value created dont make sense. You also need to be careful about
for an uninitialised variable. Typing print (x) in Python, for case sensitivity, especially with keywords and your own
instance, will result in an error, but not if you precede the line variable names.
with x = 1. This is because the interpreter knows the type of a When youve got something that works, you need to test it
variable only after youve assigned it a value. C/C+ can be not just with the kind of values your application might
even more random, not necessarily generating an error, but expect, but with anything that can be input. Your code should
the value held in an uninitialised variable is unpredictable until fail gracefully, rather than randomly. And when youve got
youve assigned it a value. something ready to release, give it to other people to test.
Typos are also common, especially in conditional Theyll have a different approach, and will be happier to break
statements, where they can go undetected because they are your code in ways you couldnt imagine. Only then will your
syntactically correct. Watch out for using a single equals sign code be ready for the wild frontier of the internet, and youd
to check for equality, for example although Python is pretty better wear your flameproof jacket for that release. Q

Comment syntax
Different languages mark comments differently, and there seems to be of code on the same line, and theyre initiated by using a couple of
little consensus on what a comment should look like. However, there are characters before the comment. Block comments are used to wrap pieces
a couple of rules. Most languages offer both inline and block comments, of text (or code you dont want interpreted/compiled), and usually have
for example. Inline are usually for a single line, or a comment after a piece different start and end characters.

# A hash is used for comments in many scripting languages. When # is followed by a ! it becomes a shebang # and is used to
Bash tell the system which interpreter to use, for example: #!/usr/bin/bash

BASIC REM For many of us, this is the first comment syntax we learn

C /* This kind of comment in C can be used to make a block of text span many lines */

C++ // Whereas this kind of comment is used after the // code or for just a single line

<!-- Though not a programming language, weve included this because youre likely to have already seen the syntax, and
HTML therefore comments, in action -->

Java /** Similar to C, because it can span lines, but with an extra * at the beginning */
= heading Overview
As well as the hash, in Perl you can also use something called Plain Old Documentation. It has a specific format, but it does
Perl force you to explain your code more thoroughly
=cut
As well as the hash, Python users can denote blocks of comments using a source code literal called a docstring, which is
Python a convoluted way of saying enclose your text in blocks of triple quotes, like this

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WorldMags.net

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WorldMags.net

Further coding
Now youve got the basics down,
its time to advance your skills
Data types ......................................................................................... 58
More data types ............................................................... 60
Abstraction ..................................................................................... 62
Using files ........................................................................................... 64
UNIX programs part 1 ....................................... 66
UNIX programs part 2 ...................................... 68
UNIX programs part 3 ....................................... 70
Modules 74
.....................................................................................................

Persistence ...................................................................................... 76
Databases ........................................................................................... 78

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 WorldMags.net
Different types of
Python data
Functions tell programs how to work, but its data that they operate
on. Lets go through the basics of data in Python.
n this article, well be covering the basic data types in string, in that they are a sequence. What makes them

I Python and the concepts that accompany them. In later

articles, well look at a few more advanced topics that
build on what we do here: data abstraction, fancy structures
different is that the elements that make up a list can be of any
type. In this example, the elements are all strings, but you
could create another list that mixes different types, such as
such as trees, and more. [Bananas, 10, a]. Lists are identified by the square brackets
that enclose them, and each item or element within them is
What is data? separated by a comma.
In the world, and in the programs that well write, theres an
amazing variety of different types of data. In a mortgage Working with data
calculator, for example, the value of the mortgage, the interest There are lots of things you can do with the different types of
rate and the term of the loan are all types of data; in a data in Python. For instance, you can add, subtract, divide and
shopping list program, there are all the different types of food multiply two numbers and Python will return the result:
and the list that stores them each of which has its own kind >>> 23 + 42
of data. 65
The computers world is a lot more limited. It doesnt know >>> 22 / 11
the difference between all these data types, but that doesnt 2
stop it from working with them. The computer has a few basic If you combine different types of numbers, such as an int
ones it can work with, and that you have to use creatively to and a float, the value returned by Python will be of whatever
represent all the variety in the world. type retains the most detail that is to say, if you add an int
Well begin by highlighting three data types: first, we have and a float, the returned value will be a float.
While were numbers. 10, 3 and 2580 are all examples of these. In You can test this by using the type() function. It returns
looking only at particular, these are ints, or integers. Python knows about the type of whatever argument you pass to it.
basic data types, other types of numbers, too, including longs (long integers), >>> type(8)
in real programs floats (such as 10.35 or 0.8413) and complex (complex <type int>
getting the numbers). There are also strings, such as Hello World, >>> type(23.01)
wrong type can Banana and Pizza. These are identified as a sequence of <type float>
cause problems,
characters enclosed within quotation marks. You can use >>> type(8 + 23.01)
in which case
either double or single quotes. Finally, there are lists, such as <type float>
youll see
a TypeError. [Bananas, Oranges, Fish]. In some ways, these are like a You can also use the same operations on strings and lists,
but they have different effects. The + operator concatenates,
that is combines together, two strings or two lists, while the *
operator repeats the contents of the string or list.
>>> Hello + World
Hello World
>>> [Apples] * 2
[Apples, Apples]
Strings and lists also have their own special set of
operations, including slices. These enable you to select a
particular part of the sequence by its numerical index, which
begins from 0.
>>> word = Hello
>>> word[0]
H
>>> word[3]
l
>>> list = [banana, cake, tiffin]
>>> list[2]
tiffin
Indexes work in reverse, too. If you want to reference the last

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 WorldMags.net
element of a list or the last character in a string, you can use
the same notation with a -1 as the index. -2 will reference the
second-to-last character, -3 the third, and so on. Note that
when working backwards, the indexes dont start at 0.

Methods
Lists and strings also have a range of other special
operations, each unique to that particular type. These are
known as methods. Theyre similar to functions such as
type() in that they perform a procedure. What makes them
different is that theyre associated with a particular piece of
data, and hence have a different syntax for execution.
For example, among the list types methods are append
and insert.
>>> list.append(chicken)
>>> list
[banana, cake, tiffin, chicken]
>>> list.insert(1, pasta)
>>> list
[banana, pasta, cake, tiffin, chicken]
As you can see, a method is invoked by placing a period
between the piece of data that youre applying the method to
and the name of the method. Then you pass any arguments identified by round brackets, as opposed to square brackets: The Python
interpreter is a
between round brackets, just as you would with a normal (bananas, tiffin, cereal). Dictionaries are similar to a list or
great place to
function. It works the same with strings and any other data a tuple in that they contain a collection of related items. They
experiment with
object, too: differ in that the elements arent indexed by numbers, but by Python code and
>>> word = HELLO keys and are created with curly brackets: {}. Its quite like an see how different
>>> word.lower() English language dictionary. The key is the word that youre data types work
hello looking up, and the value is the definition of the word. together.
There are lots of different methods that can be applied to With Python dictionaries, however, you can use any
lists and strings, and to tuples and dictionaries (which were immutable data type as the key (strings are immutable, too),
about to look at). To see the order of the arguments and the so long as its unique within that dictionary. If you try to use
full range of methods available, youll need to consult the an already existing key, its previous association is forgotten
Python documentation. completely and that data lost for ever.
>>> english = {free: as in beer, linux: operating system}
Variables >>> english[free]
In the previous examples, we used the idea of variables to as in beer
make it easier to work with our data. Variables are a way to >>> english[free] = as in liberty
name different values different pieces of data. They make it >>> english[free]
easy to manage all the bits of data youre working with, and as in liberty
greatly reduce the complexity of development (when you use
sensible names). Looping sequences
As we saw above, in Python you create a new variable with One common operation that you may want to perform on any
an assignment statement. First comes the name of the of the sequence types is looping over their contents to apply
variable, then a single equals sign, followed by the piece of an operation to every element contained within. Consider this
data that you want to assign to that variable. small Python program:
From that point on, whenever you use the name assigned list = [banana, tiffin, burrito]
to the variable, you are referring to the data that you assigned for item in list:
to it. In the examples, we saw this in action when we print item
referenced the second character in a string or the third First, we created the list as we would normally, then we
element in a list by appending index notation to the variable used the for in construct to perform the print function
name. You can also see this in action if you apply the type() on each item in the list. The second word in that construct
function to a variable name: doesnt have to be item, thats just a variable name that
>>> type(word) gets assigned temporarily to each element contained within
<type str> the sequence specified at the end. We could just as well
>>> type(list) have written for letter in word and it would have worked
<type list> just as well.
Thats all we have time to cover in this article, but with the
Other data types basic data types covered, well be ready to look at how you
There are two other common types of data that are used by can put this knowledge to use when modelling real-world
Python: tuples and dictionaries. problems in later articles.
Tuples are very similar to lists theyre a sequence data In the meantime, read the Python documentation to
type, and they can contain elements of mixed types. The big become familiar with some of the other methods that it
difference is that tuples are immutable that is to say, once provides for the data types weve looked at before. Youll find
you create a tuple you cannot change it and that tuples are lots of useful tools, such as sort and reverse! Q

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 WorldMags.net
More Python
data types
Learn how different types of data come together to solve a real
problem as we write some code that counts words.
n the previous tutorial, we introduced Pythons most tm = open(timemachine.txt, r)

I common data types: numbers (ints and floats), strings,

lists, tuples and dictionaries. We demonstrated how they
work with different operators, and explained a few of their
In this example, open() is passed two variables. The first is
the name of the file to open; if it were in a different directory
from the Python script, the entire path would have to be
most useful methods. We didnt, however, give much insight given. The second argument specifies which mode the file
into how they might be used in real situations. In this article, should be opened in: r stands for read, but you can also use
were going to fix that. w for write or rw for read-write.
Were going to write a program that counts the number of Notice weve also assigned the file to a variable, tm, so we
times each unique word occurs in a text file. Punctuation can refer to it later in the program.
marks will be excluded, and if the same word occurs but in With a reference to the file created, we also need a way to
different cases (for example, the and The), they will be taken access its contents. There are several ways to do this, but
to represent a single word. Finally, the program will print the today well be using a for in loop. To see how this works,
results to the screen. It should look like this: try opening timemachine.txt in the interactive interpreter
the: 123 and then typing:
you: 10 >>> for line in tm:
a: 600 print line
... ...
As an example, well be using The Time Machine, by HG The result should be every line of the file printed to the
Wells, which you can download from Project Gutenberg, screen. By putting this code in to a .py file, say cw.py, weve
saving it in the same folder as your Python file under the got the start of our Python program.
name timemachine.txt.
As the program description suggests, the first thing well Cleaning up
need to do is make the text accessible from inside our Python The program description also specified that we should
program. This is done with the open() function: exclude punctuation marks, consider the same word but in
different cases as one word, and that were counting
individual words, not lines. As it stands, we have been able to
read only entire lines as strings, however, with punctuation,
strange whitespace characters (such as \r\n) and different
cases intact.
Looking at the Python string documentation (http://
docs.python.org/library), we can see that there are four
methods that can help us convert line strings into a format
closer to that specified by the description: strip(),
translate(), lower() and split().
Each of these are methods, and as such theyre functions
that are applied to particular strings using the dot notation.
For example, strip(), which removes specified characters
from the beginning and end of a string, is used like this:
>>> line.strip()
Hardly When passed with no arguments, it removes all
surprisingly, whitespace characters, which is one of the jobs we needed to
our counting get done.
program, after The function translate() is a method that can be used for
being sorted, removing a set of characters, such as all punctuation marks,
finds the to from a string. To use it in this capacity, it needs to be passed
be the most two arguments, the first being None and the second being
common word the list of characters to be deleted.
in The Time
>>> line.translate(None, !#$%&\()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\\]^_`{|}~)
Machine, by
lower() speaks for itself, really it converts every character in
HG Wells.

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a string to lower-case. split() splits distinct elements inside a
string in to separate strings, returning them as a list.
By passing an argument to split(), its possible to specify
which character identifies the end of one element and the
start of another.
>>> line.split( )
In this example, weve passed a single space as the
character to split the string around. With all punctuation
removed, this will create a list, with each word in the string
stored as a separate element.
Put all of this in the Python file we started working on
earlier, inside the for loop, and weve made considerable
progress. It should now look like this:
tm = open(timemachine.txt, r)
for line in tm:
line = line.strip() dict[word] = count Pythons
Standard Library
line = line.translate(None, !#$%&\()*+,-./:;<=>?@ else:
reference,
[\\]^_`{|}~) dict[word] = 1
http://docs.
line = line.lower() This is a little bit confusing because dict[word] is being python.org/
list = line.split( ) used in two different ways. In the second line, it returns the library, is an
Because all of the string methods return a new, modified value and assigns it to the variable count, while in the fourth invaluable source
string, rather than operating on the existing string, weve and seventh lines, count and 1 are assigned to that keys for discovering
re-assigned the line variable in each line to store the work of value, respectively. what methods
the previous step. Notice, too, that if a word is already in the dictionary, we are available and
increment the count by 1, representing another occurrence. how to use them.
Uniqueness
Phew, look at all that work weve just done with data! By using Putting it together
the string methods, weve been able to remove all the bits of Another data type wrestled with, another step closer to our
data that we werent interested in. Weve also split one large goal. At this point, all thats left to do is insert some code to
string, representing a line, into smaller chunks by converting print the dictionary and put it all together and run the
it to a list, and in the process got to the exact, abstract program. The print section should look like this and be at the
concept were most interested in: words. very end of the file, outside of the line-looping code.
Our stunning progress aside, there is still some work to be for word,count in dict.iteritems():
done. We now need a way to identify which words are unique print word + : + str(count)
and not just in this line, but in every line contained within This for loop looks different to what youve seen before.
the entire file. By using the iteritems method of the dictionary, we can
The first thing that should pop into your head when access both the key (word) and value (count) in a single loop.
thinking about uniqueness is of a dictionary, the key-value Whats more, weve had to use the str() function to convert
store we saw in the previous article. It doesnt allow duplicate count, an integer, into a string, as the + operator cant
keys, so by entering each word as a key within a dictionary, concatenate an integer and a string.
were guaranteed there wont be any duplicates. Try running it, and you should see your terminal screen
Whats more, we can use the value to store the number of filled with lines like:
times each word has occurred, incrementing it as the ...
program comes across new instances of each key. other: 20
Start by creating the dictionary, and ensuring that it sick: 2
persists for the entire file not just a single line by placing ventilating: 2
this line before the start of the for loop: ...
dict = {}
This creates an empty dictionary, which is ready to receive Data everywhere!
our words. Thats all we planned to achieve in this particular tutorial and
Next, we need to think about a way to get each word into its actually turn out to be quite a lot. As well as having had a
the dictionary. As we saw last time, ordinarily a simple chance to see how several different types of data and their
assignment statement would be enough to add a new word methods can be applied to solve a real problem, we hope
to the dictionary. We could then iterate over the list we youve noticed how important it is to select the appropriate
created above (using another for loop), adding each entry to type for representing different abstract concepts.
the dictionary with a value of 1 (to represent that it has For example, we started off with a single string
occurred once in the file). representing an entire line, and we eventually split this into
for word in list: a list of individual strings representing single words. This
dict[word] = 1 made sense until we wanted to consider unique instances, at
But remember, if the key already exists, the old value is which point we put everything in to a dictionary.
overwritten and the count will be reset. To get around this, we As a further programming exercise, why not look into
can place an if-else clause inside the loop: sorting the resulting dictionary in order to see which words
if word in dict: occur most frequently? You might also want to consider
count = dict[word] writing the result to a file, one entry on a line, to save the fruits
count += 1 of your labour.Q

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Reliability by
abstraction
Think your code is solid? Perhaps its a bit too lumpy. Creating
abstractions can make code much easier to maintain.

I
n the previous few tutorials, we have been looking at data. press this button once much easier. This second approach
First, we introduced some of Pythons core data types, is whats known as an abstraction. When working on
and then we demonstrated how they can be put to use problems, such as those involving Pythagoras theorem, we
when solving a real problem. The next data-related topic we dont care about how to calculate the square root, only that
want to consider is abstraction, but before we get on to that, we can do it and get the correct result. We can treat the
were first going to look at abstraction in general and as it square root button on our calculator as a black box we
applies to procedures. So, this time well take a brief hiatus never look inside it, we dont know how it does what it does,
from data, before returning to it in a later article. all that matters is that we know how to use it and that it gives
the correct result.
Square roots This a very powerful technique, which can make
To get our heads around the concept of abstraction, lets start programming a lot easier, because it helps us to manage
by thinking about square roots and different techniques for complexity. To demonstrate how abstraction can help us,
finding them. One of these was discovered by Newton, and is consider the Python code below for finding the longest side of
thus known as Newtons method. a right-angled triangle:
It says that when trying to find the square root of a import math
number (x), we should start with a guess (y) of its square def pythag(a, b):
root; we can then improve upon that result by averaging our a2b2 = (a * a) + (b * b)
guess (y) with the result of dividing the number (x) by our guess = 1.0
guess (y). As we repeat this procedure, we get closer and while (math.fabs((guess * guess) - a2b2) > 0.01):
closer to the square root. In most attempts, well never reach guess = (((a2b2 / guess) + guess) / 2)
a definite result, well only make our guess more and more return guess
accurate. Eventually, well reach a level of accuracy that is The first thing to note is that its not in the least bit
good enough for our needs and then give up. Just to be clear readable. Sure, with a piece of code this short, you can read
about what is involved, take a look at the table below for how through it reasonably quickly and figure out whats going on,
you would apply this method to find the square root of 2 (for but at a glance its not obvious, and if it were longer and
example, x). written like this, youd have a terrible time figuring out what
Its a lot of work just to on earth it was doing. Whats
find the square root of
a number. Imagine if when This is a very powerful more, it would be very
difficult to test the different
you were in school, every
time you had to find a square
technique that makes parts of this code as you go
along (aka incremental
root you had to do all these programming easier development, vital for
steps manually. Solving building robust software).
problems involving Pythagoras theorem, for instance, would For instance, how would you break out the code for testing
be much more unwieldy. whether or not a guess is close enough to the actual result
Luckily, assuming you were allowed to use calculators (and can you even identify it?), or the code for improving a
when you were at school, theres another, much easier guess, to check that it works? What if this function didnt
method to find square roots. Calculators come with a button return the expected results how would you start testing all
marked with the square root symbol, and all you have to do is the parts to find where the error was?
Finally, theres useful code in here that could be reused in
other functions, such as that for squaring a number, for
Find a square root taking an average of two numbers, and even for finding the
square root of a number, but none of it is reusable because of
the way its written. You could type it all out again, or copy and
Guess (y) Division (x/y) Average (((x/y) + y)/2) paste it, but the more typing you have to do, the more
1 2/1 = 2 (2 + 1)/2 = 1.5 obscure code you have to copy and paste, and the more likely
mistakes are to make it in to your programming.
1.5 2/1.5 = 1.33 (1.33 + 1.5)/2 = 1.4167 Lets try writing that code again, this time coming up with
1.4167 2/1.4167 = 1.4118 (1.4118 + 1.4167)/2 = 1.4142 some abstractions to fix the problems listed above. We
havent listed the contents of each new function weve

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created, leaving them for you to fill in.
import math:
def square(x):
...
def closeEnough(x, guess):
...
def improveGuess(x, guess):
...
def sqrt(x, guess):
...
def pythag(a, b):
a2b2 = square(a) + square(b)
return sqrt(a2b2)
Here, weve split the code in to several smaller functions,
each of which fulfils a particular role. This has many benefits.
For starters, how much easier is the pythag() function to
read? In the first line, you can see clearly that a2b2 is the
result of squaring two numbers, and everything below that
has been consolidated in to a single function call, the purpose
of which is also obvious.
Whats more, because each part of the code has been split
into a different function, we can easily test it. For example,
testing whether improveGuess() was doing the right thing
would be very easy come up with a few values for x and
guess, do the improvement by hand, and then compare your
results with those returned by the function. Our final code
If pythag() itself was found not to return the correct advantage of scope. closeEnough() and improveGuess() are for finding the
result, we could quickly test all these auxiliary functions to particular to the sqrt() function that is to say, other longest side of
narrow down where the bug was. functions are unlikely to rely on their services. To help keep a triangle is
And, of course, we can easily reuse any of these new our code clean, and make the relationship between these longer than
functions. If you were finding the square root of a number in functions and sqrt() clear, we can place their definitions what we had to
a different function, for instance, you could just call the sqrt() inside the definition of sqrt(): start, but its
more readable,
function six characters instead of four lines means theres def sqrt(x, guess):
more robust, and
far less opportunity to make mistakes. def closeEnough(x, guess):
generally better.
One final point: because our sqrt code is now abstracted, ...
we could change the implementation completely, but so long def improveGuess(x, guess):
...

This code can be ...

These functions are now visible only to code within the
improved by taking sqrt() definition we say theyre in the scope of sqrt().
Anything outside of it has no idea that they even exist. This
advantage of scope way, if we later need to define similar functions for improving
a guess in a different context, we wont face the issue of
as we kept the function call and arguments the same, all code colliding names or the headache of figuring out what
that relies on it would continue to work properly. improveGuess1() and improveGuess2() do.
This means that if you come across a much more efficient
way of calculating square roots, youre not stuck with working Layers of abstraction
through thousands of lines of code, manually changing every Hopefully, this example has demonstrated how powerful a
section that finds a square root; you do it once, and its done technique abstraction is. Bear in mind that there are many
everywhere. This code can be improved still further by taking layers of abstraction present in everything you do on a
computer that you never think of.
For instance, when youre programming do you know how
Java Python represents integers in the computers memory? Or
how the CPU performs arithmetic operations such as
Abstraction

addition and subtraction?

C The answer is probably no. You just accept the fact that
typing 2 + 3 in to the Python interpreter returns the correct
result, and you never have to worry about how it does this.
Assembler You treat it as a black box.
Think how much longer it would take you to program if you
Object code had to manually take care of what data went in which
memory location, to work with binary numbers, and translate
alphabetic characters in to their numeric representations
There are layers of abstraction underneath everything
thank goodness for abstraction!Q
you do on a PC you just dont often think of them.

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 WorldMags.net
Files and modules
done quickly
Its time to expand your library of functions and grab external data
with just two simple lines of Python.

F
or the majority of programming projects, you dont get complexity of how data input and output can be
far before facing the age-old problem of how to get accomplished is entirely down to your programming
data into and out of your application. Whether its using environment. Every language will include functions to load
punched cards to get patterns into a 19th century Jacquard and save data, for instance, but this can either be difficult or
textile loom, or Googles bots skimming websites for data to easy depending on how many assumptions the language is
feed its search engine, dealing with external input is as willing to make on your behalf. However, theres always a
fundamental as programming itself. logical sequence of events that need to occur.
And its a problem and a concept that you may be more You will first need to open a file, creating one if it doesnt
familiar with on the command line. When you type ls to list exist, and then either read data from this file, or write data to
the contents of the current it, before explicitly closing the
directory, for example, the file again so that other
command is reading in the If the filesystem knows processes can use it.
contents of a file, the current
directory, and then the file is being changed, Most languages require
you to specify a read mode
outputting the contents to
another, the terminal.
it wont allow access when you open a file,
because this tells the
When you Of course, the inputs and outputs arent files in the sense filesystem whether to expect file modifications or not. This is
read a file, most most people would recognise, but thats the way the Linux important because many different processes may also want
languages will filesystem has been designed nearly everything is a file. This to access the file, and if the filesystem knows the file is being
step through its helps when you want to save the output of a command, or changed, it wont usually allow access. However, many
data from the use that output as the input to another. processes can access a read-only file without worrying
beginning to the You may already know that typing ls >list.txt will redirect about the integrity of the data it holds, because nothing is
end in chunks the output from the command to a file called list.txt, but you able to change it. If you know about databases, its the same
you specify. In can take this much further because the output can be treated kind of problem you face with multiple users accessing the
this example,
exactly like a file. ls | sort -r will pipe (thats the vertical bar same table.
were reading a
character) the output of ls into the input of sort to create a In Python, as with most other languages, opening a file to
line at a time.
reversed alphabetical list of a folders contents. The write or as read-only can be done with a single line:
>>> f = open(list.txt, r)
If the file doesnt exist, Python will generate a No such file
or directory error. To avoid this, weve used the output from
our command line example to create a text file called list.txt.
This is within the folder from where we launched the
Python interpreter.

Environment variables
Dealing with paths, folders and file locations can quickly
become complicated, and its one of the more tedious issues
youll face with your own projects. Youll find that different
environments have different solutions for finding files, with
some creating keywords for common locations and others
leaving it to the programmer.
This isnt so bad when you only deal with files created by
your projects, but it becomes difficult when you need to know
where to store a configuration file or load a default icon.
These locations may be different depending on your Linux
distribution or desktop, but with a cross-platform language
such as Python, theyll also be different for each operating
system. For that reason, you might want to consider using
environment variables. These are similar to variables with a

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global scope in many programming languages, but they apply
to any one users Linux session rather than within your own
code. If you type env on the command line, for instance, youll
see a list of the environmental variables currently set for your
terminal session. Look closely, and youll see a few that apply
to default locations and, most importantly, one called HOME.
The value assigned to this environmental variable will be the
location of your home folder on your Linux system, and if we
want to use this within our Python script, we first need to add
a line to import the operating system-specific module. The
line to do this is:
import os
This command is also opening a file, but not in the same
way we opened list.txt. This file is known as a module in
Python terms, and modules like this import functionality,
including statements and definitions, so that a programmer
doesnt have to keep re-inventing the wheel.
Modules extend the simple constructs of a language to
add portable shortcuts and solutions, which is why other
languages might call them libraries. Libraries and modules
are a little like copying and pasting someones own research
and insight into your own project. Only its better than that,
because modules such as os are used by everyone, turning code to your project: Binary files
have no context
the way they do things into a standard. f = open(os.environ[HOME]+/list.txt,r)
without an
This line will open the file list.txt in your home folder.
associated file
Setting the standard Python knows which home folder is yours, because the type and a way of
There are even libraries called std, and these embed standard os.environ function from the os module returns a string from handling them.
ways of doing many things a language doesnt provide by an environmental variable, and the one we have asked it to Which is why you
default, such as common mathematical functions, data types return is HOME. But all weve done is open the file, weve not get the raw data
and string services, as well as file input/output and support yet read any of its contents. This might seem counter- output when you
for specific file types. You will find the documentation for what intuitive, but its an historical throwback to the way that files read one.
a library does within an API. This will list each function, what it used to be stored, which is why this is also the way nearly all
does, and what it requires as an input and an output. You languages work. Its only after a file has been opened that you
should also be able to find the source files used by the import can start to read its contents:
(and by #include in other languages). On most Linux f.readline()
systems, for example, /lib/python2.x will include all the The above instruction will read a single line of the text file
modules. If you load os.py into a text editor, youll see the and output this to the interpreter as a string. Repeating the
code youve just added to your project, as well as which command will read the next line, because Python is
functions are now accessible to you. remembering how far through the file it has read. Internally,
There are many, many different modules for Python its this is being done using something called a pointer and this,
one of the best reasons to choose it over any other language, too, is common to the vast majority of languages.
and more can usually be installed with just a couple of clicks Alternatively, if you wanted to read the entire file, you could
from your package manager. use f.read(). Because our file contains only text, copying the
But this is where the ugly contents to a Python string
spectre of dependencies can is an easy conversion. The
start to have an effect on your If you load os.py into a same isnt true of a binary
project, because if you want
to give your code to someone
text editor, youll see the file. Rather than being
treated as text, the
else, you need to make sure
that person has also got the
code youve just added organisation of the bits and
bytes that make up a
same modules installed. binary file are organised according to the file type used by the
If you were programming in C or C++, for example, where file or no file type at all if its raw data. As a result, Python (or
your code is compiled and linked against binary libraries, any other programming language) would be unable to extract
those binary libraries will also need to be present on any other any context from a binary file, causing an error if you try to
system that runs your code. They will become dependencies read it into a string. The solution, at least for the initial input, is
for your project, which is what package managers do when to add a b flag when you first open the file, because this
you install a complex package. warns Python to expect raw binary. When you then try to read
the input, youll see the hexadecimal values of the file output
The os module to the display.
Getting back to our project, the os module is designed to To make this data useful, youll need to do some extra
provide a portable way of accessing operating system- work, which well look at next; but first, make sure you close
dependent functionality so that you can write multi-platform the open file, as this should ensure the integrity of your
applications without worrying about where files should be filesystem. As you might guess, the command looks like this:
placed. This includes knowing where your home directory f.close
might be. To see what we mean, add the following piece of And its as easy as that! Q

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 WorldMags.net
Write your own
UNIX program
Try re-implementing classic Unix tools to bolster your Python
knowledge and learn how to build real programs.

I
n the next few pages, thats what were aiming to do: get Our goal for the project overall is to:
you writing real programs. Over the next few tutorials, Create a Python program, cat.py, that when called with no
were going to create a Python implementation of the arguments accepts user input on the standard input pipe
popular Unix tool cat. Like all Unix tools, cat is a great target until an end of line character is reached, at which point it
because its small and focused on a single task, while using sends the output to standard out.
different operating system features, including accessing files, When called with file names as arguments, cat.py should
pipes and so on. send each line of the files to
This means it wont take too standard output, displaying the
long to complete, but will also You now know more whole of the first file, then the
expose you to a selection of
Pythons core features in the
than enough to start whole of the second file.
It should accept two
Standard Library, and once
youve mastered the basics, its
writing real programs arguments: -E, which will make
it put $ signs at the end of
learning the ins-and-outs of your chosen languages libraries each line; and -n, which will make it put the current line
that will let you get on with real work. number at the beginning of each line.
This time, were going to create a cat clone that can work
with any number of files passed to it as arguments on the
command line. Were going to be using Python 3, so if you
want to follow along, make sure youre using the same
version, because some features are not backwards-
compatible with Python 2.x.

Python files
Lets start with the easiest part of the problem: displaying the
contents of a file, line by line, to standard out. In Python, you
access a file with the open function, which returns a file-
object that you can later read from, or otherwise manipulate.
To capture this file-object for use later in your program, you
need to assign the result of running the open function to a
variable, like so:
file = open(hello.txt, r)
This creates a variable, file, that will later allow us to read
the contents of the file hello.txt. It will only allow us to read
from this file, not write to it, because we passed a second
argument to the open function, r, which specified that the file
should be opened in read-only mode.
With access to the file now provided through the newly-
created file object, the next task is to display its contents, line
by line, on standard output. This is very easy to achieve,
because in Python files are iterable objects.
Iterable objects, such as lists, strings, tuples and
dictionaries, allow you to access their individual member
elements one at a time through a for loop. With a file, this
means you can access each line contained within simply by
putting it in a for loop, as follows:
for line in file:
print(line)
The print function then causes whatever argument you
The final program well be implementing. Its not long, but it makes use of a lot
pass to it to be displayed on standard output.
of core language features youll be able to re-use time and again.

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If you put all this in a file, make it executable and create
a hello.txt file in the same directory, youll see that it works
rather well. There is one oddity, however theres an empty
line between each line of output.
The reason this happens is that print automatically adds
a newline character to the end of each line. Because theres
already a newline character at the end of each line in hello.txt
(there is, even if you cant see it, otherwise everything would
be on one line!), the second newline character leads to an
empty line.
You can fix this by calling print with a second, named
argument such as: print(line, end=). This tells print to put
an empty string, or no character, at the end of each line
instead of a newline character.

Passing arguments
This is all right, but compared to the real cat command,
theres a glaring omission here: we would have to edit the
program code itself to change which file is being displayed to
standard out. What we need is some way to pass arguments
on the command line, so that we could call our new program
by typing cat.py hello.txt on the command line. Since Python
has all batteries included, this is a fairly straightforward task,
as well.
The Python interpreter automatically captures all
arguments passed on the command line, and a module called
sys, which is part of the Standard Library, makes this
available to your code.
Even though sys is part of the Standard Library, its not
available to your code by default. Instead, you first have to
import it to your program and then access its contents with
dot notation dont worry, well explain this in a moment.
First, to import it to your program, add:
import sys
The output of the real Unix command, cat, and our Python re-implementation,
to the top of your cat.py file.
are exactly the same in this simple example.
The part of the sys module that were interested in is the
argv object. This object stores all of the arguments passed on
the command line in a Python list, which means you can because this is the name of the program itself. If you think
access and manipulate it using various techniques weve back to our previous article on data types and common list
seen in previous tutorials and will show in future ones. operations, youll realise this is easily done with a slice. This is
There are only two things just one line:
you really need to know for file in sys.argv[1:]:
about this. They are: The part of the sys Because operating on all
The first element of the list
is the name of the program
module were interested the files passed as arguments
to a program is such a
itself all arguments follow in is the argv object common operation, Python
this. provides a shortcut for doing
To access the list, you need to use dot notation that is to this in the Standard Library, called fileinput.
say, argv is stored within sys, so to access it, you need to type In order to use this shortcut, you must first import it by
sys.argv, or sys.argv[1] to get the first argument to putting import fileinput at the top of your code. You will then
your program. be able to use it to recreate the rest of our cat program so far,
Knowing this, you should now be able to adjust the code as follows:
we created previously by replacing hello.txt with sys.argv[1]. for line in fileinput.input():
When you call cat.py from the command line, you can then print(line, end=)
pass the name of any text file, and it will work just the same. This simple shortcut function takes care of opening each
file in turn and making all their lines accessible through a
Many files single iterator.
Of course, our program is meant to accept more than one file Thats about all that we have space for in this tutorial.
and output all their contents to standard output, one after Although there has not been much code in this particular
another, but as things stand, our program can only accept example, we hope you have started to get a sense for how
one file as an argument. much is available in Pythons Standard Library (and therefore
To fix this particular problem, you need to loop over all the how much work is available for you to recycle), and how a
files in the argv list. The only thing that you need to be careful good knowledge of its contents can save you a lot of work
of when you do this is that you exclude the very first element, when implementing new programs. Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 67

 WorldMags.net
Enhance your
UNIX program
Our tour of the Python programming language continues, as we
continue our clone of the Unix cat command.

T
he previous tutorial showed you how to build a simple new line character is passed to standard input (by pressing
cat clone in Python. In this guide, were going to add [Return]), it will then print everything that came before it to
some more features to our program, including the standard output.
ability to read from the standard input pipe, just like the real Right, now we have two modes that our program can
cat, and the ability to pass options to your cat clone. So, operate in, but we need to put them together into a single
without further delay, lets dive in. program. If we call our program with arguments, we want it to
Fortunately, you already know everything you need to work like last time that is, by concatenating the files
interact with the standard input pipe. In Linux, all pipes are contents together; if its called without any arguments, we
treated like files you can want our program to work by
pass a file as an argument to repeating each line entered
a command, or you can pass Python provides us with into standard input. We could
a pipe as an argument. It
doesnt matter which you do,
a much more powerful easily do this with what we
have learned so far simply
because theyre basically the
same thing.
alternative to sys.argv check to see what the length
of the sys.argv array is. If its
In Python, the same is true. All you need to get to work greater than 1, then do last lessons version, otherwise do this
with the standard input pipe is access to the sys library, which version:
if you followed along last time, you already have. Lets write a if len(sys.argv) > 1:
little sample program first to demonstrate: [last month...]
import sys else:
for line in sys.stdin: [this month...]
print(line, end=) Pretty straightforward. The only point of interest here is
The first line imports the sys module. The lines that follow the use of the len() function, seeing as were on a journey to
are almost identical to those that we had last time. Rather discover different Python functions. This function is built in to
than specifying the name of a file, however, we specified the Python, and can be applied to any type of sequence object (a
name of the file-object, stdin, which is found inside the sys string, tuple or list) or a map (like a dictionary), and it always
module. Just like a real file, in Python the standard input pipe tells you how many elements are in that object.
is an iterable object, so we use a for loop to walk through There are more useful functions like this, which you can
each line. find at http://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html.
You might be wondering how this works, though, because
standard input starts off empty. If you run the program, you Parsing arguments and options
will see what happens. Rather than printing out everything This is quite a simplistic approach, however, and Python
thats present straightaway, it will simply wait. Every time a actually provides us with a much more powerful alternative to
sys.argv. To demonstrate this, we are going to add two
options to our program that will modify the output generated
by our program.
You may not have realised it, but cat does in fact have a
range of options. Were going to implement the -E, which
shows dollar symbols at the end of lines, and -n, which
displays line numbers at the beginning of lines.
To do this, well start by setting up an OptionParser. This
is a special object, provided as part of the optparse module,
which will do most of the hard work for you. As well as
automatically detecting options and arguments, saving you a
lot of hard work, OptionParser will automatically generate
help text for your users in the event that they use your
The Python language comes with all the bells and whistles you need to write program incorrectly or pass --help to it, like this:
useful programs. In this example, you can see the replace method applied to
[jon@LT04394 ~]$ ./cat.py --help
a string in order to remove all white space in the tutorial, we used the rstrip
Usage: cat.py [OPTION]... [FILE]...
method for a similar purpose.

68 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net The Python 3
website provides
excellent
documentation
for a wealth of
built-in functions
and methods.
If you ever
wonder how to
do something in
Python, http://
docs.python.
org/3/ should
be your first port
of call.

Options: variables the other way around! With the argument-parsing

-h, --help show this help message and exit code written, youll next want to start implementing the code
-E Show $ at line endings that will run when a particular option is set. In both cases,
-n Show line numbers well be modifying the string of text thats output by the
Just like a real program! program, which means youll need to know a little bit about
To get started with OptionParser, you first need to import Pythons built-in string editing functions. Lets think about the
the necessary components: -E, or showend, option first. All we want this to do is remove
from optparse import OptionParser the invisible line break thats at the end of every file (or every
You may notice that this looks a bit different from what we line of the standard input pipe, as implied by pressing
saw before. Instead of importing the entire module, were only [Return]), and replace it with a dollar symbol followed by a
importing the OptionParser object. Next, you need to create line break.
a new instance of the object, add some new options for it to The first part, removing the existing new line, can be
detect with the add_option method, and pass it a usage achieved by the string.rstrip() method. This removes all
string to display: white space characters by default, at the right-hand edge of
usage = usage: %prog [option]... [file]... a string. If you pass a string to it as an argument, it will strip
parser = OptionParser(usage=usage) those characters from the right-hand edge instead of white
parser.add_option(-E, dest=showend, action=store_ space. In our case, just white space will do.
true, help=Show $ at line
endings) Completing the job
parser.add_option(-n, dest=shownum, action=store_ The second part of the job is as simple as setting the end
true, help=Show line numbers) variable in the print statement to the string $\n and the job
The %prog part of the usage string will be replaced with is almost complete. We say almost complete because we
the name of your program. The still need to write some more
dest argument specifies what logic to further control the
name youll be able to use to Dont confuse yourself flow of the program based on
access the value of an
argument once the parsing has
by putting the variables what options were set, as well
as whether or not any
been done, while the action
specifies what that value should
the other way around! arguments are passed. The
thing is, this logic needs to be
be. In this case, the action store_true says to set the dest a little more complicated than it ordinarily would be because
variable to True if the argument is present, and False if it is we need to maintain a cumulative count of lines that have
not. You can read about other actions at been printed as the program runs to implement the second
http://docs.python.org/3/library/optparse.html. -n, or shownum, option.
Finally, with everything set, you just need to parse the While there are several ways you could achieve this, in the
arguments that were passed to your program and assign the next tutorial were going to introduce you to a bit of object-
results to two array variables: oriented programming in Python and implement this
(options, args) = parser.parser_args() functionality in a class. Well also introduce you to a very
The options variable will contain all user-defined options, important Python convention the main() function and the
such as -E or -n, while args will contain all positional name variable. In the meantime, you can keep yourself busy
arguments left over after parsing out the options. You can call by investigating the string.format() method and see whether
these variables whatever you like, but the two will always be you can figure out how you can append a number to the
set in the same order, so dont confuse yourself by putting the beginning of each line.Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 69

 WorldMags.net
Finish up your
UNIX program
Our guide to the Python programming language continues.
This tutorial, were going to finish our clone of cat.

W
eve come quite a long way over the last two nested for loops, although theyre not nearly as readable as
tutorials, having implemented the ability to echo object-oriented code.
the contents of multiple files to the screen, the When building complicated programs, figuring out how to
ability to echo standard input to the screen and the ability to organise them so they remain easy to read, easy to track
detect and act upon options passed by the user of our which variables are being used by which functions, and easy
program. All that remains is to update, extend, or add new
for us to implement the line features, can be challenging.
number option and to gather Its a very natural way To make this easier, there are
together everything else
weve written into a single,
of thinking because it various paradigms that
provide techniques for
working program. mirrors the real world managing complexity.
One of these paradigms is
Objects the concept of object-oriented programming. In object-
Last time, we ended by saying that there are many ways we oriented programming, the elements of the program are
could implement the line counting option in our program. broken down into objects which contain state variables, in
Were going to show you how to do it in an object-oriented other words that describe the current condition of the
style, because it gives us an excuse to introduce you to this object, and methods, that allow us to perform actions on
aspect of Python programming. You could, however, with a those variables or with that object.
little careful thought, implement the same function with some Its a very natural way of thinking, because it mirrors the
real world so closely. We can describe a set of properties
about your hand, such as having five fingers that are in
certain locations, and we can describe certain methods or
things you can do with your hand, such as moving one finger
to press a key, or holding a cup. Your hand is an object,
complete with state and methods that let you work with it.
Were going to turn our cat program into an object, where
its state records how many lines have been displayed, and its
methods perform the action of the cat program
redisplaying file contents to the screen.

Python objects
Python implements objects through a class system. A class is
a template, and an object is a particular instance of that class,
modelled on the template. We define a new class with
a keyword, much like we define a new function:
class catCommand:
Inside the class, we specify the methods (functions) and
state that we want to associate with every instance of the
object. There are some special methods, however, that are
frequently used. One of these is the init method. This is run
when the class is first instantiated into a particular object, and
allows you to set specific variables that you want to belong to
that object.
def __init__(self):
self.count = 1
In this case, weve assigned 1 to the count variable, and
well be using this to record how many lines have been
displayed. You probably noticed the self variable, passed as
Just to prove that it works, heres our cat implementation, with all of the
the first argument to the method, and wondered what on
options being put to use.

70 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
earth that was about. Well, it is the main distinguishing feature
between methods and ordinary functions.
Methods, even those which have no other arguments,
must have the self variable. It is an automatically populated
variable, which will always point to the particular instance of
the object that youre working with. So self.count is a count
variable that is exclusive to individual instances of the
catCommand object.

The run method

We next need to write a method that will execute the
appropriate logic depending on whether certain options are
set. Weve called this the run method:
def run(self, i, options):
#set default options
e =
for line in i:
#modify printed line according to options
if options.showend:
[...last time]
if options.shownum:
line = {0} {1}.format(self.count, line)
self.count += 1
print(line, end=e)
Notice that weve passed the self variable to this method,
too. The two other arguments passed to this function are
arguments that well pass when we call the method later on, The completed program isnt very long, but it has given us a chance to
just like with a normal function. The first, i, is going to be a introduce you to many different aspects of the Python language.
reference to whichever file is being displayed at this moment,
while the options variable is a reference to the options
decoded by the OptParse module. for a in args:
The logic after that is clear for each line in the current f = open(a, r)
file, modify the line depending on what options have been set. c.run(f, options)
Either we do as last time, and modify the end character to be else:
$\n or we modify the line, using the .format method that c.run(sys.stdin, options)
we suggested you research last time, to append the count We havent filled in the object parsing code from the
variable, defined in the init method, to the rest of the line. We previous tutorial, because that hasnt changed. What is new is
then increment the count and print the line. the c = catCommand() line. This is how we create an
The most important part is the use of self. It lets us refer instance of a class how we create a new object. The c object
to variables stored within the current instance of the object. now has a variable, count, which is accessible by all its
Because its stored as part of the object, it will persist after methods as the self.count variable. This is what will enable us
the current execution of the run method ends. As long as we to track the line numbers.
use the run method attached to the same object each time We then check to see whether any arguments have been
we cat a new file in the argument list, the count will passed. If they have, then we call the run method of the
remember how many lines were displayed in the last file, and object c for each file that was passed as an argument,
continue to count correctly. passing in any options extracted by OptParse along the way.
It might seem more natural If there werent any
given the description of
methods as individual actions
The last thing to do is arguments, though, we
simply call the run method
that can be taken by our objects
to split each argument into a
call the main function with sys.stdin instead of a
file object.
different method, and this is a when the program runs The final thing we need
fine way to approach the to do here is actually call
problem. the main function when the program is run:
The reason weve done it this way, though, is that we if __name__ == __ main__:
found it meant we could re-use more code, making it more main()
readable and less error-prone. These last two lines are the strangest of all, but quite
Now all thats left to do is to tie everything together. We are useful in a lot of circumstances. The name variable is special
going to do this by writing a main function. This isnt actually when the program is run on the command line, or otherwise
required in Python, but many programs follow this idiom, so as a standalone application, it is set to main; however, when it
we will too: is imported as an external module to other Python programs,
def main(): its not.
[option parsing code ...] In this way, we can automatically execute main when run
c = catCommand() as a standalone program, but not when were importing it as
if len(args) > 1: a module. Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 71

 WorldMags.net

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WorldMags.net
 WorldMags.net
Neater code
with modules
Untangle the horrible mess of code that youve made and add
coherent structure to your programs.

I
n previous tutorials, we have mentioned how automatically parsed command line options. We could access
programming is all about managing complexity, and weve them by typing the modules name, followed by the name of
introduced you to quite a few of the tools and techniques the function we wanted to execute:
that help programmers do this. From variables to function optparse.OptionParser()
definitions or object-orientation, they all help. One tool weve This was great from a readability perspective. In our cat
yet to cover, in part because you dont start to come across it clone, we didnt have to wade through lots of code about
until youre writing larger programs, is the idea of modules parsing command line arguments; instead we could focus on
and name spaces. the code that dealt with the logic of echoing file contents to
Yet, if youve written a program of any length, even just a the screen and to the standard output pipe. Whats more, we
few hundred lines, this is a tool youre no doubt desperate for. didnt have to worry about using names in our own program
In a long file of code, youll have noticed how quickly it that might collide with those in the optparse module,
becomes more difficult to read. Functions seem to blur into because they were all hidden inside the optparse
one another, and when youre trying to hunt down the cause namespace, and reusing this code was as easy as typing
of the latest error, you find it difficult to remember exactly import optparse no messy copy and pasting here.
where you defined that all-important variable.
These problems are caused by a lack of structure. With all How modules work
your code in a single file, its more difficult to determine the Modules sound fancy, and you might think theyre
dependencies between elements of your program that is, complicated, but in Python at least theyre really just plain
which parts rely on each other to get work done and its old files. You can try it out for yourself. Create a new directory
more difficult to and inside it create a fact.py file. Inside it, define a function to
visualise the flow return the factorial of a given number:
As your programs grow of data through def factorial(n):

in length, there are other your program.

As your
result = 1
while n > 0:
problems that occur programs grow
in length, too,
if n == 1:
result *= 1
there are other problems that begin to occur: for instance, else:
you may find yourself with naming conflicts, as two different result *= n
parts of your program require functions called add (for n -= 1
example, adding integers or adding fractions in a return n
mathematics program), or you may have written a useful Create a second Python file called doMath.py. Inside this,
function that you want to share with other programs that first import the module you just created and then execute the
youre writing, and the only tool you have to do that is boring factorial function, printing the result to the screen:
and error-prone copy and pasting. import fact
print fact.factorial(5)
Untangling the mess Now, when you run the doMath.py file, you should see
Modules are a great way to solve all of these problems, 120 printed on the screen. You should notice that the name of
enabling you to put structure back into your code, letting you the module is just the name of the file, in the same directory,
avoid naming conflicts, and making it easier for you to share with the extension removed. We can then call any function
useful chunks of code between programs. defined in that module by typing the modules name, followed
Youve no doubt been using them all the time in your code by a dot, followed by the function name.
as youve relied on Python built-in or third-party modules to
provide lots of extra functionality. As an example, remember The Python path
the optparse module we used before. The big question thats left is, how does Python know where
We included it in our program along with the import to look to find your modules?
statement, like so: The answer is that Python has a pre-defined set of
import optparse locations that it looks in to find files that match the name
After putting this line at the top of our Python program, we specified in your import statements. It first looks inside all of
magically got access to a whole load of other functions that the built-in modules, the location of which are defined when

74 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net By splitting
your code up
in to smaller
chunks, each
placed in its
own file and
directory, you
can bring order
to your projects
and make future
maintenance
easier.

you install Python; it then searches through a list of print food

directories known as the path. def show_choc():
This path is much like the Bash shells $PATH food = [snickers, kitkat, dairy milk]
environment variable it uses the same syntax, and serves print food
exactly the same function. It varies, however, in how show_choc()
the contents of the Python path are generated. Initially, print food
the locations stored in the path consist of the following If you run that, youll see that outside the function the
two locations: variable food refers to a list of fruit, while inside the function,
The directory containing the script doing the importing. it refers to a list of chocolate bars. This demonstrates two
The PYTHONPATH, which is a set of directories pre- different scopes: the global scope of the current module, in
defined in your default installation. which food refers to a list of fruit, and the local scope of the
You can inspect the path in your Python environment by function, in which food refers to a list of chocolate.
importing the sys module, and then inspecting the path When looking up a variable, Python starts with the
attribute (typing sys.path will do the trick). innermost variable and works its way out, starting with the
Once a program has started, it can even modify the path immediately enclosing function, and then any functions
itself and add other locations to it. enclosing that, and then the modules global scope, and then
finally it will look at all the built-in names.
Variable scope in modules In simple, single-file programs, it is a bad idea to put
Before you head off and start merrily writing your own variables in the global scope. It can cause confusion and
modules, there is one more thing that you need to know subtle errors elsewhere in your program. Using modules can
about: variable scope. help with this problem, because each module has its own
We have touched upon scope as a concept before, but as global scope. As we saw above, when we import a module, its
a quick refresher, scope refers to the part of a program from contents are all stored as attributes of the modules name,
which particular variables can be accessed. For instance, a accessed via dot notation. This makes global variables
single Python module might contain the following code: somewhat less troublesome, although you should still be
food = [apples, oranges, pears] careful when using them. Q

Python style
While many people think of Python as common problems, and the best ways to which you can start learning:
a modern language, its actually been format your code to make sure its http://python.net/~goodger/
around since the early 1990s. As with any readable for co-workers and anyone else projects/pycon/2007/idiomatic/
programming language thats been working on the code with you (including handout.html
around for any length of time, people who your future self). www.python.org/dev/peps/
use it often have learned a lot about the If youre interested in finding out more pep-0008
best ways to do things in the language about these best practices in Python, Read these and youre sure to gain
in terms of the easiest way to solve there are two very useful resources from some deeper insight into the language.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 75

 WorldMags.net
Embrace storage
and persistence
Deal with persistent data and store your files in Python to make your
programs more permanent and less transient.

S
torage is cheap: you can buy a 500GB external hard Easy! Notice how we used the format string function to
drive for less than 40 these days, while even add a new line to the end of each string, otherwise we would
smartphones come with at least 8GB of storage, and end up with everything on one line which would have made
many are easily expandable up to 64GB for only the price of a it harder to use later.
pair of jeans. Re-using the contents of this file would be just as simple.
Its no surprise, then, that almost every modern Using the file as an iterator, load each line in turn into a list,
application stores data in one way or another, whether thats stripping off the trailing new line character. Well leave you to
configuration data, cached data to speed up future use, saved figure this one out.
games, to-do lists or photos. The list goes on and on. When using files in your Python code, there are two things
With this in mind, this programming tutorial is going to that you need to keep in mind. The first is that you need to
demonstrate how to deal with persistent data in our language convert whatever you want to write to the file to a string first.
of choice Python. This is easy, though, because you can just use the built-in
The most obvious form of persistent storage that you can str() function for example, str(42) => 42.
take advantage of in Python is file storage. Support for it is The second is that you have to close the file after you have
included in the standard library, and you dont even have to finished using it if you dont do this, you risk losing data that
import any modules to take advantage of it. you thought had been committed to disk, but that had not yet
To open a file in the current working directory (that is, been flushed. You can do this manually with the close method
wherever you ran the Python script from, or wherever you of file objects. In our example, this would translate to adding
were when you launched the interactive shell), use the open() file.close() to our program. Its better, however, to use the
function: with keyword:
file = open(lxf- with open(lxf-test.txt, a) as file:
Almost every modern test.txt, w) feeds = [line.rstrip(\n) for line in f]

application stores data The first

argument to open
This simple piece of Python code handles opening the file
object and, when the block inside the with statement is
in one way or another is the filename,
while the second
finished, automatically closes it for us, as well. If you are
unsure what the second line does, try looking up Python list
specifies which mode the file should be opened in in this comprehensions theyre a great way to write efficient,
case, its write, but other valid options include read-only (r) concise code, and to bring a modicum of functional style into
and append (a). your work.
In previous tutorials, weve shown you that this file object
is in fact an iterator, which means you can use the in keyword Serialising
to loop through each line in the file and deal with its contents, Working with files would be much easier if you didnt have to
one line at a time. Before reviewing that information, however, worry about converting your list (or dictionary, for that
lets look at how to write data to a file. matter) into a string first of all for dictionaries in particular,
this could get messy. Fortunately, Python provides two tools
Writing to files to make this easier for us.
Suppose youre writing your own RSS application to deal with The first of these tools is the pickle module. Pickle
your favourite feeds. Youve already got some way to ask accepts many different kinds of Python objects, and can then
users to enter in a list of feeds (perhaps using raw_input(), or convert them to a character string and back again. You still
perhaps using a web form and CGI), but now you want to have to do the file opening and closing, but you no longer
store that list of feeds on disk so you can re-use it later when have to worry about figuring out an appropriate string
youre checking for new updates. At the moment, the feeds representation for your data:
are just stored in a Python list: import pickle
feeds = [http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_ ...
edition/front_page/rss.xml, http://www.tuxradar.com/rss] with open(lxf-test.txt, a) as file:
To get the feeds into the file is a simple process. Just use pickle.dump(feeds, file)
the write method:
for feed in feeds: with open(lxf-test.txt, r) as file:
file.write({0}\n.format(feed)) feeds = pickle.load(file)

76 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net

If youre interested in persistent data in Python, a good next stopping point is the ZODB object database. Its much
easier and more natural in Python than a relational database engine (www.zodb.org).

This is much easier, and it has other applications outside to keep track of how many unread items each feed had, and
of persisting data in files, too. For example, if you wanted to which item was the last to be read. You might do this with a
transfer your feed list across the network, you would first dictionary, for example:
have to make it into a character string, too, which you could tracker = { bbc.co.uk: { last-read: foo,
do with pickle. num-unread: 10, },
The problem with this is that it will only work in Python tuxradar.co.uk: { last-read: bar,
that is to say, other programming languages dont support num-unread: 5, }}
the pickle data format. If you like the concept of pickling
(more generically, serialising), theres another option that You could then store the list of feeds and the tracking
does have support in other languages, too: JSON. details for each in a single file by using the shelve module,
You may have heard of JSON it stands for JavaScript like so:
Object Notation, and is a way of converting objects into import shelve
human-readable string representations, which look almost shelf = shelve.open(lxf-test)
identical to objects found in the JavaScript programming shelf[feeds] = feeds
language. Its great, because its human readable, and also shelf[tracker] = tracker
because its widely supported in many different languages, shelf.close()
largely because it has become so popular with fancy web There are a few important things that you should be aware
2.0 applications. of about the shelve module:
In Python, you use it in exactly the same way as pickle in The shelve module has its own operations for opening and
the above example, replace pickle with json throughout, and closing files, so you cant use the standard open function.
youll be writing interoperable, serialised code! To save some data to the shelf, you must first use a
standard Python assignment operation to set the value of a
Shelves particular key to the object you want to save.
Of course, some code bases have many different objects that As with files, you must close the shelf object once finished
you want to store persistently between runs, and keeping with, otherwise your changes may not be stored.
track of many different pickled files can get tricky. Theres Accessing data inside the shelf is just as easy. Rather than
another Python standard module, however, that uses pickle assigning a key in the shelf dictionary to a value, you assign a
underneath, but makes access to the stored objects more value to that stored in the dictionary at a particular key: feeds
intuitive and convenient: the shelve module. = shelf[feeds]. If you want to modify the data that was
Essentially, a shelf is a persistent dictionary that is to stored in the shelf, modify it in the temporary value you
say, a persistent way to store key-value pairs. The great thing assigned it to, then re-assign that temporary value back to
about shelves, however, is that the value can be any Python the shelf before closing it again.
object that pickle can serialise. Lets take a look at how you Thats about all we have space for this tutorial, but keep
can use it. Thinking back to our RSS reader application, reading, because well discuss one final option for persistent
imagine that as well as the list of feeds to check, you wanted data: relational databases (for example, MySQL). Q

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Data organisation
and queries
Lets use SQL and a relational database to add some structure to
our extensive 70s rock collection. You do have one, right?

I
n the last tutorial, we looked at how to make data
persistent in your Python programs. The techniques we
looked at were flat-file based, and as useful as they are,
Relational database
theyre not exactly industrial scale. As your applications grow
Album name Free At Last
more ambitious, as performance becomes more important,
or as you try to express more complicated ideas and Running time 65:58
relationships, youll need to look towards other technologies, Year 1972
such as an object database or, even, a relational database. Artist_id 1
As relational databases are by far the most common tool
for asking complex questions about data today, in this coding and good, but very wasteful. For every track on the same
tutorial were going to introduce you to the basics of relational album, we have to duplicate all the information, such as the
databases and the language used to work with them (which is album name, its running time, the year it was published, and
called SQL, or Structured Query Language). With the basics all the information about the artist, too, such as their name
mastered, youll be able to start integrating relational and the year they split. As well as being wasteful with storage
databases into space, this also makes the data slower to search, harder to

Relational databases your code.

To follow
interpret and more dangerous to modify later.
Relational databases solve these problems by letting us
are used to ask complex along, make sure
you have got
split the data and store it in a more efficient, useful form. They
let us identify separate entities within the database that
questions about data MySQL or one would benefit from being stored in independent tables.
of its drop-in In our example, we might split information about the
replacements installed, and can also find a way to get access album, artist and track into separate tables. We would then
to the MySQL console: only need to have a single entry for the artist Free (storing the
mysql -uroot name and the year the band split), a single entry for the
If youve set a password, use the -p switch to give that as album Free At Last (storing its name, the year it was
well as the username. Throughout, well be working on a small published and the running time), and a single entry for each
database to track our music collection. track in the database (storing everything else) in each of their
respective tables.
Relationships All that duplication is gone, but now all the data has been
Lets start by thinking about the information we want to store separated, what happens when you want to report all the
in our music collection. A logical place to start might be information about a single track, including the artist who
thinking about it in terms of the CDs that we own. Each CD is produced it and the album it appeared on? Thats where the
a single album, and each album can be described by lots of relational part of a relational database comes in.
other information, or attributes, including the artist who Every row within a database table must in some way be
created the album and the tracks that are on it. unique, either based on a single unique column (for example,
We could represent all this data in one large, a unique name for an artist, or a unique title for an album), or
homogeneous table like the one below which is all well a combination of columns (for example, the album title and
year published). These unique columns form what is known
as a primary key. Where a natural primary key (a natural set
Duplicated data of unique columns) doesnt exist within a table, you can easily
add an artificial one in the form of an automatically
Album Free At Last Free At Last incrementing integer ID.
We can then add an extra column to each table that
Artist Free Free
references the primary key in another table. For example,
Track Little Bit of Love Travellin Man
consider the table above. Here, rather than giving all the
Track time 2:34 3:23
information about the artist in the same table, weve simply
Album time 65:58 65:58
specified the unique ID for a row in another table, probably
Year 1972 1972
called Artist. When we want to present this album to a user, in
Band split 1973 1973
conjunction with information about the artist who published

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it, we can get the information first from this Album table, then
retrieve the information about the artist, whose ID is 1, from
the Artist table, combining it for presentation.

SQL
That, in a nutshell, is what relational databases are all about.
Splitting information into manageable, reusable chunks of
data, and describing the relationships between those chunks.
To create these tables within the database, to manage the
relationships, to insert and query data, most relational
databases make use of SQL, and now that you know what a
table and a relationship is, we can show you how to use SQL
to create and use your own.
After logging into the MySQL console, the first thing we
need to do is create a database. The database is the top-level
storage container for bits of related information, so we need
to create it before we can start storing or querying anything
else. To do this, you use create database:
create database lxfmusic;
Notice the semi-colon at the end of the command all
SQL statements must end with a semi-colon. Also notice that MariaDB is a drop-in replacement for the MySQL database, and is quickly
finding favour among distros including Mageia, OpenSUSE and even Slackware.
weve used lower-case letters: SQL is not case-sensitive, and
you can issue your commands in whatever case you like.
With the database created, you now need to switch to it. primary key. You can find out more about the create table
Much as you work within a current working directory on the statement in the MySQL documentation at http://dev.
Linux console, in MySQL, many commands you issue are mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/create-table.html.
relative to the currently selected database. You can switch
databases with the use command: Inserts and queries
use lxfmusic; Inserting data into the newly created tables isnt any trickier:
Now to create some tables: insert into Album (name) values (Free at Last);
create table Album ( Once again, we specify the action and the object on which
Album_id int auto_increment primary key, were acting, we then specify the columns which were
name varchar(100) inserting into, and finally the values of the data to be put in.
); Before we can insert an entry into the Track table,
however, we must discover what the ID of the album Free At
create table Track ( Last is, otherwise we wont be able to link the tables together
Track_id int auto_increment primary key, very easily. To do this, we use the select statement:
title varchar(100), select * from Album where name = Free At Last;
running_time int, This command says we want to select all columns from
Album_id int the Album table whose name field is equal to Free At Last.
); Pretty self-explanatory really! If wed only wanted to get the ID
The most obvious things to note here are that we have field, we could have replaced the asterisk with Album_id and
issued two commands, separated by semi-colons, and that it would have taken just that column.
we have split each command over multiple lines. SQL doesnt Since that returned a 1 for us (it being the first entry in the
care about white space, so you can split your code up database), we can insert into the Track table as follows:
however you like, as long as you put the right punctuation in insert into Track (title, running_time, Album_id) values
the correct places. (Little Bit of Love, 154, 1);
As for the command itself, notice how similar it is to the The big thing to note is that we specified the running time
create database statement. We specify the action we want in seconds and stored it as an integer. With most databases,
to take, the type of object that were operating on and then you must always specify a data type for your columns, and
the properties of that object. With the create database sometimes this means that you need to represent your data
statement, the only property was the name of the database; in a different manner than in your application, and you will
with the create table statement, weve also got a whole load need to write some code to convert it for display. That said,
of extra properties that come inside the parentheses and are MySQL does have a wide range of data types, so many
separated by commas. eventualities are covered.
These are known as column definitions, and each comma- Thats all we have space for here, but dont let your MySQL
separated entry describes one column in the database. First, education stop there. Now youve seen the basics, youll want
we give the column a name, then we describe the type of data to investigate foreign keys and joins, two more advanced
stored in it (this is necessary in most databases), then we techniques that will enable you to be far more expressive with
specify any additional properties of that column, such as your SQL. Youll also want to investigate the different types of
whether it is part of the primary key. relationship, such as one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one
The auto_increment keyword means you dont have to and many-to-many.
worry about specifying the value of Track_id when inserting Finally, if you want to integrate MySQL with your
data, as MySQL will ensure that this is an integer that gets programming language of choice, look out for an appropriate
incremented for every row in the database, thus forming a module, such as the python-mysql module for Python. Q

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Raspberry Pi
Discover how you can develop on
the low-cost, micro-PC system
Getting started 82
.....................................................................

Starting Scratch 84
................................................................

Further Scratch 88
...................................................................

Coding with IDLE 92

.............................................................

Python on the Pi 94
...............................................................

Python 3.0 on the Pi 98

..............................................

Advanced sorting ..................................................... 102

Hacking Minecraft .................................................. 108
Image walls in Minecraft .......................... 110
2048 in Minecraft ...................................................... 114

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 WorldMags.net
Welcome to Pi
Reveal the Raspbian desktop and partake of the pleasures of Python
programming on the Raspberry Pi.

T
he Pi-tailored Raspbian desktop environment free to peruse that to learn about commands such as ls , cd
received a thorough overhaul in late 2015, making it and mkdir . Its a good idea to keep the software on your Pi
an even friendlier place to learn, play or work. The up to date, so lets see how that works from the terminal.
Raspbian team has squeezed a great deal into the 3.5GB Were going to use the apt-get package manager, which
install. Most importantly, theres a special edition of Minecraft, handles all of the consultations with Raspbian mirrors and
but theres also Wolfram Mathematica (for doing hard sums), does a remarkable job of (un)installing packages and their
LibreOffice and the Epiphany web browser, as well as PDF dependencies with a minimum of fuss. Open LXTerminal from
and image viewers. Were amply catered for programming- either the menu or the launch bar, and enter the following
wise, too theres Scratch (the visual coding language), Sonic command:
Pi (the live coding synth), not to mention the Python $ sudo apt-get update
programming language.
Compared to, say, Windows 10, Raspbian may appear Terminal velocity
somewhat spartan. Bear in mind that the Pi (particularly non- That updates Raspbians local list of all available packages. In
Pi 2 models) is considerably less powerful than your average the next step, the list of current packages installed on the
desktop computer, so lightweight is the order of the day. It system is checked against this, and where newer packages
remains no less functional, and thanks to graphical hardware are available, these are offered for upgrade:
acceleration, it $ sudo apt-get
can play high-
definition video The Pi is far less powerful than upgrade
If theres lots
without batting an
eyelid. Software is
your average desktop computer, of packages to
upgrade, the
managed from but remains no less functional. process may take
the Add/Remove some time. The
Software bottleneck is mostly
application. This downloads packages from Raspbians due to the speed at which data can be written to the SD card
repositories, which you can trust. Its possible to do this from you may want to make a cup of tea. You should update your
the command line too. In fact, its possible to do pretty much packages pretty regularly; youll get important security
anything from the command line. updates and the latest features or fixes for all your software.
Theres a very brief introduction to the terminal in the Mint Python is a particularly good first programming language.
tutorial (see page 16), which applies equally well here, so feel The syntax is clean and concise, there are no awkward

The new
Epiphany browser
works well; it can
even play HTML5
YouTube videos,
such as this one
featuring a tiny
arcade cabinet.

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 The Raspbian desktop
WorldMags.net
Menu
Here youll find all the great
programs mentioned earlier
and more. Youll also find links
to help resources and, in the
Preferences menu, some tools
for adjusting system settings.

Launch bar
Frequently used applications
can be added here just right-
click it and select Application
Launch Bar Settings. The black
screen icon in the centre opens
the terminal.

File manager
The PCManFM file manager is
lightweight but thoroughly
capable. It opens at your home
folder and is also capable of Terminal Network
browsing Windows and other The command line gives direct access to the From here you can configure your wired and wireless network
network shares. operating system. It can be daunting but, with connections. Some wireless adapters work better with the Pi
practice, youll appreciate how efficient it is. than others, so its worth doing some research before you buy.

semicolons to terminate statements, lots of shortcuts for >>> 60 * 60 * 24 * 365

things that are cumbersome in other languages and theres a As mentioned elsewhere, it makes more sense to save
huge number of modules that enable you to achieve just your programs in text files. So well now leave the interpreter
about anything. by hitting Ctrl+D, and make our first Pi Python program. At
this point, you have a choice: you can proceed as in the Mint
A tale of two Pythons tutorial and use the nano text editor, or you can use the
Raspbian comes with two versions of Python installed. This graphical one located in the Accessories menu. Before you
reflects a duality that has formed in Pythonic circles over the make that choice, though, well create a directory for storing
last few years. Ultimately, Python 3 (see page 94 and 120) has our Python programs. Keeping on top of your filing is A Good
been around since 2008, but people have been slow to adopt. Thing, too.
Many of the larger projects that used to only work on the old $ mkdir ~/python
version have been ported to the new, so finally the shift to 3 is Now type the following into your chosen editor
gaining traction. Sooner or later, youll run into something that print(Hello World)
requires Python 2.7, and then you might have to unlearn some and then save the file. Assuming youre using the graphical
things, but for this tutorial were going to stick with the new editor, choose, File > Save As, and then navigate to the
version of Python provided by Raspbian 3.4. recently created Python folder, and save it as helloworld.py.
Open up a terminal, if you havent already done so, and If youre using nano, use Ctrl+X to save and exit.
start the Python 3 interpreter by entering: Now we can run this and see what we have created:
$ python3 $ cd ~/python
Once again, if you have a look at the introductory Mint $ python3 helloworld.py
tutorial (see page 16), youll learn about a few things you can Its not going to win any awards, but its a fully working
do here. For example, if you wanted to find out how many program and something you can build around in further
seconds there are in a year, you could do the following: programming adventures. Q

Other programming tools

Weve only covered Python in this tutorial Then theres also Node-RED, for designing visual language, which means that programs are
but there are other programming languages applications based around the Internet of Things, created by dragging and connecting blocks that
available in Raspbian. To start with, theres a for which the Raspberry Pi is well suited. Its easy represent events and logic. Plus it has an orange
full-blown Java IDE called Greenfoot (which to add sensors, cameras or LEDs, and turn your cat as its mascot. Scratch was developed at MIT
has been developed in partnership with the Pi into a bona fide smart device. It can watch and, to date, some 12.5 million projects have
University of Kent and Oracle). This teaches your letterbox, monitor the weather, or even been shared on its website at https://scratch.
the basics of open-source design using visual water your plants. mit.edu. Fortune has it that by turning to the
scenarios but you can also play with the Finally, Scratch (see page 84) is a great way very next page, you will find an entire tutorial
underlying Java source (if youre feeling brave). to get kids (or grown-up kids) into coding. Its a devoted to the language.

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 WorldMags.net
Starting Scratch
Discover how to build a cat and mouse game using this straightforward
beginners programming language.

ou can use a wide range of programming languages

Y with the Raspberry Pi, and the little learning

computer is our focus in this series of articles,
although Scratch can be downloaded from https://scratch.
mit.edu whether youre using Windows, Mac or Linux. These
tutorials will be equally applicable whatever your platform.
Its a great beginners language, because it introduces
many of the concepts of programming while at the same time
being easy to use. Its especially good for creating graphical
programs such as games. If youve never programmed
before, or if youre new to graphical programming, well ease
you gently in, and hopefully have a little fun along the way.
Without further ado, lets get started.
Youll find Scratch on the desktop in core Raspberry Pi
operating system Raspbian, so theres no need to install
anything just click on the icon to get started. Its best to use
Raspbian rather than one of the other distros for the Pi for
this, because not many of the others support Scratch.
The main window is split up into sections. Broadly
speaking, the bits you can use to make your programs are on
the left, while you make your programs in the middle, and the
programs run on the right. Each program is made up of a
number of sprites (pictures) that contain a number of scripts.
Its these scripts that control what happens when the
program is running.
In the top-left corner, youll see eight words: Motion,
Looks, Sound, Pen, Control, Sensing, Operations and
Variables. Each of these is a category that contains pieces
that you can drag and drop into the scripts area to build
programs. Good luck!

Scratch comes with a range of images that you can use for sprites. Each sprite can have a number of costumes, or images. Click on the
Click on New Sprite From File, or Costumes > Import to see them. Costumes tab to create new ones or manage existing ones.

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Variables and messages
Sooner or later, youre going to want to get your different types of data, but you dont need to to communicate between them. Sometimes you
program to remember something. It might be worry about that in Scratch. can do this with variables, but it is often better to
a number, a piece of text, or anything. You can do Once you have created a variable, you can then use messages. These can be used to trigger
this using variables. These are little pieces of the use it in a few ways. Firstly, you have to set them scripts in the same way as keypresses can. When
computers memory that your program can to be a particular value, then you can use them to one script broadcasts a message, it will then
place pieces of data in. In step 3, we create a pair evaluate conditions (which well do in steps 6 and trigger all the scripts that start with When I
of these to store some numbers in, although we 11), or you can output them. Receive Like variables, messages have names,
could also put text in them. Note that in some so they have to be created first, and for a script
programming languages, you have to create Messages to trigger it has to be linked to the same message
different types of variables if you want to store If you create a number of scripts, you may need as the broadcast.

Step by step

1 Create the mouse 2 Set keys

Change the image from a cat to a mouse by going to Costumes > Click on Scripts, and change When Right Arrow Key Pressed to
Import > Animals > Mouse 1. Then reduce the sprite size by clicking on When r Key Pressed. Well use this to start a new game (r is for reset).
the Shrink sprite icon (circled) and then the mouse. We set it to about Then drag Move 10 Steps off the bottom of the script. If you drop it
the size of our thumbnail. back in the left side, it will be deleted.

3 Create and name variable 4 Reset the score

Click on Variables in the top-left (see boxout above for more details on Under the script When r Key Presses, add the lines show (from
what they are). Click on Make A Variable and enter the variable name Looks), Go To X:100, Y:100 (from Motion, dont forget to change 0s
as score. Repeat the process to create a variable called over. to 100s), Set Score To 0 and Set Over to 0 (both from Variables).

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5 Add broadcast 6 Create a loop

Add the block Broadcast to the bottom of the When r Key Pressed We can create loops that cycle through the same code many times.
script. Once its there, click on the drop-down menu and select New... Continue the script with Repeat Until (from Control), and then
and give the message the name start. Well use this to let the other drag and drop = (from Operators), then drag Over (from
sprite know that the game has started. Variables) into the left-hand side of the = and enter 1 on the right.

7 Add to your loop 8 Hide the mouse

Inside the Repeat Until Over = 1 block, add Change score By 1 (from Once the game has finished (and the cat has got the mouse), the
Variables), Move 7 Steps (from Motion) and If On Edge, Bounce Repeat Until loop will end and the program will continue underneath
(also from Motion). These three pieces of code will be constantly it. Drag Hide (from Looks) under the loop, so the mouse disappears
repeated until the variable over gets set to 1. when this happens.

9 Resize your cat 10 Move the cat

Select Choose New Sprite From File > Cat 4, and shrink the sprite In the scripts for the new sprite, start a new script with When I Receive
down to an appropriate size, as we did with the mouse. Each sprite has start (from Control), and Go To X:-100 Y:-100. This will move the cat
its own set of scripts. You can swap between them by clicking on the over to the opposite corner of the screen from the mouse. (0,0) is the
appropriate icon in the bottom-right. middle.

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11 Give the cat a loop 12 Set the difficulty

As with the mouse, the cat also needs a loop to keep things going. Add Inside the Repeat Until block, add Point Towards Sprite 1 (from
Repeat Until (from Control), and then in the blank space add Motion) and Move 4 Steps (also from Motion). The amount the cat
Touching Sprite 1 (from Sensing). This will keep running until the cat and mouse move in each loop affects the difficulty of the game. We
(sprite 2) catches the mouse (sprite 1). found 4 and 7, respectively, to work well.

13 Finish the loop 14 Tell the player the game is over

The loop will finish when the cat has caught the mouse the game is We now want to let the player know that the game is over. We will
over, so we need to stop the script on Sprite 1. We do this by adding do this in two ways: with audio, and on screen. Add Play Drum 1
Set over To 1 (from Variables) underneath the Repeat Until block. for 1 Beats (from Sound), then Say Mmmm Tasty For 1 Secs
This will cause Sprite 1s main loop to finish. (from Looks).

15 Display a score 16 Play your game!

Finally, we can let the player know their score. We increased the Press [r] and play! You can use the up and down arrows to move the
variable score by one every loop, so this will have continued to go up. mouse around. You can make it easier or more difficult by changing
Add Say You Scored For 1 Secs, then drag another Say for 1 the size of the sprites and the amount they move each loop. Good luck
Secs block and then drag score (from Variables) into the blank field. and happy gaming!Q

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Further Scratch
Weve dived in, but lets now look at the fundamentals of Scratch to
understand how our programs work and set up a straightforward quiz.

H
ow did you learn to program? Typically, we think of a
person sitting in front of a glowing screen, fingers Fig 1.0 The logic for
slowly typing in magic words that, initially, mean our logo sprite.
nothing to the typist. And in the early days of coding, that was
the typical scene, with enthusiasts learning by rote, typing in
reams of code printed in magazines.
In this modern era, when children are now encouraged to
learn coding concepts as part of their primary school
education, we see new tools being used to introduce coding
to a younger generation, and the most popular tool is the
subject of this very tutorial.
Scratch, created by MIT, is a visual programming Fig 1.2 This is the code
environment that promotes the use of coloured blocks over that clears effects.
chunks of code. Each set of blocks provides different
functionality and introduces the concepts of coding in a to version 2.
gentle and fun way. Children as young as six are able to use As mentioned, Scratch uses a block-based system to
Scratch, and its now being heavily used in the UK as part of teach users how different functions work in a program. This
the curriculum for Key Stages 1 to 3 (6 to 14 years old), and can be broken down into the following groups and colours:
as part of the Code Club scheme of work. Motion (dark blue) This enables you to move and control
Scratch uses a For the purpose of this tutorial, we are using the current sprites in your game.
three-column UI. stable version of Scratch, which at the time of writing is 1.4. Control (orange) These blocks contain the logic to control
From left to right: Version 2 of Scratch is available as a beta and reports suggest your program (loops and statements) and the events needed
Block Palette,
that its very stable to use, but theres a number of differences to trigger actions, such as pressing a key. In Scratch 2.0, the
Script Area and
between the locations of blocks when comparing version 1.4 events stored in Control have their own group, which is called,
The Stage.
naturally enough, Events.
Looks (purple) These blocks can alter the colour, size or
costume of a sprite, and introduce interactive elements, such
as speech bubbles.
Sensing (light blue) For sensing handles, the general
input needed for your program, for example, keystrokes,
sprite collision detection and the position of a sprite on
the screen.
Sound (light purple) Adds both music and sound effects to
your program.
Operators (green) This enables you to use mathematical
logic in your program, such as Booleans, conditionals and
random numbers.
Pen (dark green) This is for drawing on the screen in much
the same way that logo or turtle enable you to do so.
Variables (dark orange) Creates and manipulates
containers that can store data in your program.
By breaking the language down into colour-coded blocks
Scratch enables anyone to quickly identify the block they

Scratch online
Scratch is available across many platforms. It with the same interface and blocks of code, but version of Scratch from the website. This very
comes pre-loaded on every Raspberry Pi running with a few subtle differences. This is the latest latest version is still in beta but reports show that
Raspbian and is available for download from version of Scratch and you can save all of your it is very stable and ready for use. Scratch 2.0
http://scratch.mit.edu. But did you know that work in the cloud ready to be used on any PC you uses Adobe Air and is available across all
there is an online version that provides all of the come across. If you wish to use the code built platforms including Linux. Adobe dropped its
functionality present in the desktop version, but online on a PC that does not have an internet support for Air on Linux a few years ago but you
requires no installation or download? Head over connection, you can download your project and can still download the packages necessary for
to the MIT website (above) and youll be greeted run it offline. You can also download the latest Scratch 2.0 to work.

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need. Children typically work answered a question correctly.
via the colour-coding system at insult Neil sends a broadcast to
first, and then through the Matt to taunt the player.
natural process of playing they Score Neil sends a broadcast to
understand the link between Matt triggering Matt to tell the
each of the blocks and how player their score.
they work together. game_over Neil sends Matt
Fig 1.3 This resets Neils sprite and the
a broadcast to trigger the end of guesses variable.
The environment the game.
Scratch uses a clear and As we can see (Fig 1.1, left),
structured layout, which is for each of these broadcasts
divided into three columns. Matt is triggered to run a certain
The first column is: sequence of code. Matt also has
Block palette This is where a script thats run in the event of
our blocks of code are stored clicking on the green flag. Fig 1.2
and sorted by function. (see left) shows the code that
Fig 1.1 The code used
Script area In the second clears any special effects used
for Matt to receive
column is an area where you on his sprite.
broadcasts.
can drag our blocks of code Lets move on to Neil. This
from the block palette to add code to our program. sprite has a lot more code than
The stage The third and final column shows the results of Matt. This is because hes the
your programming and can be used to interact with the game main part of our game.
world. At the bottom of this column you will also find the very First, theres the Green Flag
handy Sprites pane. This shows the sprites and assets that event. What this does is triggers
belong to your particular program. Clicking on a sprite will Neils sprite to reset any special
change the focus to that sprite, enabling you to write code for effects that may be in use and
that sprite only. then stores 0 in the variable
called guesses (see Fig 1.3,
Fig 1.4 Part 1 of the main game code.
Building our game above-right).
To write code with Scratch, we need to move blocks of code The second part is the loop
from the block palette to the script area for each sprite or that controls our game. This large loop is triggered once we
background that we want to use in our program. receive the name of the player, which is handled via the code
For this tutorial, we are going to make a quiz game, using associated with the stage, which we will come to later.
two quiz masters, called Matt and Neil. The purpose of the Weve broken Matts main loop into three parts. At the
game is to score more than three points, and you must start of the game, theres a section of code associated with Quick
answer the question correctly to progress to the next round. If the stage that asks for the players name. It then stores that tip
you receive three wrong answers in the game, its game over. as a variable called Answer, which is stored in the Sensing
Right-clicking on
Each of our sprites has their own scripts assigned to run once category of blocks. Once the user enters their name, the
a block of code
an event triggers it. An event is typically clicking on the green script associated to the stage sends a broadcast called is a quick way to
flag to start the game but it can be as complex as listening for player_name. Neils code is waiting to receive this broadcast duplicate or delete
a trigger from another sprite. as a trigger event. Once the code is triggered, Neil will say your code.
Weve given our four game sprites names: Neil is Sprite6, hello to the player by their name, using the Answer variable.
Matt is Sprite7, our logo is Sprite5 and the Game Over image Once we have the formalities out of the way, we move on
is Sprite8. Each of these sprites has their own scripts to the main loop that controls the first question. We wrap the
associated with them, so lets look at what they each do, question in a loop that will repeat until the correct answer is
starting with the logo. We wanted this logo to appear right at given, which is repeat until answer = ubuntu.
the start of the game, but not be visible straight away, so our We then ask the question and run another loop inside of
logic was as follows: the main loop (see Fig 1.5, below). This second loop is an if
When Green Flag clicked. statement which uses a condition to perform a certain
Hide. sequence of code if a condition is true, or if it is false it will run
Wait for 2 seconds. the code associated with else. In the case of the answer being
Show.
Double in size.
Loop 10 times and each time reduce size by 15%
You can see this as Scratch presents it visually in Fig 1.0.
Now lets look at the logic for Matts sprite. Matt has five
sections of code that react to something called a broadcast,
which is basically a way to chain trigger events between
sprites in the program (you can find broadcast under
Control). So we have a number of actions to perform once
we receive these broadcasts from Neil and the stage.
player_name The stage sends a broadcast once the player Fig 1.5 The
second loop of
has entered their name.
Neils code inside
support Neil sends a broadcast to Matt once the player has
the main loop.

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correct, Neil will say that the answer is correct, play a sound
to reward the player, then alter the variable score by 1 point
and, finally, broadcast support to Matt, who will say
something nice. If the player provides an incorrect answer,
then Neil will say Incorrect, play a gong sound effect, and
then increment the guesses variable by 1 and send a
Quick broadcast to Matt who will taunt the player.
tip Part two of the code is exactly the same as the main loop
Blocks that can be of part one and the reason why is because we duplicated the
linked together will code and changed the question and expected answer. To
have a white halo duplicate code in Scratch, you can simply right-click on the
indicating they can
blocks of code and select Duplicate. Hey presto you have
be connected.
doubled your code in just one click.
The first section of the third part is exactly the same as
the main loop from the previous two parts. So lets move Fig 1.7 The Stage contains the sprites but it can also
down to the last four blocks of code (see Fig 1.6, below). Our have its own scripts.
first block is a broadcast score to Matt this will trigger Matt
to tell us the score. We then pause for three seconds to allow we broadcast game_over to Matt, which, in turn, triggers the
Matt to finish speaking. Then we send another broadcast to end of game script.
Matt, who will then run thorough the end of game code The Game Over sprite has two scripts associated with it.
associated with that broadcast. Lastly, we use stop all to stop The first is simply that when the green flag is clicked, to hide
any scripts in the game. the sprite. The second script is triggered when the game_
Fig 1.6 The last
The Green Flag event is the code that controls the over broadcast is sent. It triggers the sprite to reveal itself and
part of the main
code associated number of guesses that the player has. We use conditional set its size to 100%. We then use a loop that will repeat 10
with Neil. logic to say that when the number of guesses is equal to 3, times to change the size and rotation of the sprite, giving us a
rotating zooming effect, just like youd see in the classic 8-bit
games of the 1980s.

The stage
As well as being the home of our sprites, the stage can also
contain its own scripts (see Fig 1.7, above). For our game we
have two sections of code on the stage. Both sections of code
are triggered by the click on Green Flag event. The first part
resets two variables called guesses and score. We then ask
the player to provide their name, which is then broadcast to
Matt and Neil, and starts the main code loop assigned
to Neil. The second section of code is an infinite loop that
will play the loop DrumMachine continuously and set its
volume to 50%.
As we mentioned earlier on, variables are a great way to
store data. But before we can use one, we need to create it. To
create a variable, we need to use the Variables button from
the block palette. In there you will find the Make a variable
button. Click on it and you will see Fig 1.9 (see right).
In our game we used two variables score and guesses
and we want them both to be available for all sprites, so that
Matt and Neil can use them both. Once created, we can easily

Programming concepts
Using Scratch is great fun but did you realise that Parallelism This is the principle of running rules that we all learn in school. We can apply
you are also learning to code? No matter what more than one sequence of code at the same operators to text and numbers, which enables us
language you use, the underlying concepts of time. Weve used that a lot in our Scratch game to perform calculations in our code and iterate
coding provide a firm foundation. And once because each sprite has its own code that runs data if required.
learnt they can be applied to any coding project. in parallel to each other. Conditionals These form the basis of our logic
The main concepts are: Events This is a trigger that starts a sequence and provide a method for us to compare data
Sequences A series of tasks required to be of code, and the most visible event in our Scratch against the input that is given by the player. We
completed in a certain order. For example, the game here is clicking on the green flag to start have used conditionals in our game to compare
steps needed to solve a maze. the game. the answer given to the expected answer. If they
Loops A way to repeat a sequence. They can Data We use a variable to store the value of our both matched, which in Boolean logic would be
be run for ever (while true) or controlled using a score and we can later retrieve and manipulate classed as True, the player would be awarded a
for statement (for x in range(0,3)). We have the score to show the players progress through point. If they did not match, which would be
used many loops to control the players progress the game. defined as False, the player would have to try
in our game. Operators These are the basic mathematical once again.

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drop these variables into our code, enabling us to reuse their
value many times in the game, see Fig 1.8 below for the
example that we made for our game.

Pseudo code
When trying to understand the logic of our game, we like to
write pseudo code. Pseudo what? we hear you say. This is
when you write down the logic of how your program will work.
Lets look at a simple example:
a has the value of 0
while a is less than 10:
print on the screen the value of a
increment a by 1
So we have our pseudo code, but how do we express this
in a programming language? First, lets do this with Scratch
followed by Python. In Scratch, our code will look like this:
[When Green Flag is clicked]
Set variable a to 0 Fig 1.9 Hit the
forever if a < 10 a=0 Make a Variable
say a for 2 secs while a < 10: button to create
a variable.
change a by 1 print a
This gives the variable a the value of 0. We then create a a=a+1
conditional loop that only loops while a is less than 10. Inside So why did we include that piece of Python code in a
the loop, we ask Scratch to print the value of a for 2 seconds, Scratch tutorial? It simply illustrates that there isnt a lot of
then increment the value of a by 1. This loop will continue until difference in the logic between the two languages, and that
we reach a = 9 and then it will stop as the next value, 10, is Scratch can be used to help understand the logic that powers
not less than 10. In Python our code looks like this many applications. In both Scratch and Python, we create a
variable called a and set its value to be 0, from there we
create a loop that will continue to iterate round until it reaches
9 (which is less than 10). Every time we go round the loop, we
iterate a by 1, allowing us to count the number of times that
we have been around the loop.

Testing our game

Weve done it! Weve made a game. So now lets play our
game. The flow of the game should be as follows:
Click on green flag.
You will be asked for your name.
Matt says hello and Neil says hello and your name.
They both welcome you to the quiz.
Matt prompts Neil to ask the first question.
Neil asks a question.
A box will appear for you to type your answer.
If answer correct, then Neil will say so, Matt will also say
something nice.
Your score will increase by one.
Else if your answer is wrong, you will be taunted by Matt
and the number of guesses will increase by 1, leaving you
with only 2 guesses left. You will then have another chance
to answer the question.
If you guess correctly, you will move on to the next question,
and this will happen twice as there are three questions.
If you answer all the questions correctly, Matt will tell you
your final score and then say Game Over.
The Game Over sprite will appear on screen and all of the
scripts in the game will be turned off.
If the number of guesses made reaches 3 at any point in the
game, then the game will automatically skip to the Game
Over screen.
Were going leave Scratch for now, though this is just
scratching the surface of what you can do with it. Were going
to move back to using the more advanced Python on the
Raspberry Pi over the next twenty or so pages. We hope
Fig 1.8 As you can see, there are two variables in our youve enjoyed learning Scratch; its a great tool to
game: guesses and score. understand coding but its also great fun to learn.Q

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Coding in IDLE
Make Python coding more convenient and start hacking in Minecraft.

T
he rationale for favouring an integrated development interface) for hooking it up to Python. So in no time you can
environment (IDE) is discussed in the Mint section be coding all kinds of colourful, improbable things involving
(see page 28), wherein we met the Geany IDE. obsidian and TNT blocks.
Ultimately, it comes down to being a more centralised,
efficient way to work. Raspbian comes with IDLE an IDE IDLE hands
specifically designed for the Python language and were Well put Minecraft aside for the moment as we introduce
going to use it to further our programming adventures using a IDLE. Press Tab to release the mouse cursor from the game,
game called Minecraft, which you might have heard of. and click on the Raspbian menu. Youll notice that it rather
Youll find Minecraft in the Games menu, so start it up now unhelpfully appears behind the Minecraft window. This is
as a pre-coding warm-up. Click on Start Game and then because of the selfish way the game accesses the GPU, in
Create New to generate a new world. After a few seconds, effect ignoring anything else on the screen and summarily
youll find yourself in the Minecraft world. You can navigate drawing on top of it. So either minimise the Minecraft window
with the W, A, S and D keys, and look around with the mouse. or put it somewhere out of the way. We need it open so that
Space makes you (actually the Minecraft protagonist, whose IDLE can talk to it.
name is Steve) jump, and double-tapping Space makes you Youll find Python 2 and 3 versions of IDLE in the
fly (or fall, if you were already flying). You can bash away at the Programming menu. The Minecraft Python API has been
landscape with the left mouse button the right button is updated to support version 3, so use that one. Theres a quick
used for placing blocks. To choose a type of block to place, guide to the interface opposite note that only the
press E to bring Interpreter window
up a menu. opens initially.
In the event In no time you can be coding all Select File >
that youre
already a
kinds of colourful, improbable Open, then navigate
to the python/
Minecraft
aficionado, youve
things involving TNT blocks. folder and open the
helloworld.py file
probably noticed we made in the
that the Pi edition is slightly restricted. Theres no crafting, no previous tutorial. The Editor window opens to display our
enemies and no Nether, but it does support networked play, code, complete with helpful syntax highlighting. From the Run
and it is free. It also has another trick up its sleeve it comes menu, select Run Module or press F5. The Interpreter window
with a comprehensive API (application programming now springs to life with its greeting. If you edit the code

Steve feels
catastrophically
compelled to
introduce his
sword to the
TNT. Its actually
harmless
because its not
live. This can
be changed,
however...

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 The IDLE interface
WorldMags.net
Debug
The built-in debugger helps
you to track down any errors
in your code. It also shows any
variables, and navigates any
breakpoints youve set up in
the Editor.

Interpreter
We can use this shell exactly
as we did earlier when we ran
Python from the command line.
Output from programs run from
the Editor appear here.

Class browser
This is where the functions,
classes or methods of any
code we have open appear.
You can access it from the Run menu Editor
Window menu. Youll find the Run Module option (F5) here. This This is where we edit our code. Similar to Geany (see page
checks the syntax of your code, then executes it, 28), Python keywords are highlighted. IDLE auto-indents
with the output appearing in the shell. using four spaces, rather than a tab.

without saving it, the Run Module helpfully asks if you want to current position, and mc.player.setPos() to change it. Add the
save it first you cant run unsaved code. If your code following lines to your code:
contains mistakes, you get an error message and the x, y, z = mc.player.getPos()
offending bit of code is highlighted in red. mc.player.setPos(x, y + 50, z)
Close the helloworld.py file and start a new one by Save this update, and again make sure the Minecraft
choosing File > New from the Interpreter window. Well start window is visible before running the module. As before, the
our new program with the boilerplate code required to get message is displayed, but then we suddenly find ourselves
Python talking to our Minecraft game: high in the sky and falling fast. Fortunately, Steve doesnt get
from mcpi.minecraft import Minecraft hurt in the game, and hell land somewhere around where
mc = Minecraft.create() he was before the program was run, presumably a little
The first line imports the Minecraft module into our code discombobulated, though
dont worry too much about the awkward syntax here, but
do worry about getting the capitalisation correct. The second Catching the bug
line sets up a new object, mc (short for minecraft), using the We can use IDLEs built-in debugger to see this happening
create() function that we imported in the first line. The mc step by step. Right-click the final setPos() line and choose
object acts as a conduit between our code and the Minecraft Set Breakpoint. Next, in the Interpreter window, choose
game. Now lets add a third line, so that our program actually Debug > Debugger. Now return to your program and run it
does something: once again. The debugger enables you to run step by step
mc.postToChat(Hello Minecraft World) through your code, which is incredibly useful for (funnily
Save this file in the python/ folder as hellomc.py. Now enough) ridding your code of bugs.
arrange windows so that both your code and Minecraft are By defining a breakpoint, we can also tell IDLE to execute
visible, and run your program. If all goes according to plan, a everything up to this line, and on our go ahead continue. From
message should appear in the game. A few seconds later, it the debugger window, choose Go. Notice that in the game
will vanish. Weve manipulated the games chat feature to window we get as far as displaying the message, but not as
display messages not from other users, but from our own far as being sent skyward. Theres a lot of stuff you neednt
program. And we can do an awful lot more. worry about going on in the debugger, but notice that the
As you [you mean Steve Ed.] wander around the variables x , y and z from the getPos() line have been
Minecraft world, youll notice that some numbers in the top- calculated in the Globals panel. Press Go again to initiate
left change. These give your position in terms of a 3D Steves catapulting skyward.
co-ordinate system. Dont worry if the idea of doing geometry The Minecraft API also contains getBlock() and
is terrifying or offensive for now, all you need to know is that setBlock() functions for probing and manipulating the
the x and z directions are parallel to the worlds surface, and environment. These functions are beyond the scope of this
the y direction determines your height. primer, unfortunately, but youll be able to find some great
The API contains functions for working with the players Minecraft tutorials at Martin OHanlons handy website:
position: we can use mc.Player.getPos() to get the players http://stuffaboutcode.com. Q

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Python 3: Go!
Learning to program with Python neednt involve wall-climbing or hair-tearing
just follow our three guides to Python prowess.
>>> quit()
However, your first lines of code really ought to be more
positive than that, so lets instead do a cheery:
>>> print('Hello world.)
Having pressed Enter and greeted our surroundings, we
can get down to some proper coding. Its useful to accept and
work with user input, which is accomplished as follows:
>>> name = input(State your name )
Note the space before the closing quote. The command
prints the given prompt and waits for something to be typed,
which will appear alongside. This means that when the user
starts typing their name (or whatever else they want), it is
separated from our curt demand. We could also have used a
print() line to display this prompt, and then instead used a
blank input call as follows:
>>> name = input()
This means that input is accepted on a new line. Either
way, the users input is stored as a string in a variable called
name. From the interpreter, we can see the values of any
variable just by typing its name however, we can also use
the print function:
>>> print(Greetings, name, enjoy your stay.)
The print() function can work with as many arguments as
you throw at it, each one separated by a comma. Note that
we dont need to put spaces around our variable, as we did
with the input function; by default, print separates
arguments with a space. You can override the behaviour by
specifying a sep parameter to the function for example, the

A
fter the basics lets delve into Python. Learning a new following code uses a dot:
programming language can be as daunting as >>> print(Greetings, name, enjoy your stay.,sep=.)
it is rewarding, all the more so for those embarking On the other hand, using sep= instead gives no
on their maiden coding voyage. Exactly which language is separation at all. Besides separators, print() also issues a
most suitable for beginners can be debated until the bovine newline character, represented by the string \n after the
herd returns, but Python is certainly a worthy candidate. final argument. This can be easily changed, though, by
Python code is easy to follow, the syntax favours simplicity specifying the end parameter, which is sometimes desirable,
throughout and its enforcement of indentation encourages depending on the circumstances.
good coding styles and practices. Your distribution probably Besides welcoming people, we can use the interpreter as a
already has some version of Python installed, but for this calculator. It understands + (addition), - (subtraction), *
tutorial were targeting the newer version 3. You can check (multiplication), / (division) and ** (exponentiation), as well
your Python version by opening up a terminal and typing: as many more advanced maths functions if you use the
$ python -V maths module. For example, to find the square root of 999
Many distributions ship with both versions installed, but times 2015 and store the result in a variable x:
some (including Debian 8) still default to the 2.7 series. If the >>> import math
previous command indicated that this was the case, see what >>> x = math.sqrt(999 * 2015)
happens if you do: One of many things that Python helpfully takes care of for
$ python3 us is data types. Our first variable name was a string, while
If that doesnt work, then youll need to find the python3 the recently defined x is a floating point number (or float for
packages from your package manager. They should be short). Unlike typed languages, where we would have to
straightforward to locate and install. If, on the other hand, the explicitly specify the type of a variable where it is defined,
command succeeded, then you will, besides being availed of Python is smart enough to figure out that sort of information
version information, find yourself at the Python 3 interpreter. for itself, saving us the trouble. Also, Python variables do not
Here you can execute code snippets on the fly, and here is have fixed types, so we could actually recast x above to an
where we will begin this tutorial. You can exit the interpreter at integer with:
any time by pressing Ctrl+D or by typing: >>> x = int(x)

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Raspberry Pi-thon
If youre following this tutorial on a Raspberry Pi IDLE enables you to write and edit multiple lines version. Previous Raspbian versions came with
(1 or 2) and using the Raspbian distribution, of code as well as providing a REPL (Read only the former, but if youve done an apt-get
theres good news: you dont need to perform Evaluate Print Loop) for immediate feedback. To dist-upgrade recently, youll probably find that
any additional steps to get Python working. In see this in action, select New Window, hammer the new version has been pulled in. But if you
fact, you get the pleasure of a ready-to-roll out a few lines of code and then run them by dont have Python 3 installed (in other words
development environment called IDLE. You might pressing F5 or selecting Run Module from the running python3 returns command not found,
find this more fun to work with than the Run menu. then you can get it by opening LXTerminal and
command-line interpreter we use throughout Newer versions of Raspbian come with both issuing the following commands:
this tutorial, and such things certainly become versions 2 and 3 of Python, together with two $ sudo apt-get update
advantageous when working with larger projects. separate IDLE shortcuts for starting each $ sudo apt-get install python3

Now x has been rounded down to the nearest whole number. arguments specifying the start value and step size of the
We could convert it to a string as well, using the str type. range. This means that we can get all the odd numbers
Another important construct in Python is the list. A list is between 5 and 19 (including the former but excluding the
defined by using square brackets and may contain any and all latter) by using:
manner of data even including other lists. Heres an >>> twostep = list(range(5,19,2))
arbitrary example: Negative step sizes are also supported, so we could count
>>> firstList = [aleph, beth, 3.14159265] down from 10 to 1 with range(10,0,-1).
Items in our list are zero-indexed, so we access the first Items can be inserted into lists or removed from them
item, for example, with firstList[0] and the third one with by using various methods. Methods in Python are
firstList[2]. Some languages are one-indexed, which some properties of an object, and are called by suffixing said
people find more intuitive, but Python is not one of them. object with a dot, followed by the method name. So we could
Strings are similar to lists (in that they are a sequence of add 19 to the end of our previous list by using the append()
characters) and many list methods can be applied to them. method, such as:
Thus we can get the first character of name with name[0]. >>> twostep.append(19)
We can also get the last character using name[ -1] rather We could also insert the value 3 at the beginning of the list
than having to go through the rigmarole of finding the strings with twostep.insert(0,3). There are many other list methods,
length first, for which you would have to use the len() which you can peruse using help(list). Help is available for
function. Strings are immutable which means that once any Python keyword and many other topics, and this can be a
theyve been defined, they cannot be changed but this is very useful resource when you get stuck.
fine because they can be redefined, copied or reconstructed When you start working with multiple lists, you might
depending on our purposes. witness some rather strange behaviour, such as the diagram
A particularly useful construct is list (or string) slicing.
We can get the first two elements of our list by using
firstList[:2], or all but the first item with firstList[1:]. These
are short forms of the more general slicing syntax [x:y],
which returns the substring starting at position x and ending
at position y. Omitting x defaults to the beginning of the list,
and omitting y defaults to the end. One can even specify a
third parameter, which defines the so-called step of the slice.
For example, the slice [x:y:2] gives you every second item
starting at position x and ending at position y, or wherever the
previous step lands. Again, this can be abbreviated if you
just want every second item from the whole list to [::2].
Negative step sizes are also permitted, in which case our
starting point x is greater than y, and omitting x defaults to
the end of the list. Thus slicing our list above like so
returns the reverse of that list:
>>> firstList[::-1]
Besides defining lists by explicitly specifying their
members, there are a number of constructs available for
defining lists that have some sort of pattern to them. For
example, we can make the list [0,1,2,3,4,5] by using
list(range(6)). In Python 3, the range() function returns an
iterator (it doesnt contain any list items but knows how to
generate them when given an index), so there is an additional
function call to turn it into a list proper. Again, there is
potential for 0-based grievances, because 6 is not in that list,
and again its something we simply have to get used The IDLE environment is ideal [ha, ha Ed] for developing larger Python
to. Similar to slicing, the range() function can take optional projects. Its included in the Raspbian distribution, too.

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opposite illustrates. This seemingly inconsistent behaviour is year = int(year)
all to do with how variables reference objects internally We met the input statement on the first page, so this code
variables are really just labels, so many variables can point to just keeps asking you the same thing until an appropriate
the same thing. value is selected. We use the less than (<) and greater than or
Very often, the canny coder makes extensive use of loops, equal to (>=) operators conjoined with an or statement to
wherein a codeblock is iterated over until some condition is test the input. So long as year has an unsuitable value, we
met. For our first loop, were using the for construct to do keep asking. It is initialised to 0, which is certainly less than
some counting. Note the indentation here; things inside a for 1900, so we are guaranteed to enter the loop. You could
loop (or indeed any other block definition) must be indented, change 1900 if you feel anyone older than 115 might use your
otherwise you get an error. When you start such a block in the program. Likewise, change 2015 if you want to keep out
interpreter, the prompt changes from >>> to . Python (honest) youngsters.
permits any number of spaces to be used for indentation, but Whenever you deal with user input, you must accept the
consistency is key. We (alongside many others) like to use possibility that they will enter something not of the required
four spaces. form. They could, for example, enter their grannys name, or
>>> for count in range(5): the first line of The Wasteland, neither of which can be
print(iteration #, count) interpreted as a year. Fortunately, the last line of our example
Enter a blank line after the print statement to see the does a good job of sanitising the input if we try to coerce a
stunning results of each iteration in real time. string consisting of anything other than digits to an int, then
The variable count takes on the values 0 to 4 from the we end up with the value 0, which guarantees that we
range iterator, which we met earlier. The result is that we continue looping the loop. Note that the input function
issue five print statements in only two lines of code. If you always returns a string, so even good input for example,
want to iterate over different values for count, then you can 1979 needs some treatment; trying to compare a string
use a different range or even a list you can loop over any and an int results in an error.
objects you like, not just integers.
Another type of loop is the while loop. Rather than Grown-up coding
iterating over a range (or a list), our wily while loop keeps Its time for us to level up and move on from the interpreter
going over its code block until some condition ceases to hold. even though its awfully handy for checking code snippets, it
We can easily implement for loop functionality with this is not suitable for working on bigger projects. Instead well
construct, as shown here: save our code to a text file with a .py extension, which we can
>>> count = 0 either import into the interpreter or run from the command
>>> while count < 5: line. You need to find a text editor on your system you can
print(count) always use nano from the command line, but you may prefer
count += 1 to use a graphical one, such as Gnomes gedit, KDEs kate or
The print statement belongs to the loop, thanks to the the lightweight Leafpad, which comes with Raspbian. You may
indentation. The code still runs if you dont indent this last even wish to use a development environment such as IDLE
line, but in that case the print call is not part of the loop, so (which comes with Raspbian and is designed especially for
only gets executed at the end, by which time the value of the language) but we dont require any of its many features
This Pythonic
creed is worth count has reached 5. Other languages delineate code blocks for this introduction, so just a simple text editor will suffice.
studying. using brackets or braces, but in Python its all colons and Having found such a thing, enter the following listing:
There are all judicious use of white space. That while loop was rather #! /usr/bin/env python3
kinds of bad trivial, so lets look at a more involved example: # My first Python 3 code.
programming >>> year = 0 # The # symbol denotes comments so anything you put here
habits, which >>> while year < 1900 or year >= 2015: doesnt matter
are best to avoid year = input(Enter your year of birth: )
from day zero. import datetime

def daysOld(birthday):
today = datetime.date.today()
ageDays = (today - birthday).days
return(ageDays)

if __name__ == __main__':
weekdays = [Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday]

birthyear = int(input(Enter your year of birth: ))

birthmonth = int(input(Enter your month of birth: ))
birthdate = int(input(Enter your date of birth: ))

bday = datetime.date(birthyear, birthmonth, birthdate)

dayBorn = weekdays[bday.weekday()]

print(Hello, you were born on a, dayBorn)

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print(and are, daysOld(bday),days old.)
Save the file as ~/birthday.py (Python programs all have
the .py extension). Before we analyse the program, you can
dive straight in and see it in action. Almost, anyway first we
must make it executable by running the following command
from the terminal, then we can call it into action:
$ chmod +x ~/birthday.py
$ ~/birthday.py
If you entered everything correctly, then the program
works out how many days old you are and on which weekday
you were born. Due to leap years, this would be some pretty
fiddly calendrics if we had to work it out manually (though
John Conways Doomsday algorithm provides a neat trick).
As well as having a simple core language structure, Python
also has a huge number of modules (code libraries), which
also strive for simplicity. This example uses the datetime
module, which provides all manner of functions for working
with dates and times, oddly enough.
Well do a quick rundown of the code, because there are a
couple of things that we havent seen before. The first line just
tells Bash (or whatever shell you use) to execute our script
with Python 3. Next, after the comments, we import the
datetime module and then begin a new codeblock. The def
keyword is used to define a function weve used plenty of
functions in this tutorial, but now were making our own. Our
function takes one parameter, birthday, and uses the
datetime module to do all the hard work, returning the
number of days the user has been alive.
The strange if statement is one of Pythons uglier You might
constructions. The special variable __name__ takes on the such as weekday() and year(), date objects also allow for run into this
special value __main__ when the code is run from the general date arithmetic to be done on them. Therefore we can apparently
command line, as opposed to being import-ed into another subtract two dates, which returns a datetime.timedelta spooky action at
program or the interpreter. We have written a bona fide object, which we can then convert to an integer using days() a distance when
Python module here, but when we import it, everything in the or seconds(). working with
lists. Its not the
if block is ignored. And so concludes the first of our Python coding tutorials
work of Chthonic
The next four lines are similar to what weve come across on the Pi. Weve actually covered a good deal of the core
demons, however,
before. To keep things simple, we havent bothered with list language constructs, and with a little imagination its not
its just how
comprehension for the weekdays, and we trust the user to difficult to develop the ideas weve introduced into a larger Python rolls.
provide sensible dates. You are free to remedy either of these and more exciting project. Help is never far away, though, and
using your newfound skills. you can find some great Python tutorials on the web. The
The datetime module provides a special data type official tutorial (https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/) is
datetime.date and our next line (using the input that we quite extensive, and you can find others at http://
have just harvested) sets our variable bday to one of this tutorialspoint.com and www.codecademy.com.
species. Date objects have various methods, including We also have plemnty more excellent tutorials in this very
weekday(), which we use next. This returns an integer publication. However, learning to code is much more
between 0 and 6, with 0 corresponding to Monday and 6 to about experimentation and dabbling than following
Sunday, so using this as an index into our list weekdays in the instructions. No tutorial can teach this, but hopefully weve
next line gives the required string. The final line calls our sufficiently piqued your curiosity that you will continue your
function from inside the print() function. Besides methods coding adventures. Q

List comprehensions
Lists and the various constructs weve just comprehensions. Our iterator variable j runs we could select only those beginning with Z or
introduced can join forces to form one of over the beginnings of the names of each day of those which have e as their second letter by
Pythons most powerful features: list the week, and then our list comprehension using:
comprehensions. These are a great suffixes the string day the addition operator >>> names = [Dave, Herman, Xavier,
demonstration of Pythons laconic concision. (+) concatenates (in other words, joins) strings Zanthor]
Consider the following example: together. If you want a more arithmetical >>> [j for j in names if j[0] == Z or j[1] == e]
>>> daysShort = [Mon, Tues, Wednes, example, you could try: [Herman, Zanthor]
Thurs, Fri, Satur, Sun] >>> [j ** 3 for j in range(11)] Its worth noting at this point that to test for
>>> days = [j + day for j in daysShort] This returns a list comprising the cubes of equality, we use the == operator. Be careful,
Very often, coders use short variable names, the numbers from 0 to 10. Comprehensions can because a single equals sign is only used for
commonly i, j and k, for ephemeral variables, use all kinds of other constructs as well as for assignment, so doing something such as if a =
such as those which are used in loops or loops. For example, if we have a list of names, 5: would result in an error.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 97

 WorldMags.net
Astro Pi and
Minecraft
We conclude our Python exposition on a recreational note,
combining Minecraft and space exploration.
e have published a fair few guides to the Python

W API for Minecraft:Pi edition for the Raspberry Pi,

see page 108. Theyre not critical for
understanding this tutorial, but are certainly worth checking
out if the idea of programming a voxel-based world appeals.
Also worthy of attention, and also featuring excellent
Minecraft tutorials, is Martin OHanlons excellent website
http://stuffaboutcode.com, whence comes the code used
in this tutorial. The API, besides being a lot of fun, further
edifies the Pis status as an educational tool, because many
young learners find programming much more intuitive when
the results can be visualised three-dimensionally from the
point of view of Steve, the games intrepid hero.
One of the most exciting Raspberry Pi projects right now
is the Astro Pi. This is a Hardware Attached on Top (HAT)
expansion board, which features all manner of cool
instrumentation: gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer,
various environmental sensors, a multicoloured LED matrix
and much more. It is available for free for school pupils and
educators from the website http://astro-pi.org, if you can
come up with a good coding idea, and will very soon be
available to the general public. The most exciting thing about
the project is that in November 2015, a Raspberry Pi, attired
with an Astro Pi, will join ESA astronaut Tim Peake for a six-
month stay on board the ISS. A competition is currently
underway across UK schools in which entrants must devise
Python code utilising the Astro Pi. The lucky winners will have
their programs join Tim on his voyage to the ISS, where they
will be run in zero-G. Owing to power requirements aboard
the space station, the Pi cannot be connected to a proper
display its only means of visual feedback is the 64-LED
array. This is multicoloured, though, so can still provide a fair
amount of information.
The Astro Pi ships with a Raspbian SD card preloaded with
all the required drivers and configs, but you can also
download an installer for these. Open a terminal and type:
$ wget -O - http://www.raspberrypi.org/files/astro-pi/astro-pi-
install.sh --no-check-certificate | bash
It takes a while to run on the original, single-core Pi, and
youll need to reboot for everything to work properly. While
were setting things up, make sure youve got Minecraft and
the Python 3 API set up too. These are installed by default on
recent Raspbian versions (there should be an icon on your
desktop).If you dont have it, install it from the repositories:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install minecraft-pi
If you dont have an Astro Pi board, you can still have a lot
of fun playing with the Minecraft Python API. Just start
Astro Pi sits snugly atop Terrestrial Pi, connecting via the GPIO pins. Minecraft, enter a new world, then Alt+Tab back to the

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The mission
On Thursday 19 November 2015, two Raspberry came together to make this exciting outreach electromagnetic interference, sharp edges
Pis (one with the infrared filtered Pi-Noir camera project possible. A number of themes have been assessment, and thermal testing in zero-G
module, and one with the normal Pi-Cam) will identified to inspire junior coders: Space conditions, air warmed by the Pis CPU wont
join astronaut Major Tim Peake aboard a Soyuz Measurements, Spacecraft Sensors, Satellite dissipate (as happens naturally by convection
rocket, blasting off from Baikonur cosmodrome Imaging and Remote Sensing, Space Radiation here on Earth), instead it will just hover around
in (glorious nation of) Kazakhstan. and Data Fusion. being hazardous. The flight case has been
A nationwide coding competition was Getting the Raspberry Pi and Astro Pi precision-engineered to comply with rigorous
launched for primary and secondary school approved for cargo is a complex process vibration and impact tests, as well as to provide
pupils, with the winners having Tim run their anything that is going to be connected to the ISS much needed airflow. It also acts as a giant
code when he arrives at the International Space power supply has to be thoroughly tested. There heatsink for the Pis CPU surfaces on the ISS
Station. Space, industry and education sectors are all manner of considerations, including are not allowed to exceed 45C.

desktop and open a terminal window. From here, start Python The text_colour parameter here specifies the RGB
3 ($ python3) and enter the following: components of the colour. As well as text, we can also work Quick
>>> from mcpi import minecraft with the individual LEDs, using the set_pixels() function. This tip
>>> mc = minecraft.Minecraft.create() probably isnt the type of thing you want to do too much of by Were assuming
>>> mc.postToChat("Hello world.) hand, though, because each LED requires its own colour you use Python 3
The API is capable of much more than this we can triple. You can use this trick as a slight shortcut if youre only throughout this
change the player and camera position, get the ground level going to be working with a few colours, though: series. This project
still works with
at a given set of co-ordinates, and get and set block X = [255, 0, 0] # Red Python 2, but you
information there, too. The following draws a rough and ready O = [255, 255, 255] # White may need to install
representation of a Raspberry Pi (it could be a Pi 2 or a Model the Pillow imaging
B+), component by component: question_mark = [ library with sudo
pip install Pillow.
>>> mc.setBlocks(-6, -3, -9, 7, -3, 11, 35, 13) O, O, O, X, X, O, O, O,
>>> mc.setBlocks(7, -2, -8, 7, -1, 5, 35, 15) O, O, X, O, O, X, O, O,
>>> mc.setBlocks(4, -2, 8, 6, 0, 11, 42) O, O, O, O, O, X, O, O,
>>> mc.setBlocks(0, -2, 8, 2, 0, 11, 42 ) O, O, O, O, X, O, O, O,
>>> mc.setBlocks(-5, -2, 8, -2, 0, 11, 42) O, O, O, X, O, O, O, O,
>>> mc.setBlocks(-5, -2, 1, -2, -2, 1, 35, 15) O, O, O, X, O, O, O, O,
>>> mc.setBlocks(2, -2, -9, -1, -2, -9, 35, 15) O, O, O, O, O, O, O, O,
>>> mc.setBlocks(-6, -2, -7, -6, -2, -6, 42) O, O, O, X, O, O, O, O
>>> mc.setBlocks(-6, -2, -2, -6, -2, 0, 42) ]
>>> mc.setBlock(-6, -2, 3, 35, 15)
>>> mcsetBlocks(0, -2, -2, 2, -2, -4, 35, 15) ap.set_pixels(question_mark)
The setBlocks() function fills the cuboid given by the first It is probably more desirable to type this code into a text
six numbers (the first three are co-ordinates of one corner editor and then import it into Python, rather than work in the
and the next three are co-ordinates of the other corner). The interpreter. So you need to put the first two lines from our E.T.
next number decides the block type (42 stands for iron, while phone home snippet at the top of the program, so that our ap
35 stands for wool). Wool is a special block that comes in 16 object is correctly set up. You can then import it into the
colours; we dont need to specify a colour, but if we wish to do interpreter or run it from the command line if you prefer. As
so, we can through an optional eighth parameter, which in well as dealing with individual pixels, we can also load images
general is referred to as block data. Weve used the
setBlock() function above this just sets up a single block,
so only requires one set of co-ordinates, plus the block type
and optional block data arguments. You can find a thorough
guide to the API at www.stuffaboutcode.com/p/minecraft-
api-reference.html, but well describe what everything does
as we use it.
For now, well turn our attention to coding on the Astro Pi.
This connects to the Pi via the General Purpose Input/Output
(GPIO) pins, but thanks to the astro_pi Python module, we
dont need to worry about coding at the level of individual
pins. The module provides some simple and powerful
functions for querying sensors and manipulating the LED
array. For example, we can display a suitably space-themed
message in an extraterrestrial shade of green using the
show_message function:
from astro_pi import AstroPi
ap = AstroPi()
ap.show_message(E.T. phone home..., text_colour = [0 Space case. This carefully machined and very strong case (its made of 6063
,255,0]) grade aluminium, dont ya know) will house the Pi on its space odyssey.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 99

 WorldMags.net
directly on to the array by using the load_image() function as $ git clone https://github.com/martinohanlon/
follows: MinecraftInteractiveAstroPi.git
ap.load_image("~/astro-pi-hat/examples/space_invader.png") This downloads all the required project files into the
Bear in mind the low resolution here images with lots of ~/MinecraftInteractiveAstroPi/ directory. Before we run it,
detail dont work very well, but its excellent for displaying make sure Minecraft is started. Also, if youve still got a
pixel art and the like. Also, the LEDs are only capable of Python session open from the beginning of the tutorial, then
displaying 15-bit colour depth (five bits for red, six for blue, exit it now (Ctrl+D) so that things dont get confused. Now
and five for green), so colours are dithered accordingly. were good to go. Because the Astro Pi libraries need GPIO
We can also query the Astro Pis many inputs using the access, and this in turn requires root privileges, we need to
self-explanatory functions get_humidity(), get_ run it through sudo:
temperature() and get_pressure(). The gyroscope, $ cd ~/MinecraftInteractiveAstroPi
accelerometer and magnetometer are all integrated into a $ sudo python mcinteractiveastropi.py
so-called Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). We wont be doing Everything in Minecraft is located by co-ordinates triples
any inertial measuring, but you can find all the relevant API of numbers which identify tiles by their x, y and z positions.
calls in the documentation at https://github.com/astro-pi/ The y co-ordinate measures height, x and z are harder to
astro-pi-hat/blob/master/docs/index.md. Youll also find define, but they are nonetheless at right angles to each other
some great examples in the ~/astro-pi/examples directory, and go in directions parallel to the ground plane. Normally, the
which show off everything from joystick input to displaying a player will start at position 0,0,0 (you can see your
rainbow pattern. Run these with, for example: co-ordinates in the upper-left corner), in which case you
$ cd ~/astro-pi-hat might notice that it suddenly got dark in Minecraft-world. If
$ sudo python3 rainbow.py you look up, you will see that this partial eclipse is caused by
the appearance of a blocky contraption that our code has
The virtual interactive Astro Pi created. Minecraft allows you to fly by tapping and then
The project were going to undertake is actually the brainchild holding Space. So fly up to this and youll see an introduction
of student Hannah Belshaw, who submitted the idea to the message telling you to hit the virtual Astro Pi by right-clicking
Astro Pi competition. The (extensive) coding was done by it with your sword. Left-clicking results in Steve hitting stuff
Martin OHanlon, to whom were ever so grateful. The project properly, which would destroy the blocks that constitute our
draws a Raspberry Pi (like we did earlier), but this one is virtual device, so dont do that.
equipped with the Astro Pi HAT. You can explore all the components of the Pi and the Astro
Rather than have you copy out the code line by line, well Pi. Hitting the sensors, the latter avails you of the local
download it straight from GitHub, and explain select parts of pressure, temperature and humidity. You can also find out the
it. Dont expect to understand everything in the code right orientation of the Astro Pi, which is given in terms of the pitch,
away theres a lot of stuff we havent covered but once roll and yaw angles. Bear in mind that you need to have
you get a couple of footholds, itll serve as an excellent base calibrated the magnetometer for these readings to make
for adding your own ideas. To download the code to your sense. Instructions for this are at www.raspberrypi.org/
home directory, just open up a terminal and issue: forums/viewtopic.php?t=109064. You can also use the
$ cd ~ virtual joystick to move the virtual assemblage in three

Sword-wielding
Steve stands
ominously close
to a USB port.
Something
about knives
and toasters...

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dimensions: the button toggles whether it moves in the
horizontal or vertical plane.

Studying the code

If you open up the main project file, mcinteractiveastropi.py,
in a text editor (or IDLE, if you prefer), you can catch a glimpse
of how things work. We wont go into the specifics of object-
oriented programming and classes; all you need to
understand is that the board we draw in Minecraft is an
instance of the object whose description begins with the
class at line 19. This object has its own variables and
functions, and can in fact be instantiated as many times as
you like. The particular instance created by the code is called
mcap and is defined way down on line 272.
Quite early on is defined a list called LED_WOOL_COL,
which reconciles the 16 colours of wool available with
something that the LED array can understand. When we hit a
virtual LED block, it changes colour and the corresponding
LED on the array does likewise. This is done in the interact()
function, which in fact deals with all the components that can Bring TNT
be hit. Rather than using the setBlock() functions, the virtual exploring, this block of code contains a main loop which to life with
the magic of
Raspberry Pi is constructed of objects from the custom constantly polls for new events (the player hitting blocks):
the Minecraft
shapeBlock class (which you can explore in the while(True):
Python API.
minecraftstuff.py file). These have a property called tag, #each time a block is hit pass it to the interactive
This probably
which is a human-readable string describing the blocks in astro pi isnt a safe
question. When a block is hit, this property is checked using a for blockHit in mc.events.pollBlockHits(): place to stand.
series of if and elif (short for else-if in other words, if the mcap.interact(blockHit.pos)
previous condition didnt hold, try this one) statements and #keep reading the astro pi orientation data otherwise
the appropriate action is taken. Some of the components just it goes out of sync
display an informational message using mc.postToChat(); ap.get_orientation()
some, such as the environmental and orientation sensors, #sleep for a bit
query the Astro Pi hardware and display current readings; the sleep(0.1)
joystick even moves the Pi around. This loop runs until it is forcefully interrupted, either by
Because the sensor data often has lots of decimal places pressing Ctrl+C or by killing the Minecraft program. We pass
that we may not be interested in, we take advantage of the position of each block-hitting event to the interact()
Pythons string formatting capabilities to round things function, which figures out what has happened and what to
appropriately. We can use curly braces as placeholders for do. The main loop is wrapped in try block, which is a
variables, then use the .format() method to determine how construct usually used in conjunction with an except: for
they are displayed. For example, the following string (from line catching errors and exceptions. In this case, it is followed with
157) formats the readings for the combined humidity and a finally:, which is executed (whether or not an exception
temperature sensor rounded to two decimal places: arises) when the try: completes. In our case, this ensures that
humidity = {}, temperature = {}.format(round(humidity,2), we kill our running code with Ctrl+C, the virtual Pi is
round(temp, 2)) dematerialised, and the Astro Pi is reset.
Weve already met the slightly odd if __name__ == __ This is a really great project to explore and extend, so go
main__: construct in our first tutorial on page 96. Its used to forth and do these things. Also great work, Hannah, for
discern whether the program has been executed from the coming up the idea in the first place, and mad props to Martin
command line or just imported. So that the player can keep for allowing us to use his code. Q

Minecraft: Pi Edition API, teleporting and TNT

Even if you dont have an Astro Pi, you can still Weve given some defaults for the arguments for j in range(5):
have a lot of fun with the Minecraft API. Once here, so that calling teleport() with no xedge_lo = x - 5 + j
youve imported the module, you need to set up arguments takes Steve back to the origin (where xedge_hi = xedge_lo + 10 - 2 * j
the mc object (which handles all communication the Astro Pi is drawn). zedge_lo = z - 5 + j
between Python and Minecraft), then youre If youve had a look at the various blocks zedge_hi = zedge_lo + 10 - 2 * j
good to go. We have already seen the available, youll no doubt have discovered TNT mc.setBlocks(xedge_lo, y+ j + 2, zedge_lo,
postToChat() and setBlocks() functions, but (block type 46). Sadly, there isnt a way to blow it xedge_hi, y + j + 2, zedge_hi, 46, 1)
there are a few more. For instance, we can move up in-game. But fret not mature adults can get The magic is all in that final [code] 1 [/code].
the player to the coordinates of our choosing their explosions by using some additional block This sets the TNT to be live, so that if you left-
with player.setPos(). This means that we can data. Heres a function thatll figure out Steves click it with your sword (or anything), then it
write and call a simple teleport function from position and then assemble a substantial begins to flash and pulsate ominously. At this
within the interpreter: pyramid of live TNT above him: point, you ought to migrate to a safe distance.
def teleport(x=0, y=0, z=0): def tnt_pyramid(): Also, for the older, single-core Pis, the resulting
mc.player.setPos(x, y, z) x, y, z = mc.player.getPos() chain reaction will be very taxing.

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 WorldMags.net
Sorting lists
faster in Python
We havent got time for this, its time to sort out that most
fundamental of algorithm classes: sorting (sort of).

Geany is a feature-packed text editor thats great for

editing Python code. Code-folding and highlighting
without the bloat.

W
ithin the human species, sorting things (putting concepts. Furthermore, it enables us to show some of
them into some kind of order) is perceived as Pythons advantages, including its no-nonsense syntax and
anywhere between a necessity (things disordered the simplicity by which we can use graphics. To make things
cause the most dire distress) and a dark ritual into which one easier, were going to work exclusively with lists of integers. All
should not delve. Computers, by comparison, universally of the concepts apply equally well to any other kind of data, of
prefer things to be sorted, because searching and indexing course, but this way we have a well-defined order (ascending
data is much easier if it is in order. Imagine how much less numerical) to aim for.
Quick useful would be an unsorted telephone directory. As such, When challenged with the drudgery-filled task of, say,
various sorting algorithms were developed early in the history putting 52 cards into order, first by suit and then within each
tip of computer science. These enable a modern computer to suit by face value, most people will flounder around with some
If youre using happily sort a several thousand-strong iTunes (err, haphazard piling and re-arranging, and eventually complete
a new version
Rhythmbox) library in a matter of seconds, listing tracks with the task (or give up and find something better to do).
of Matplotlib
with Gnome, you whatever ordering the user desires, be it lexicographical or Machines obviously need to be more systematic (and
might find that chronological. In theory, one could even re-enact Rob dedicated) in their approach. Its straightforward enough to
the animation Flemings autobiographical ordering (the order in which he come up with a couple of sorting algorithms that work, albeit
described in the
purchased them) from the Nick Hornby book High Fidelity, not very quickly. Well sum up some of these with pseudocode
box displays only
a blank window. albeit several orders of magnitude faster. below. Pseudocode is a freeform way of expressing code that
A workaround Sorting may not be the most glamorous of programming lies somewhere in between human language and the
is to add pylab. topics, and indeed Pythons built-in sorting methods will programming language. Its a good way to plan your
pause(0.001) after prove much faster than anything we program here, but it programs, but dont be disheartened when the translation
each draw() call.
serves as a great introduction to various programming becomes difficult. Weve actually overlooked a couple of

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minor details here, but that will all be sorted out when we
write our actual code.
SelectionSort(list):
for each position j in list
find minimum element after position j
if minimum element is smaller than element at j
swap them
Selection Sort is a fairly simple algorithm, but in
simplicity lies beauty. The first loop iteration simply finds the
smallest element in our list and places it, rightfully, at the
beginning. We then start at the second item and see whether
there is a smaller one further down the list, swapping if so.
And so it goes on, until the work is done. Note that we swap
elements here rather than insert them, this is so that we are
only modifying two of our list items; inserting an item would
require the whole list to be shunted down between the
insertion and deletion points, which in the worst case would
mean modifying every item in the list a costly procedure if
If youre looking for an excellent resource for learning and debugging your
said list is long. We met for loops way back on page 50, and code, visit http://pythontutor.com. Here we can see Selection Sort in action.
we can tell that SelectionSort will loop over items in the list
at least once. But in each loop iteration we must find a
minimum element, which for the first few loops (where j is This time we are upfront about our two nested loops, so
small) involves checking most of the list items individually. We again we can deduce O(n^2) complexity. We swap items that Quick
can approximate how long an algorithm takes to run by are not in order, and then move backwards down the list tip
looking at these details. In Selection Sorts worst case we continuing to swap out-of-order entries. Once we get back to Very often, the
will pretty much have two loops one nested inside the other, the beginning, we resume the outer loop, which proceeds simple algorithms
each going over our whole list. We use so-called big O towards the end. What is not immediately obvious, but is outperform
Quicksort for small
notation to express the functions complexity as a function of nonetheless interesting, is that this algorithm (like Selection
lists. As such, you
the input size. In our case, we suppose our list has n items Sort) has sorted the first i entries after that many iterations can create a hybrid
and the crude analysis above says that Selection Sort runs of the outer loop. As it proceeds, an out-of-order element may sorting algorithm
with complexity O(n^2). This isnt saying that Selection be swapped in, but by the end of the inner loop it will be in its which uses
Sorting a list of one item will take one second (actually it right place, having trickled down there by a lengthy swap Quicksort initially,
but as the list is
takes 0 seconds) or a list of five items will take 25 seconds. sequence. Time complexity notwithstanding, InsertionSort,
divided, reverts to
What we can say is that the relationship between input size in many situations, outperforms Selection Sort, the most Selection Sort,
and sorting time, as n gets large, will be less than some obvious one being where the list is nearly sorted to begin with for example.
constant (which depends on the machine) times n^2. This is in other words, list items are not too far from their rightful
slightly disappointing news in laymans terms, Selection places. In this situation, the inner while loop terminates
Sort gets pretty slow pretty quickly. quickly, so the algorithm actually behaves with apparently
Here is another naive sorting algorithm, which is called linear, O(n), complexity.
Insertion Sort: There are a few other naive sorting algorithms that may
InsertSort(list): be worthy of your perusal, including Bubble Sort (aka
for each position j in list Sinking Sort) and its parallel version Odd-Even Sort, but we
k=j have much to get through so its time to look at a grown-up
while number at position k is less then that at position method called Quicksort. Quicksort was developed in 1959
k-1 and, thanks to its swift O(n.log n) complexity, was quickly
swap numbers at positions k and k - 1 adopted as the default sorting algorithm in Unix and other
k=k-1 systems. It is markedly more involved than the algorithms

Visualising sorting algorithms

Python has some incredibly powerful modules the line.set_ydata() and pylab.draw() calls after
that can help visualise the sorting algorithms each line that modifies the list. pylab.ion() # turn on interactive mode
discussed here. Were going to use the #! /usr/bin/env python3 a = list(range(300))
Matplotlib package, which can do all manner of import pylab x = list(range(len(a)))
plotting and graphing. It can be found in the from random import shuffle shuffle(a)
python3-matplotlib package in Debian-based line, = pylab.plot(x,a,m.,markersize=6)
distros. There isnt room here to even scratch the def insertionsort_anim(l): insertionsort_anim(a)
surface of whats possible with Matplotlib, but for j in range(1, len(l)): Save this file as ~/animsorting.py and then
we can show that with just a couple of extra lines, k=j do chmod +x ~/animsorting.py so that it can
our sorting algorithms can be brought to life. while k > 0 and l[k - 1] > l[k]: be run from the comfort of the command line. Its
Here weve modified our insertionsort() l[k - 1], l[k] = l[k], l[k - 1] not the fastest way to display graphics (all the
function, and added some boilerplate code to set line.set_ydata(a) data is redrawn after each list update), but its
everything up. You are encouraged to modify pylab.draw() easy, and much more exciting than the print
selectionsort() and quicksort() too just add k -= 1 statements we used earlier.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 103

 WorldMags.net
hitherto explored, but the rewards shall prove worthy of your choose a pivot. Unfortunately, there is no straightforward way
attention. If Quicksort had a motto, it would be Impera et to do this ideally one would choose a value that is going to
divide because at each stage it does some sneaky end up about halfway in the sorted list, but this cannot be
rearranging and then divides the list into two sublists and acts achieved a priori. In practice, you can often get away with
on them in isolation. (Mergesort, another algorithm, does the choosing a random value here, or if a more systematic
dividing first and the conquering after.) The list is rearranged approach is preferred, the median of the first, middle and final
and divided according to a pivot value all items less than the elements in the list. Well leave the pivot-choosing as a black
pivot are moved to its left (nearer the beginning of the list), box function choosePivot(), which returns the index of the
and all items greater than the pivot are moved to its right. This pivot. So our partition operation, which also returns the index
stage is called the partition operation; once it is complete, we of the pivot, looks like:
work on the two sublists to the left and right of the pivot. And Partition(list, low, high):
here begins the real fun, because we apply exactly the same pivotPos = choosePivot(list, low, high)
methodology to our two smaller lists. Eventually, the division pivotVal = list[pivotPos]
leads to sublists of size 0 or 1, which by definition are sorted. # put the pivot at the end of the list
Quicksort is, then, an example of a recursive algorithm Swap list[pivotPos] and list[high]
an algorithm that calls itself. This is a particularly tricky storePos = low
subject for the novice programmer to get their head around, For each position j from low to high - 1:
mostly because the tendency is to imagine some kind of If list[j] <= pivotVal:
infinite chain of function calls, spiralling into the depths of Swap list[j] and list[storePos]
oblivion and memory exhaustion. While its entirely possible storePos = storePos + 1
to program such a monster, a decent recursive algorithm # put the pivot after all the lower entries
ought to be good at how (and when) it calls itself. Typically, Swap list[storePos] and list[high]
our recursive function calls involve smaller arguments (for Return storePos
example, a sublist rather than the whole list) and there are That may seem complicated, but bear in mind all its doing
so-called base cases where recursion is not used. For is arranging the list so that items less than the pivot are to its
Quicksort, the base cases are the aforementioned lists of left (not necessarily in order). We have only one loop here, so
length 0 or 1. Neglecting the details of the partition operation the partition operation runs in O(n) time. In an ideal situation,
for a moment, our Quicksort pseudocode looks deceptively the partition operation divides the list into two roughly equal
simple (excepting perhaps the recursion element). It takes, parts, so at each stage of the recursion we half the list size.
besides an unsorted list, two extra parameters (low and high). This is where the log(n) in the complexity comes from, since
These specify the low and high indices between which we halving a list of size n about log-to-the-base-two of n times
should sort. For the initial function call, these are zero and the results in a singleton list, whereupon the recursion ceases. It
length of the list, and for subsequent calls they are either from is possible for Quicksort to perform much slower than
Elements the low element to the pivot element or from the pivot stated, though for example, if we start with an already
undergoing element to the high element. sorted list and always use the last (greatest) element as a
Insertion Sort Quicksort(list, low, high): pivot, we are reduced to O(n^2) complexity.
trickle one at a If low < high:
time from right p = Partition(list, low, high) Coding it up
to left. Watch it Quicksort(list, low, p) Its time to translate our three algorithms into Python. We saw
at night-time as Quicksort(list, p + 1, high) briefly how to define functions in the prequel, start the block
an alternative to
The first thing that the Partition() operation must do is with a def keyword, and then indent all the code that belongs
counting sheep.
to that function. In our pseudocode we referred to our list as,
rather unimaginatively, list. Unfortunately, thats one of not
terribly many reserved words in Python, so well instead use l
(for llama). Selection sort then looks like:
def selectionsort(l):
for j in range(len(l)):
minelt = min(l[j :])
mindex = l.index(minelt)
if minelt < l[j]:
l[mindex] = l[j]
l[j] = minelt
For simplicity, were doing an inplace sort here weve
modified the original list so we dont need to return anything.
The Python code is quite different from the pseudocode, but
much of this is cosmetic. We use slicing to find the minimum
element on or after position j and then use the index()
method to find that minimums position in the list. The if
statement is actually superfluous here (weve left it in to
better match the pseudocode), because if the condition is
false (which would mean the minimum element was at
position j), then it would harmlessly swap a list item with itself.
Theres no explicit swap operation, so we have to do that
manually in the last two lines. Incidentally, these can be
further condensed to a single

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 WorldMags.net
Optional arguments and speed considerations
Because our Quicksort() function needs the if high is None: algorithms are possible. Lists in Python have
low and high parameters, the initial call looks high = len(l) their own .sort() method, which happily sort
like quicksort(l, 0, len(a) - 1). Python does You need some reasonably-sized lists to see about 50,000 items instantly.
allow default values for arguments to be Quicksorts benefits we discovered that it Weve tried to use code here thats at once
specified you simply suffix the argument with could sort 10,000 items in about 0.3 seconds, simple and as close to the given pseudocode as
an =. However, we cant use, for example, high = whereas the others took much longer, possible. In general, Python isnt a language
len(l) because were not allowed to use internal particularly Insertion Sort, which took about 14 known for its speed, unfortunately, particularly
variables. The workaround would be to make the seconds. Exact timing depends on the particular when working with lists, though many of its
first part of the function look like: list, of course, but its also worth noting that other functions and modules are implemented
def quicksort(l, low = 0, high = None): (much) faster implementations of these through its C API.

l[mindex],l[j] = l[j],l[mindex]
This means that the whole algorithm is done in four lines.
Swapping variables without this neat Pythonic trick would
involve setting up a temporary variable to hold one of the
values. Save this file as ~/sorting.py or similar, then start the
Python 3 interpreter in your home directory. You should be
able to import your module like so:
>>> import('sorting')
Assuming you didnt see any error messages or make any
typos, you can then apply your algorithm to a shuffled list.
Well use the random module to shuffle a list from 0 to 9 and
test this:
>>> import random
>>> l = list(range(10))
>>> random.shuffle(l)
>>> sorting.selectionsort(l)
>>> l
Voil a freshly sorted list. Of course, its nice to watch the
algorithm progress. So add a print(l) statement at the end of
the loop, with the same indentation so it is still within said
loop. To reload the module and apply the changes, we need to
use the importlib modules reload() function, the standard
import statement wont notice changes on already loaded
modules. Or you can just exit (Ctrl+D) and restart the
interpreter. The screenshot on page 103 shows the output for
the list [6, 9, 2, 4, 5, 3, 8, 7, 1, 0]. We can see the list becoming
sorted from left to right, and that the last stage of the loop
doesnt do anything. worry about the first few lines of pseudocode. Besides
Moving on to Insertion Sort, we translate the pseudocode def partition(l, low, high): animations,
into Python code, which does not look drastically different. storePos = low sorting
Add this to the sorting.py file. l[high], l[storePos] = l[storePos], l[high] algorithms can
def insertionsort(l): for j in range(low, high): be visualised as
wave diagrams.
for j in range(1, len(l)): if l[j] <= l[high]:
Find out more
k=j l[j], l[storePos] = l[storePos], l[j]
at http://
while k > 0 and l[k - 1] > l[k]: storePos += 1 sortvis.org.
l[k - 1], l[k] = l[k], l[k - 1] l[storePos], l[high] = l[high], l[storePos]
k -= 1 return storePos
We start the outer loop at 1 so that the l[k-1] comparison
in the while statement doesnt break things. We also add k > def quicksort(l, low, high):
0 to the while condition because the loop should stop before if low < high:
k gets to zero, rather than try (and fail) to retreat past the p = partition(l, low, high)
beginning of the list. Weve used our swapping shortcut quicksort(l, low, p - 1)
from before and in the final line use the -= notation, which quicksort(l, p + 1, high)
is short for k = k - 1. Try visualising this using the guide in the box on page
Again, add print statements to either the for or while 103 the pylab.draw() function should be called after the
loops to see the algorithms progress. Smaller elements final swap in the partition() function, so that the pivot
are swapped to the beginning of the list one place at a time element is plotted in the correct place.
until the list is sorted. There are many more sorting algorithms, and research is
The Quicksort implementation is a bit more involved. For ongoing to find more, but hopefully this introduction has
the partition operation, were going to take the bold step of shown you something of sorting as well as increased your
just using the first element for the pivot, so we dont need to Python skills. We have more fun lessons ahead. Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 105

 WorldMags.net

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 WorldMags.net
Minecraft:
Start hacking
Use Python on your Pi to merrily meddle with Minecraft.

A
rguably more fun than the generously provided Assuming youve got your Pi up and running, the first step
Wolfram Mathematica: Pi Edition is Mojangs is downloading the latest version from http://pi.minecraft.
generously provided Minecraft: Pi Edition. The latter net to your home directory. The authors stipulate the use of
is a cut-down version of the popular Pocket Edition, and as Raspbian, so thats what wed recommend your mileage
such lacks any kind of life-threatening gameplay, but includes may vary with other distributions. Minecraft requires the X
more blocks than you can shake a stick at, and three types of server to be running so if youre a boot-to-console type youll
saplings from which said sticks can be harvested. have to startx. Start LXTerminal and extract and run the
This means that theres plenty of stuff with which to contents of the archive like so:
unleash your creativity, then, but all that clicking is hard work, $ tar -xvzf minecraft-pi-0.1.1.tar.gz
and by dint of the edition including of an elegant Python API, $ cd mcpi
you can bring to fruition blocky versions of your wildest $ ./minecraft-pi
dreams with just a few lines of code. See how smoothly it runs? Towards the top-left corner you
can see your x, y and z co-ordinates, which will change as you
navigate the block-tastic environment. The x and z axes run
parallel to the floor, whereas the y dimension denotes altitude.
Each block (or voxel, to use the correct parlance) which
makes up the landscape is described by integer co-ordinates
and a BlockType. The floor doesnt really have any depth,
so is, instead, said to be made of tiles. Empty space has the
BlockType AIR, and there are about 90 other more tangible
substances, including such delights as GLOWING_OBSIDIAN
and TNT. Your players co-ordinates, in contrast to those of
the blocks, have a decimal part since youre able to move
continuously within AIR blocks.
The API enables you to connect to a running Minecraft
instance and manipulate the player and terrain as befits your
megalomaniacal tendencies. In order to service these our first
task is to copy the provided library so that we dont mess with
the vanilla installation of Minecraft. Well make a special folder
for all our mess called ~/picraft, and put all the API stuff in
~/picraft/minecraft. Open LXTerminal and issue the
following directives:
$ mkdir ~/picraft
Dont try this at home, kids actually do try this at home. $ cp -r ~/mcpi/api/python/mcpi ~/picraft/minecraft

Dude, wheres my Steve?

Here we can see our intrepid character (Steve) Euclidean space into discrete blocks. A 2D version
inside the block at (0,0,0). He can move around of this problem occurs whenever you render any
inside that block, and a few steps in the x and z kind of vector graphics: Say, for instance, you want
directions will take Steve to the shaded blue block. to draw a line between two points on the screen,
On this rather short journey he will be in more than then unless the line is horizontal or vertical, a
one block at times, but the Minecraft APIs decision has to be made as to which pixels need to
getTilePos() function will choose the block which be coloured in. The earliest solution to this was
contains most of him. provided by Jack Elton Bresenham in 1965, and we
Subtleties arise when trying to translate standard will generalise this classic algorithm to three Isometric projection makes
concepts, such as lines and polygons from dimensions a little later in this chapter. Minecraft-world fit on this page.

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Now without further ado, lets make our first
Minecraftian modifications. Well start by
running an interactive Python session
alongside Minecraft, so open another tab in
LXTerminal, start Minecraft and enter a world
then Alt-Tab back to the terminal and open up
Python in the other tab. Do the following in the
Python tab:
import minecraft.minecraft as minecraft
import minecraft.block as block
mc = minecraft.Minecraft.create()
posVec = mc.player.getTilePos()
x = posVec.x
y = posVec.y
z = posVec.z
mc.postToChat(str(x)+ + str(y) + + str(z))
Behold, our location is emblazoned on the
screen for a few moments (if not, youve made
a mistake). These co-ordinates refer to the
current block that your character occupies, and
so have no decimal point. Comparing these
with the co-ordinates at the top-left, you will
see that these are just the result of rounding
down those decimals to integers (e.g. -1.1 is
rounded down to -2). Your characters
co-ordinates are available via mc.player.getPos(), so in t = mc.getBlock(x, y 1, z) All manner
some ways getTilePos() is superfluous, but it saves three mc.postToChat(str(x) + + str(y) + + str(z) + + of improbable
float to int coercions so we may as well use it. The API has str(t)) structures can
be yours.
a nice class called Vec3 for dealing with three-dimensional Now fire up Minecraft, enter a world, then open up a
vectors, such as our players position. It includes all the terminal and run your program:
standard vector operations such as addition and scalar $ python gps.py
multiplication, as well as some other more exotic stuff that The result should be that your co-ordinates and the
will help us later on. BlockType of what youre stood on are displayed as you move
We can also get data on what our character is standing about. Once youve memorized all the BlockTypes (joke),
on. Go back to your Python session and type: Ctrl+C the Python program to quit.
Quick
curBlock = mc.getBlock(x, y - 1, z) We have covered some of the passive options of the API,
tip
mc.postToChat(curBlock) but these are only any fun when used in conjunction with the Check out Martin
Here, getBlock() returns an integer specifying the block more constructive (or destructive) options. Before we sign off, OHanlons
website www.
type: 0 refers to air, 1 to stone, 2 to grass, and you can find all well cover a couple of these. As before start Minecraft and a
stuffaboutcode.
the other block types in the file block.py in the ~/picraft/ Python session, import the Minecraft and block modules, and com, which
minecraft folder we created earlier. We subtract 1 from the y set up the mc object: includes some
value since we are interested in whats going on underfoot posVec = mc.player.getTilePos() great examples of
calling getBlock() on our current location should always x = posVec.x just what the API is
capable of.
return 0, since otherwise we would be embedded inside y = posVec.y
something solid or drowning. z = posVec.z
As usual, running things in the Python interpreter is great for j in range(5):
for playing around, but the grown up way to do things is to for k in range(x - 5, x + 5)
put all your code into a file. Create the file ~/picraft/gps.py mc.setBlock(k, j, z + 1, 246)
with the following code. Behold! A 10x5 wall of glowing obsidian has been erected
import minecraft.minecraft as minecraft adjacent to your current location. We can also destroy blocks
import minecraft.block as block by turning them into air. So we can make a tiny tunnel in our
mc = minecraft.Minecraft.create() obsidian wall like so:
oldPos = minecraft.Vec3() mc.setBlock(x, y, z + 1, 0)
while True: Assuming of course that you didnt move since inputting the
playerTilePos = mc.player.getTilePos() previous code.
if playerTilePos != oldPos: In the rest of this chapter, well see how to build and
oldPos = playerTilePos destroy some serious structures, dabble with physics, rewrite
x = playerTilePos.x some of the laws thereof, and go a bit crazy within the
y = playerTilePos.y confines of our 256x256x256 world. Until then, try playing
z = playerTilePos.z with the mc.player.setPos() function. Teleporting is fun! Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 109

 WorldMags.net
Minecraft: Image
wall importing
Have you ever wanted to reduce your pictures to 16 colour blocks?
You havent? Tough were going to tell you how regardless.

Not some sort of bloodshot cloud, but a giant raspberry

floating in the sky. Just another day at the office.

of coloured wool. Also Python. And the Raspberry Pi.

The most colourful blocks in Minecraft are wool
(blockType 35): there are 16 different colours available, which
are selected using the blockData parameter. For this tutorial
we shall use these exclusively, but you could further develop
things to use some other blocks to add different colours to
your palette. The process of reducing an images palette is
an example of quantization information is removed from
the image and it becomes smaller. In order to perform this

T
echnology has spoiled us with 32-bit colour, multi- colour quantization we first need to define our new restrictive
megapixel imagery. Remember all those blocky palette, which involves specifying the Red, Green and Blue
sprites from days of yore, when one had to invoke components for each of the 16 wool colours. This would be a
something called ones imagination in order to visualise what tedious process, involving importing an image of each wool
those giant pixels represented? In this tutorial we hark back colour into Gimp and using the colour picker tool to obtain
to those halcyon days from the comfort of Minecraft-world, as the component averages, but fortunately someone has done
we show you how to import and display graphics using blocks all the hard work already.

Standard setup
If youve used Minecraft: Pi Edition before All the files will be in a subdirectory called $ tar -xvzf mcimg.tar.gz
youll be familiar with the drill, but if not this is mcpi. To run Minecraft you need to have first $ cp -r ~/mcpi/api/python/mcpi ~/mcimg/
how to install Minecraft and copy the API for started X, then from a terminal do: minecraft
use in your code. $ cd ~/mcpi For this tutorial were going to use the PIL
Were going to assume youre using Raspbian, $ ./minecraft-pi (Python Imaging Library), which is old and
and that everything is up to date. You can It is a good idea to set up a working directory deprecated but is more than adequate for this
download Minecraft from http://pi.minecraft. for your Minecraft project, and to copy the API projects simple requirements. It can import
net, then open a terminal and unzip the file as there. The archive on the disk will extract into a your .jpg and .png files, among others, so theres
follows (assuming you downloaded it to your directory called mcimg, so you can extract it to no need to fiddle around converting images.
home directory): your home directory and then copy the api files Install it as follows:
$ tar -xvzf ~/minecraft-pi-0.1.1.tar.gz in the following way: $ sudo apt-get install python-imaging

110 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
With just
16 colours,
Steve can
draw anything
he wants
(inaccurately).

We also need to resize our image Minecraft-world is only http://bit.ly/ca2015ref though it is a mistake without any
256 blocks in each dimension, so since we will convert one real consequence (phew). Padding out the palette in this
pixel to one block our image must be at most 256 pixels in its manner does however have the possibly unwanted side-effect
largest dimension. However, you might not want your image of removing any really black pixels from your image. This
taking up all that space, and blocks cannot be stacked more happens because their value is closer to absolute black (with
than 64 high, so the provided code resizes your image to 64 which we artificially extended the palette) than the very
pixels in the largest dimension, maintaining the original slightly lighter colour of the black wool. To work around this
aspect ratio. You can modify the maxsize variable to change you can change the (0,0,0) above to (25,22,22), so that there
this behaviour, but the resultant image will be missing its top are no longer any absolute blacks to match against. A
if it is too tall. reasonable hack if youre working with a transparent image is
The PIL module handles the quantization and resizing to replace this value with your images background colour,
with one-line simplicity, but we must first define the palette then the transparent parts will not get drawn. We make a new
and compute the new image size. The palette is given as a list single-pixel dummy image to hold this palette:
of RGB values, which we then pad out with zeroes so that it is mcImagePal = Image.new("P", (1,1))
of the required 8-bit order. For convenience, we will list our mcImagePal.putpalette(mcPalette)
colours in order of the blockData parameter. The provided archive includes the file test.png, which is in
mcPalette = [ fact the Scratch mascot, but you are encouraged to replace
221,221,221, # White this line with your own images to see how they survive the
219,125,62, # Orange {res,quant}ize. You can always TNT the bejesus out of them if
179,80,188, # Magenta you are not happy. To ensure the aspect ratio is accurate we
107,138,201, # Light Blue use a float in the division to avoid rounding to an integer.
177,166,39, # Yellow mcImage = Image.open("test.png")
65,174,56, # Lime Green width = mcImage.size[0]
208,132,153, # Pink height = mcImage.size[1]
64,64,64, # Dark Grey ratio = height / float(width)
154,161,161, # Light Grey maxsize = 64
46,110,137, # Cyan As previously mentioned, blocks in Minecraft-world do not
126,61,181, # Purple stack more than 64 high (perhaps for safety reasons). The
46,56,141, # Blue next codeblock proportionally resizes the image to 64 pixels
79,50,31, # Brown in its largest dimension.
53,70,27, # Green if width > height:
150,52,48, # Red rwidth = maxsize
25,22,22, # Black rheight = int(rwidth * ratio)
] else:
rheight = maxsize
mcPalette.extend((0,0,0) * 256 - len(mcPalette) / 3) rwidth = int(rheight / ratio)
Unfortunately the / 3 is missing from the code at If you have an image that is much longer than it is high,

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 111

 WorldMags.net
then you may want to use more than 64 pixels in the pixel = mcImage.getpixel((j,k))
horizontal dimension and fix the height at 64. Replacing the if pixel < 16:
above block with just the two lines of the else clause would mc.setBlock(j + x + 5, rheight - k + y, z, 35, pixel)
achieve precisely this. To do all the magic, start Minecraft and move Steve to
Now we convert our image to the RGB colourspace, so as a position that befits your intended image. Then open a
not to confuse the quantize() method with transparency terminal and run:
information, and then force upon it our woollen palette and $ cd ~/mcimg
new dimensions. You might get better results by doing the $ python mcimg.py
resize first and the quantization last, but we prefer to keep So that covers the code, but you can have a lot of fun by
our operations in lexicographical order. expanding on this idea. A good start is probably to put the
mcImage = mcImage.convert("RGB") contents of mcimg.py into a function. You might want to give
mcImage = mcImage.quantize(palette = mcImagePal) this function some arguments too. Something like the
mcImage = mcImage.resize((rwidth,rheight)) following could be useful as it enables you to specify the
For simplicity, we will position our image close to Steves image file and the desired co-ordinates:
location, five blocks away and aligned in the x direction to be def drawImage(imgfile, x=None, y=None, z=None):
precise. If Steve is close to the positive x edge of the world, or if x == None:
if he is high on a hill, then parts of the image will sadly be lost. playerPos = mc.player.getPos()
Getting Steves coordinates is a simple task: x = playerPos.x
playerPos = mc.player.getPos() y = playerPos.y
x = playerPos.x z = playerPos.z
y = playerPos.y If no co-ordinates are specified, then the players position
z = playerPos.z is used. If you have a slight tendency towards destruction,
Then it is a simple question of looping over both then you can use live TNT for the red pixels in your image.
dimensions of the new image, using the slow but trusty Just replace the mc.setBlock line inside the drawing loop
getpixel() method, to obtain an index into our palette, and with the following block:
using the setBlocks() function to draw the appropriate if pixel == 14:
colour at the appropriate place. mc.setBlock(j + x + 5, rheight - k + y, z, 46, 1)
If your image has an alpha channel then getpixel() will else:
return None for the transparent pixels and no block will be mc.setBlock(j + x + 5, rheight - k + y, z,
drawn. To change this behaviour one could add an else mcPaletteBlocks[pixel])
clause to draw a default background colour. Image If you dont like the resulting image, then its good news,
co-ordinates start with (0,0) in the top-left corner, so to everyone it is highly unstable and a few careful clicks on the
avoid drawing upside-down we subtract the iterating variable TNT blocks will either make some holes in it or reduce it to
k from rheight. dust. It depends how red your original image was.
for j in range(rwidth): While Minecraft proper has a whole bunch of colourful
for k in range(rheight): blocks, including five different types of wooden planks and

Unlike in Doom,
this strawberry/
cacodemon
doesnt spit
fireballs at you.
This is good.

112 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
Thats right,
Steve, go for
the ankles.
Lets see how
fast he runs
without those!

stairs, six kinds of stone, emerald, and 16 colours of stained 116,217,212

glass, the Pi Edition is a little more restrictive. There are some ]
good candidates for augmenting your palette, though: mcPaletteLength = len(mcPalette / 3)
then we can structure our lookup table as follows:
Blockname Block ID Red Green Blue mcLookup = []
for j in range(16):
Gold 41 241 234 81
mcLookup.append((35,j))
Lapis Lazuli 22 36 61 126 mcLookup += [(41,0),(22,0),(24,0),(79,0),(57,0)]
Sandstone 24 209 201 152
Thus the list mcLookup comprises the blockType and
Ice 79 118 165 244
blockData for each colour in our palette. And we now have
Diamond 57 116 217 212 a phenomenal 31.25% more colours [gamut out of here - Ed]
with which to play. To use this in the drawing loop, use the
We have hitherto had it easy insofar as the mcPalette following code inside the for loops:
index aligned nicely with the coloured wool blockData pixel = mcImage.getpixel((j,k))
parameter. Now that were incorporating different blockTypes if pixel < mcPaletteLength:
things are more complicated, so we need a lookup table to do bType = mcLookup[pixel][0]
the conversion. Assuming we just tack these colours on to the bData = mcLookup[pixel][1]
end of our existing mcPalette definition, like so: mc.setBlock(j + x + 5, rheight - k + y, z, bType, bData)
mcPalette = [ In this manner you could add any blocks you like to your
241,234,81, palette, but be careful with the lava and water ones: their
36,61,126, pleasing orange and blue hues belie an inconvenient
209,201,152, tendency to turn into lava/waterfalls. Incidentally, lava and
118,165,244, water will combine to create obsidian. Cold, hard obsidian. Q

More dimensions
One of the earliest documentations of displaying counterpart has also done similar, though parts to jump around on. If you were to proceed
custom images in Minecraft:Pi Edition is Dav of Minecraft-Denmark were sabotaged by with this, then youd probably have to make
Stotts excellent tutorial on displaying Ordnance miscreants. Another fine example is Martin everything pretty small the drawing process
Survey maps, http://bit.ly/1lP20E5. Two- OHanlons excellent 3d modelling project. This is slow and painful. Naturally, someone (Henry
dimensional images are all very well, but Steve can import .obj files (text files with vertex, face Garden) has already taken things way too far
has a whole other axis to play with. To this end and texture data) and display them in Minecraft: and has written Redstone a Clojure interface
the aforementioned Ordnance Survey team has Pi Edition. Read all about it at http://bit. to Minecraft which enables movies to be
provided, for the full version of Minecraft, a ly/1sutoOS . Of course, we also have a temporal rendered. You can see the whole presentation
world comprising most of Great Britain, with dimension, so you could expand this tutorial in including a blockified Simpsons title sequence
each block representing 50m. Its Danish that direction, giving Steve some animated gifs at http://bit.ly/1sO0A2q.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 113

 WorldMags.net
Build 2048
in Minecraft
We show you how to implement a crude 2048 clone in Minecraft.

for column 0 to 2:
if tile[row,column + 1] = tile[row,column]:
double tile[row, column]
for x in column + 1 to 2:
tile[row][x] = tile[row, x + 1]
empty tile[row,3]

insert random 2 or 4 tile

if no move can be done:
game over
Our task now is to flesh out the English bits of the above
code, but to do this we need to state how were going to
represent the board and tiles. This will be done using a 4x4
array called tiles. The first co-ordinate will be the row number,
and the second the column number, numbering the rows
from top-to-bottom and the columns from left-to-right.
Python uses 0-based lists, so tiles[0][0] will be the the top-
left hand tile. Non-empty tiles will all be powers of 2, so we
can use the exponent rather than the actual value here for
example, 32 will be represented by 5. We can represent
empty tiles using 0, so our array tiles is comprised entirely
of (small) integers. Lovely.
Now we know what were dealing with, we can set about
doing some actual Python. Weve gone for an object-oriented

Y
ou may have not encountered the opium-like approach here, which means that there will be a lot of self
moreishness of the Android/iOS game 2048, but flying around but dont worry, it makes it easier for the
once you do, youll get a taste of the thrilling addition Minecraft functions to talk to those to do with the board and
of successive powers of two and as an addict, like so many
hopeless lovers, youll be powerless to abandon the pursuit of
the cherished 2048 tile, always just beyond reach. Granted,
much of the pleasure comes from the touch interface: there
is an innate pleasure in orchestrating an elegant and board-
clearing sequence of cascades with just a few well-executed
swipes. Be that as it may, the game has simple rules and is
Quick based on blocks. As such, its perfect material for the next
tip instalment in our Minecraft:Pi Edition series.
Well worry about how to draw and move the blocks later.
You could make
The first challenge is to understand the algorithm underlying
this project a bit
less of a Zork-esque the game. So dutifully read the rules in the box they might
text adventure by seem clumsily worded or overly complex, but rest assured
writing a control they have been carefully crafted for easy translation to
system based on Python. Sometimes its easier to visualise the situation using
player moves. Youd
want to reset the
pseudocode this way we can see the shape of the program
players position without getting bogged down in details.
after each move, for each row:
but in principle move tiles left, clearing empty space
its quite a simple
You even get a handy help command, but it kind of looks
modification.
for each row: like a cheat for Sonic the Hedgehog

114 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net Things turn out to be simpler if we split off the third
pseudocode block into its own function, newTile(). We first Quick
need a list of co-ordinates of all the empty tiles; if theres tip
more than one then its certainly not Game Over, but even if
The board is
theres only a single space (which will get filled by a new tile)
updated twice for
there still may be possible moves. We use a couple of a successful move,
functions from the random module to help decide the where before and after
and what is of the new tile. any tile merging.
def newTile(self): If you were feeling
adventurous, you
empties = []
could use this to
self.game_over = True implement a two
for j in range(self.boardSize): step animation by
for k in range(self.boardSize): spacing out the
tiles somehow.
if self.tiles[j][k] == 0:
We were not feeling
empties.append([j,k]) adventurous.

if len(empties) > 1:
The standard wool colour numbers dont really do high self.game_over = False
value blocks justice: eg 128 is represented by black.
rnd_pos = random.choice(empties)
rnd_n = random.randint(1,2)
the command interpreter. Honest. Lets look at line 2 of our self.tiles[rnd_pos[0]][rnd_pos[1]] = rnd_n
pseudocode, in which we move tiles in the row left, occupying self.drawBoard()
any available empty tiles. Python does have a remove() The drawBoard() function is what will actually place the
method for lists, but it only works on one element at a time, blocks in Minecraft world. Checking whether moves are Get the
so well clear the zeroes from our row the old-fashioned way. possible after the tile is added is a little awkward: code!
We dont waste time fiddling with empty rows, and we also # check row neighbours
need to keep track of whether we actually moved anything for j in range(self.boardSize): You can find the
code at http://
(through the boolean isMove). Also dont worry about the for k in range(self.boardSize - 1): www.linuxformat.
three other possible moves for now; we can cater for them if self.tiles[j][k] == self.tiles[j][k + 1]: com/files/
later with a very cunning trick. self.game_over = False mine2048.py.zip
def leftMove(self): or over at:
http://pastebin.
isMove = False # check col neighbours
com/5zEZUfBS
for row in range(self.boardSize): for j in range(self.boardSize):
j=0 for k in range(self.boardSize - 1):
while j < self.boardSize - 1: if self.tiles[k][j] == self.tiles[k + 1][j]:
# check rest of row non-empty self.game_over = False
row_empty = True
for k in range(j,self.boardSize):
if self.tiles[row][k] != 0:
row_empty = False
2048: An Open Source Odyssey
if self.tiles[row][j] == 0 and not row_empty: The 2048 game was written by young
for k in range(j,self.boardSize - 1): Italian programmer Gabriele Cirulli,
self.tiles[row][k] = self.tiles[row][k + 1] who wanted to see if he could write a
self.tiles[row][self.boardSize - 1] = 0 game in a weekend. The fruits of his
isMove = True labour proved hugely popular, accruing
else: over 4 million downloads within a week
j += 1 of its release in 2014. Numbers soared
after mobile versions were released the
Now we can deal with the situation in the second block in
following May, with up to 50,000
the pseudocode, finding two horizontally-adjacent tiles are
simultaneous players at its peak.
the same. The game is described as a clone of
for row in range(self.boardSize): Veewo Studios 1024 and conceptually
for column in range(self.boardSize - 1): similar to the indie title Threes!. Rather
if self.tiles[row][column] == self.tiles[row][column + 1] than profit from his success, Cirullis
\ blog says he didnt feel good about
and self.tiles[row][column] != 0: keeping [the code] private, since it was
self.tiles[row][column] += 1 heavily based off someone elses work.
for k in range(column + 1, self.boardSize - 1): Thus it is available to all at his GitHub
http://bit.ly/2048GitHub. In the
self.tiles[row][k]= self.tiles[row][k + 1]
spirit of open source, this spurred all
self.tiles[row][self.boardSize - 1] = 0
kinds of modifications and further
isMove = True depleted global productivity.
return isMove

For more great magazines head to www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 115

 It can be
WorldMags.net
frustrating,
and sometimes
Steves temper
gets the better
of him

Amazingly, thats the guts of the code all dealt with, but we decide whether or not the game is up. If it is all over, then we
still need a means by which to input our moves, and of course cheekily use raw_input() as a means to wait for the user to
we need to render the results in Minecraft world. press Return. The cmd module works by subclassing its Cmd
class. Any class you write that instantiates this will inherit all
Master and commander of its functionality. We use the standard boilerplate to start
Well use the cmd module to provide a simple command line things up when the program is executed:
interface to our game. You may have seen this already in if if __name__ == __main__:
youve ever made a Minecraft cannon and used cmd to command2048().cmdloop()
control it (You could always try making an image wall, p110). This will instantiate our command interpreter when the
We shall have a command for initialising the board, four program is run with:
directional commands and a command to quit, Ctrl-D, aka the $ python mine2048.py
end of file (EOF) character or the quick way to end a Python Minecraft must be running when you do this, or youll run
session. We even get a help command for free (see picture, into errors. Also youll need to make sure youve copied the
page 114). When you enter a command, for example left, the Python API from your Minecraft install (e.g. ~/mcpi/api/
cmd module will run the function with that name prefixed by python/mcpi) to a subdirectory called minecraft in the
do_, hence we have a function do_left() which calls the same directory as the mine2048.py file from the download.
leftMove() function above. This function is really part of our But if youve been following our Minecraft series youll be au
board class. fait with all this.
The do_left() function will check if the left move is valid, The command2048 classs __init__() method sets up the
and if so update the board, via the imaginatively-titled basics, including setting up the mc object and using it to get
updateBoard() function, which in turn will add a new tile and the players position. This provides a reference point for

Rules of the game

A key tenet of programming anything is knowing moves, shifting the tiles up, down, left or right. to the right will move one position left. Repeat
what the rules are knowing exactly how your Suppose the player chooses left, then the this process for the second and third tiles from
program should behave in a given set of following algorithm applies: For every row start the left. Repeat the whole process for the
circumstances. A vague idea wont cut it: we by moving all the numbered tiles left so that any second, third and fourth rows. If there is still
need specifics and exactitude, free of any empty tiles are on the right of the row. Now we space then another 2 or 4 tile is added randomly
semblance of ambiguity. With that in mind, lets will look at each tiles situation and decide how in one of the available empty spaces. If no move
consider how the game of 2048 works. We start the tiles will change. Starting with the tile on the is possible after this then its Game Over.
with a 4x4 grid which has some 2s and some 4s left, if the tile to its right has the same value For other directions, the same algorithm
on it at random locations. Initially two tiles are then the left-most of the pair will double in value, applies with strategic substitution of row with
populated. The player can make one of four the rightmost of the pair will vanish, and all tiles column and right with left, up or down.

116 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
drawing our board, which we will arbitrarily decide to be three
blocks away in the z direction. Make sure youre not looking
So then we can make implement the (ahem) right move,
in the following way:
at the back of the board, though, as everything will be def do_right(self,args):
backwards. For convenience, we also have a printTiles() self.board.revTiles()
function which draws the board at the command terminal. move = self.board.leftMove()
We display only the exponents since (a) were lazy and (b) it self.board.revTiles()
looks nicer if most things occupy just a single character. if move:
Change it if you like. self.updateBoard()
The drawBoard function uses different colours of wool else:
(blockType 35) to represent the content of our array tiles: print No move
def drawBoard(self): But the symmetry does not stop there. We can construct
for j in range(self.boardSize): the Up move by transposing our tiles array (replacing each
for k in range(self.boardSize): row by its respective column), then performing our
self.mc.setBlock(self.x + k, self.y - j, self.z, 35, self. leftMove() and transposing back again. Transposition is
tiles[j][k]) almost exactly as easy as row-reversal:
This works reasonably, but feel free to add to it, for def transposeTiles(self):
example making fancy glowing obsidian blocks for the higher oldTiles = [j[:] for j in self.tiles]
valued ones. Note that our row[0] is the top one, so we count for j in range(self.boardSize):
down, subtracting j from our y co-ordinate. for k in range(self.boardSize):
self.tiles[j][k] = oldTiles[k][j]
The only way is Left Similarly we can complete our directional command set,
But wait, an elephant in the room. We still havent dealt with making the Down move by a combination of transposition,
75% of the moves allowed in 2048. We could do this by row reversal, left move, row reversal and transposition:
copying the leftMove() function and painstakingly changing def do_down(self,args):
all the ranges and indices, and plus and minus signs, going self.board.transposeTiles()
through all the incorrect combinations until we find one that self.board.revTiles()
works. But that would be silly, and we dont tolerate such move = self.board.leftMove()
inefficiency here at Future Towers. Let us take a more grown- self.board.revTiles()
up approach. First, observe that moving the tiles to the right self.board.transposeTiles()
is exactly the same as reversing the rows, moving the tiles to Note that this is the same as transposition, right move
the left, and then reversing the rows again. Reversing the rows and transposition.
is easy, once you figure out how to make a structural copy of Spotting wee tricks like this is great because they dont
our two-dimensional list: only make your program smaller (our provided code is
def revTiles(self): about 160 lines long, not bad for a whole mini-game that
oldTiles = [j[:] for j in self.tiles] can sap hours from your life). They also make it much
for j in range(self.boardSize): easier to debug. The leftMove() function is by far the most
for k in range(self.boardSize): complicated, so not having another three very similar
self.tiles[j][k] = oldTiles[j][self.boardSize - k - 1] functions is a considerable benefit. Q

You can change

the boardSize
variable, but
its a bit of a
different game in
a larger arena.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 117

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
WorldMags.net

Coding projects
Exciting and interesting coding
projects for you to write
Python 3.0 primer ..................................................120
Build a Gimp plug-in .........................................124
Image filters .............................................................................128
Sound filters ............................................................................134
Twitter scanner .............................................................138
Build a GUI 142
...................................................................................

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 119

 WorldMags.net
Python: Dive
into version 3.0
Join us as we investigate what is probably one of the least loved and
disregarded sequels in the whole history of programming languages.

Linux Format, certain authors, whether by habit, ignorance or

affection for the past, continue to provide code that is entirely
incompatible with Python 3. We won't do that in this article.
We promise.
So let's start with what might have been your first ever
Python program:
print 'Hello world'
Guess what it doesn't work in Python 3 (didn't you just
promise...?). The reason it doesn't work is that print in Python
2 was a statement, while in Python 3 print is a function, and
functions are, without exception, called with brackets.
Remember that functions don't need to return anything
(those that don't are called void functions), so print is now a
void function which, in its simplest form, takes a string as
input, displays that string as text to stdout, and returns
nothing. In a sense, you can pretend print is a function in
Python 2, since you can call it with brackets, but a decision
was made to offer its own special syntax and a bracketless
shorthand. This is rather like the honour one receives in
mathematics when something named after its creator is no
longer capitalised for example, abelian groups. But these
kind of exceptions are not a part of the Python canon
("Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules"), so
its brackets all the way. On a deeper level, having a function-
proper print does allow more flexibility for programmers as
ay back in December 2008, Python 3.0 (also a built-in function, it can be replaced, which might be useful if

W known as Py3k or Python 3000) was released. Yet

here we are, seven years later, and most people
are still not using it. For the most part, this isn't because
you're into defying convention or making some kind of
Unicode-detecting/defying wrapper function. Your first
Python program should have been:
Python programmers and distribution maintainers are a
bunch of laggards, and the situation is very different from, for
example, people's failure/refusal to upgrade (destroy?)
Windows XP machines. For one thing, Python 2.7, while
certainly the end of the 2.x line, is still regularly maintained,
and probably will continue to be until 2020. Furthermore,
because many of the major Python projects (also many,
many minor ones) haven't been given the 3 treatment,
anyone relying on them is forced to stick with 2.7.
Early on, a couple of big projects NumPy and
Django did make the shift, and the hope was that
other projects would follow suit, leading to an
avalanche effect. Unfortunately, this didn't happen
and most Python code you find out there will fail
under Python 3. With a few exceptions, Python 2.7 is
forwards-compatible with 3.x, so in many cases it's
possible to come up with code that will work in both, but The Greek kryptos graphia, which translates as hidden
still programmers stick to the old ways. Indeed, even in writing, followed by a new line using the correct script.

120 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
The Unicode revolution
Traditionally, text was encoded in ASCII, in which as the characters used in the romanisation of other rigmarole has been done, and we have an
each character is encoded as a 7-bit codepoint, other languages. As a result, its fairly common in answer: Unicode. This accounts for over 100,000
which gives you 128 characters to play with. the western hemisphere, but doesn't really solve characters, bidirectional display order, ligature
Some of these characters are invisible teletype the problem elsewhere. forms and more. Currently there are two
codes (ASCII originated in the 1960s), and once The correct solution would be a standard encodings in use: UTF-8, which uses one byte for
we've counted the familiar alphanumeric encoding (or maybe a couple of them) that common characters (making it entirely
characters, there isn't really much room left. accounts for as many as possible of the set of backwards compatible with ASCII), and up to
Because we like things to be bytes, several characters anyone on earth might conceivably four bytes for the more cosmopolitan ones; and
256-character extensions of the ASCII encoding wish to type. Obviously, this will require many UTF-16, which uses two bytes for some
emerged. The most notorious of these is ISO- more than 256 characters, so we'll have to do characters and four bytes for others. Unicode
8859-1, sometimes called Latin-1. This widely- away with one character encoding to one byte has been widely adopted, both as a storage
used character set (and the related (hence the divergence of codepoints and byte encoding standard and for internally processing
Windows-1252) contains almost all the accents encodings), but it's for a greater good. tests. The main raison dtre of Python 3 is that
required for the Latin-scripted languages, as well Fortunately, all the wrangling, tabulating and its predecessor did not do the latter.

print ('Hello world')

which is perfectly compatible with Python 2 and 3. If you were
a fan of using a comma at the end of your print statements
(to suppress the newline character), then sad news: this no
longer works. Instead, we use the end parameter, which by
default is a new line. For example:
print ('All on', end=" ")
print ('one line')
does just that.

Print in Python 3
A significant proportion of Python programs could be made
compatible with 3 just by changing the print syntax, but there
are many other, far less trivial, things that could go wrong. To
understand them, we must first be au fait with what really
changed in Python 3.
Most of the world doesn't speak English. In fact, most of
the world doesn't even use a Latin character set; even those The PyStone benchmark will likely be slower in Python 3, but the same wont
regions that do tend to use different sets of accents to be true for all code. Dont be a Py3k refusenik without first trying your code.
decorate the characters. As a result, besides the ASCII
standard, numerous diverse and incompatible character when printed to a terminal, are converted to whichever
encodings have emerged. Each grapheme (an abstraction of encoding your system's locale specified (through the LANG Quick
a character) is assigned a codepoint, and each codepoint is and LC_* environment variables in Linux). For any modern tip
assigned a byte encoding, sometimes identically. In the past, distro, this is probably UTF-8, but it's definitely not something Arch Linux is one
if you wanted to share a document with foreign characters in you should take for granted. of few distributions
it, then plain ASCII wouldn't help. You could use one of the The unicode type should be used for textual intercourse to use Python 3
alternative encodings, if you knew the people you were finding the length of, slicing or reversing a string. For example, by default, but it
can live happily
sharing it with could do the same, but in general you needed the Unicode codepoint for the lowercase Greek letter pi is
in tandem with
to turn to a word processor with a particular font, which just 03c0 in hex notation. So we can define a unicode string from its predecessor
moves the problem elsewhere. Thankfully, we now have a the Python console like so, provided our terminal can handle (available in the
widely adopted standard: Unicode (see The Unicode Unicode output and is using a suitable font: python2 package).
Revolution box, above) that covers all the bases, and is >>> pi = u'\u03c0'
backwards compatible with ASCII and (as far as codepoints >>> print(pi)
are concerned) its Latin-1 extension. We can even have
Unicode in our domain names, although internally these are >>> type(pi)
all still encoded as ASCII, via a system called Punycode. <type 'unicode'>
Python 2 is far from devoid of Unicode support, but its >>> len(pi)
handling of it is done fairly superficially (Unicode strings are 1
sneakily re-encoded behind the scenes) and some third-party However, if we were to try this on a terminal without
modules still won't play nicely with it. Strings in Python 2 can Unicode support, things will go wrong. You can simulate such
be of type str (which handles ASCII fine, but will behave a scenario by starting Python with:
unpredictably for codepoints above 127) or they can be of $ LC_ALL=C python
type unicode. Strings of type str are stored as bytes and, Now when you try to print the lowercase character pi, you will

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 121

 WorldMags.net
run into a UnicodeEncodeError. Essentially, Python is trying So apparently now has two letters. The point is: if your
and failing to coerce this to an ASCII character (the only type Python 2 code is doing stuff with Unicode characters, you'll
supported by the primitive C locale). Python 2 also tries to need to have all kinds of wrappers and checks in place to take
perform this coercion (regardless of current locale settings) account of the localisation of whatever machine may run it.
when printing to a file or a pipe, so don't use the unicode type You'll also have to handle your own conversions between str
for these operations, instead use str. and unicode types, and use the codecs module to change
The str type in Python 2 is really just a list of bytes encodings as required. Also, if you have Unicode strings in
corresponding to how the string is encoded on the machine. your code, you'll need to add the appropriate declaration at
This is what you should use if you're writing your strings to the top of your code:
disk or sending them over a network or to a pipe. Python 2 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
will try and convert strings of type unicode to ASCII (its The main driving force for a new Python version was the
default encoding) in these situations, which could result in need to rewrite from the ground up how the language dealt
tears. So we can also get a funky pi character by using its with strings and their representations to simplify this process.
UTF-8 byte representation directly. There are rules for Some argue that it fails miserably (see Armin Ronacher's rant
converting Unicode codepoints to UTF-8 (or UTF-16) bytes, at http://bit.ly/UnicodeInPython3), but it really depends
but it will suffice to simply accept that the pi character on your purposes. Python 3 does away with the old unicode
encodes to the two bytes CF 80 in UTF-8. We can escape type entirely, since everything about Python 3 is now
these with an \x notation in order to make Python Unicode-orientated. The str type now stores Unicode
understand bytes: codepoints, the language's default encoding is UTF-8 (so no
>>> strpi = '\xCF\x80' need for the -*- coding decorator above) and the new bytes
>>> type(strpi) object stores byte arrays, like the old str type. The new str
<type 'str'> type will need to be converted to bytes if it's to be used for
>>> len(strpi) any kind of file I/O, but this is trivial via the str.encode()
2 method. If you're reading Unicode text files, you'll need to
open them in binary 'rb' mode and convert the bytes to a
string using the converse bytes.decode() method (see the
picture for details, bottom p120).
Python 3, however, brings about many other changes
besides all this Unicode malarkey, some of these are just the
removal of legacy compatibility code (Python 3, unlike 2.7,
doesn't need to be compatible with 2.0), some of them
provide new features, and some of them force programmers
to do things differently.
But wait, there's more: for example, functions can now be
passed keyword-only arguments, even if they use the *args
syntax to take variable length argument lists, and catching
exceptions via a variable now requires the as keyword. Also,
you can no longer use the ugly <> comparison operator to
test for inequality instead use the much more stylish !=
which is also available in Python 2.

Automating conversion with 2to3

For reasonably small projects, and those that aren't going to
encounter any foreign characters, its likely that your Python
Aleph, beth, gimel The 2to3 program shows us how to refactor our Python 2 2 code can be automatically made Python 3 compatible using
code for Python 3. Shalom aleikhem. the 2to3 tool. This helpful chap runs a predefined set of fixers

The division bell

One change in Python 3 that has the potential to two ints, and returning an int, thus in this case behaviour of the classic division operator has
flummox is that the behaviour of the division the operator stands for integer division. In the changed: if both numerator and denominator
operator / is different. For example, here's an second example, the numerator is a float and are ints, then an int is returned if one divides the
excerpt from a Python 2 session the operator acts as floating point division, other, otherwise a float is returned with the
>>> 3/2 returning what you'd intuitively expect half of correct decimal remainder. If at least one of the
1 three to be. The third line uses the explicit floor arguments is a float (or complex), then the
>>> 3./2 division operator // which will return the behaviour is unchanged.
1.5 rounded-down result as a float or an int, This means the / operator is now as close to
>>> 3.//2 depending on the arguments. The latter mathematical division proper as we can hope,
1.0 operator was actually backported to 2.7, so its and issues involving unexpected ints will no
which shows the first command operating on behaviour is the same in Python 3, but the longer cause harm.

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 WorldMags.net The popular
matplotlib
module has
been Python
3 compatible
since v1.2, for all
your graphing
and plotting
requirements.

on your Python 2 code, with the goal of emitting bona fide behave like a standard module instead it acts as a compiler
Python 3 code. Using it can be as simple as directive, which in this case provides the modern print syntax.
$ 2to3 mypy2code.py We can likewise import division to get the new style division,
which will output a diff of any changes against the original file. or unicode_literals to make strings Unicode by default. There
You can also use the -w option to overwrite your file don't is another module, confusingly called future, which isn't part
worry, it will be backed up first. Some fixers will only run if you of the standard library, but can help ease transition issues.
specify them explicitly, using the -f option. An example is When Python 3.0 was released, it was generally regarded
buffer which will replace all buffer types with memoryviews. as being about 10% slower than its predecessor. This was not
These two aren't entirely compatible, so some tweaking might surprising, because speed was not really a priority for the new
be necessary in order to successfully migrate. Using 2to3 can version and many special-case optimisations were removed
save you a whole heap of effort, because searching and in order to clean up the code base. Now that we're up to
replacing print statements manually, for instance, is a version 3.5 (which was released in September 2015), it
drudgerous task. The pictured example (over on the left, on would be nice if performance had since been improved.
p122) shows the changes to a simple three-line program Unfortunately, this hasnt been the case, which you can verify
the unichr() function is now chr(), because Unicode is now for yourself using the PyStone benchmark.
implicit, and the print line is reworked, even if it uses % to We tested it (see the screenshot on p121) on an aging
format placeholders. machine in the office, which has now come back from the
dead twice and hence possesses supernatural powers far
Parlez-vous Python Trois? beyond its dusty 2.3GHz processor would suggest. But
Another option is to create 'bilingual' code that is compatible don't be misled; PyStone tests various Python internals, of
with both Python 2 and Python 3. While you should really only which your code may or may not make extensive use. Its
target one specific Python version, this middle ground is very important to test your code in both versions to get a more
useful when you're porting and testing your code. You might accurate picture. You can always use Cython (maintained at
need to rework a few things in Python 2 while still enjoying the http://cython.org) to speed up code that is amenable to
new features and learning the new syntax. Many Python 3 C translation (loops, math, array access), or the bottleneck
features and syntaxes have already been backported to 2.7, module.
and many more can be enabled using the __future__ module. Guido van Rossum, the author of Python, says that Python
For example, you can get the new-fangled print syntax by 2.7 will be supported until 2020, but that's no excuse to
using the following: postpone learning the new version now. Python 3 adoption is
>>> from __future__ import print_function increasing, so you won't be alone. Half the work is retraining
This is used with the from in this way, and __future__ doesn't your fingers to add parentheses. Q

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 WorldMags.net
Python: Code
a Gimp plugin
Use Python to add some extra features to the favourite open source image-
manipulation app, without even a word about Gimp masks.
ultitude of innuendoes aside, Gimp enables you to can do is registered in something called the Procedure

M extend its functionality by writing your own plugins.

If you wanted to be hardcore, then you would write
the plugins in C using the libgimp libraries, but that can be
Database (PDB). The Browse button in the console window
will let you see all of these procedures, what they operate on
and what they spit out. We can access every single one of
pretty off-putting or rage-inducing. Mercifully, there exist them in Python through the pdb object.
softcore APIs to libgimp so you can instead code the plugin As a gentle introduction, lets see how to make a simple
of your dreams in Gimps own Script-Fu language (based on blank image with the currently selected background colour.
Scheme), Tcl, Perl or Python. This tutorial will deal with the This involves setting up an image, adding a layer to it, and
last in this list, which is probably most accessible of all these then displaying the image.
languages, so even if you have no prior coding experience you image = pdb.gimp_image_new(320,200,RGB)
should still get something out of it. layer = pdb.gimp_layer_new(image,320,200,RGB,'Layer0',100
,RGB_IMAGE)
Get started pdb.gimp_image_insert_layer(image,layer,None,0)
On Linux, most packages will ensure that all the required pdb.gimp_display_new(image)
Python gubbins get installed alongside Gimp; your Windows So we have used four procedures: gimp_image_new(), which
and Mac friends will have these included as standard since requires parameters specifying width, height and image type
version 2.8. You can check everything is ready by starting up (RGB, GRAY or INDEXED); gimp_layer_new(), which works
Gimp and checking for the Python-Fu entry in the Filters on a previously defined image and requires width, height and
menu. If its not there, youll need to check your installation. If type data, as well as a name, opacity and combine mode;
it is there, then go ahead and click on it. If all goes to plan this gimp_image_insert_layer() to actually add the layer to the
should open up an expectant-looking console window, with a image, and gimp_display_new(), which will display an image.
prompt (>>>) hungry for your input. Everything that Gimp You need to add layers to your image before you can do
anything of note, since an image without layers is a pretty
ineffable object. You can look up more information about
these procedures in the Procedure Browser try typing
gimp-layer-new into the search box, and you will see all the
different combine modes available. Note that in Python, the
hyphens in procedure names are replaced by underscores,
since hyphens are reserved for subtraction. The search box
will still understand you if you use underscores there, though.

Draw the line

All well and good, but how do we actually draw something?
Lets start with a simple line. First select a brush and a
foreground colour that will look nice on your background.
Then throw the following at the console:
pdb.gimp_pencil(layer,4,[80,100,240,100])
Great, a nicely centred line, just like you could draw with
the pencil tool. The first parameter, gimp_pencil(), takes just
the layer you want to draw on. The syntax specifying the
points is a little strange: first we specify the number of
coordinates, which is twice the number of points because
each point has an x and a y component; then we provide a list
of the form [x1, y1, , xn, yn]. Hence our example draws a line
from (80,100) to (240,100). The procedures for selecting and
You can customise lines and splodges to your hearts content, though frankly adjusting colours, brushes and so forth are in the PDB too:
doing this is unlikely to produce anything particularly useful. pdb.gimp_context_set_brush('Cell 01')

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Applying our
pdb.gimp_context_set_foreground('#00a000') in the highlights of the image, reminiscent of lens flare. The bokeh plugin
pdb.gimp_context_set_brush_size(128) effect you get in each case is a characteristic of the lens and has created
pdb.gimp_paintbrush_default(layer,2,[160,100]) the aperture depending on design, one may also see a pleasing
If you have the brush called Cell 01 available, then the polygonal and doughnut-shaped bokeh effects. For this bokeh effect in
above code will draw a green splodge in the middle of your exercise, well stick with just circular ones. the highlights.
canvas. If you dont, then youll get an error message. You can Our plugin will have the user pinpoint light sources using
get a list of all the brushes available to you by calling pdb. a path on their image, which we will assume to be single-
gimp_brushes_get_list(). The paintbrush tool is more layered. They will specify disc diameter, blur radius, and hue
suited to these fancy brushes than the hard-edged pencil,
and if you look in the procedure browser at the function
gimp_paintbrush, you will see that you can configure Our plugin creates a layer with
gradients and fades too. For simplicity, we have just used the
defaults/current settings here. Download the code pack from
bokeh discs and another with
http://bit.ly/TMS12code and you will find a file linesplodge. a blurred copy of the image
py which will register this a fully-fledged Gimp plugin, replete
with a few tweaks. and saturation adjustments. The result will be two new layers:
For the rest of the tutorial we will describe a slightly more a transparent top layer containing the bokeh discs, and a
advanced plugin for creating bokeh effects in your own layer with a blurred copy of the original image. The original
pictures. Bokeh derives from a Japanese word meaning blur layer remains untouched beneath these two. By adjusting the
or haze, and in photography refers to the out-of-focus effects opacities of these two new layers, a more pleasing result may
caused by light sources outside of the depth of field. It often be achieved. For more realistic bokeh effects, a part of the
results in uniformly coloured, blurred, disc-shaped artefacts image should remain in focus and be free of discs, so it may

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 125

 WorldMags.net
be fruitful to erase parts of the blurred layer. Provided the drawn, extracting the coordinates of each component point
user doesnt rename layers, then further applications of our as two variables x and y.
plugin will not burden them with further layers. This means Having extracted the point information, our next challenge
that one can apply the function many times with different is to get the local colour of the image there. The PDB function
parameters and still have all the flare-effect discs on the same for doing just that is called gimp_image_pick_color(). It has
layer. It is recommended to turn the blur parameter to zero a number of options, mirroring the dialog for the Colour
after the first iteration, since otherwise the user would just be Picker tool. Our particular call has the program sample within
blurring the already blurred layer. a 10-pixel radius of the point x,y and select the average colour.
After initialising a few de rigueur variables, we set about This is preferable to just selecting the colour at that single
making our two new layers. For our blur layer, we copy our pixel, since it may not be indicative of its surroundings.
original image and add a transparency channel. The bokeh
layer is created much as in the previous example. Bring a bucket
Quick blur_layer = pdb.gimp_layer_copy(timg.layers[0],1) To draw our appropriately-coloured disc on the bokeh layer,
tip pdb.gimp_image_insert_layer(timg, blur_layer, None, 0) we start somewhat counter-intuitively by drawing a black
For many, many bokeh_layer = pdb.gimp_layer_new(timg, width, height, disc. Rather than use the paintbrush tool, which would rely on
more home-brewed RGBA_IMAGE, "bokeh", 100, NORMAL_MODE) all possible users having consistent brush sets, we will make
plugins, check out pdb.gimp_image_insert_layer(timg, bokeh_layer, None, 0) our circle by bucket filling a circular selection. The selection is
the Gimp Plugin
Our scripts next task of note is to extract a list of points achieved like so:
Registry at http://
registry.gimp.org from the users chosen path. This is slightly non-trivial since a pdb.gimp_image_select_ellipse(timg, CHANNEL_OP_
general path could be quite a complicated object, with curves REPLACE, x - radius, y - radius, diameter, diameter)
and changes of direction and allsorts. Details are in the box There are a few constants that refer to various Gimp-specific
below, but dont worry all you need to understand is that modes and other arcana. They are easily identified by their
the main for loop will proceed along the path in the order shouty case. Here the second argument stands for the

Here are our

discs. If youre
feeling crazy you
could add blends
or gradients, but
uniform colour
works just fine.

Paths, vectors, strokes, points, images and drawables

Paths are stored in an object called vectors. twice, because in other settings the list needs to and drawable) at the time our function was
More specifically, the object contains a series of hold curvature information. To avoid repetition, called. As you can imagine, they are quite handy
strokes, each describing a section of the path. we use the range() functions step parameter to things to have around because so many tools
Well assume a simple path without any curves, increment by 4 on each iteration, so that we get require at least an image and a layer to work on.
so there is only a single stroke from which to the xs in positions 0, 4, 8 and the ys in positions So handy, in fact, that when we come to register
wrest our coveted points. In the code we refer to 1, 5, 9. The length of the list of points is our script in Gimp, we dont need to mention
this stroke as gpoints, which is really a tuple bequeathed to us in the second entry of gpoints them it is assumed that you want to pass
that has a list of points as its third entry. Since for j in range(0,gpoints[1],4): them to your function. Layers and channels
Python lists start at 0, the list of points is You will see a number of references to make up the class called drawables the
accessed as gpoints[2]. This list takes the form variables timg and tdraw. These represent the abstraction is warranted here since there is
[x0,y0,x0,y0,x1,y1,x1,y1,...]. Each point is counted active image and layer (more correctly image much that can be applied equally well to both.

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 WorldMags.net
number 2, but also to the fact that the current selection
should be replaced by the specified elliptical one.
The dimensions are specified by giving the top left corner
of the box that encloses the ellipse and the said boxs width.
We feather this selection by two pixels, just to take the edge
off, and then set the foreground colour to black. Then we
bucket fill this new selection in Behind mode so as not to
interfere with any other discs on the layer:
pdb.gimp_selection_feather(timg, 2)
pdb.gimp_context_set_foreground('#000000')
pdb.gimp_edit_bucket_fill_full(bokeh_layer, 0,BEHIND_
MODE,100,0,False,True,0,0,0)
And now the reason for using black: we are going to draw
the discs in additive colour mode. This means that regions of
overlapping discs will get brighter, in a manner which vaguely
resembles what goes on in photography. The trouble is,
additive colour doesnt really do anything on transparency,
so we black it up first, and then all the black is undone by our
new additive disc.
pdb.gimp_context_set_foreground(color)
After we apply
pdb.gimp_edit_bucket_fill_full(bokeh_layer, 0,ADDITION_ the filter, things
MODE,100,0,False,True,0,0,0) any tool settings that are changed by the script. It is always get a bit blurry.
Once weve drawn all our discs in this way, we do a good to tidy up after yourself and leave things as you found Changing the
Gaussian blur if requested on our copied layer. We said them. In the register() function, we set its menupath to opacity of the
that part of the image should stay in focus; you may want to <Image>/Filters/My Filters/PyBokeh... so that if it registers layer will bring
work on this layer later so that it is less opaque at regions of correctly you will have a My Filters menu in the Filters menu. back some detail.
interest. We deselect everything before we do the fill, since You could add any further scripts you come up with to this
otherwise we would just blur our most-recently drawn disc. menu to save yourself from cluttering up the already crowded
if blur > 0: Filters menu. The example images show the results of a
pdb.plug_in_gauss_iir2(timg, blur_layer, blur, blur) couple of PyBokeh applications.

Softly, softly
Finally we apply our hue and lightness adjustments, and set To finish, group the operations
the bokeh layer to Soft-Light mode, so that lower layers are
illuminated beneath the discs. And just in case any black
into a single undoable one, and
survived the bucket fill, we use the Color-To-Alpha plugin to reset any changed tool settings
squash it out.
pdb.gimp_hue_saturation(bokeh_layer, 0, 0, lightness, Critics may proffer otiose jibes about the usefulness of
saturation) this script, and indeed it would be entirely possible to do
pdb.gimp_layer_set_mode(bokeh_layer, SOFTLIGHT_ everything it does by hand, possibly even in a better way.
MODE) That is, on some level at least, true for any Gimp script. But
pdb.plug_in_colortoalpha(timg, bokeh_layer, '#000000') this manual operation would be extremely laborious and
And that just about summarises the guts of our script. You error-prone youd have to keep a note of the coordinates
will see from the code on the disc that there is a little bit of and colour of the centre of each disc, and youd have to be
housekeeping to take care of, namely grouping the whole incredibly deft with your circle superpositioning if you wanted
series of operations into a single undoable one, and restoring to preserve the colour addition. Q

Registering your plugin

In order to have your plugin appear in the Gimp params, results, specifies the inputs to your plugin: you can use
menus, it is necessary to define it as a Python function) # myplugin special Python-Fu types here such as PF_
function and then use the register() function. main() COLOR and PF_SPINNER to get nice interfaces
The tidiest way to do this is to save all the code The proc_name parameter specifies what in which to input them. The results list describes
in an appropriately laid out Python script. The your plugin will be called in the PDB; python_fu what your plugin outputs, if anything. In our case
general form of such a thing is: is actually automatically prepended so that all (PF_IMAGE, image, LSImage) would suffice.
#! /usr/bin/env python Python plugins have their own branch in the Finally, function is just the Python name of our
from gimpfu import * taxonomy. The menupath parameter specifies function as it appears in the code.
def myplugin(params): what kind of plugin youre registering, and where To ensure that Gimp finds and registers your
# code goes here your plugin will appear in the Gimp menu: in our plugin next time its loaded, save this file as (say)
register( case <Image>/Filters/Artistic/LineSplodge... myplugin.py in the plugins folder: ~/.gimp-2.8/
proc_name, # e.g. python_fu_linesplodge would suffice. imagetypes specifies what kind plug-ins for Linux (ensure it is executable with
blurb, #.Draws a line and a splodge of images the plugin works on, such as RGB*, chmod +x myplugin.py) or %USERPROFILE
help, author, copyright, date, GRAY*, or simply if it doesnt operate on any %\.gimp-2.8\plug-ins\ for Windows users,
menupath, imagetypes, image, such as in our example. The list params replacing the version number as appropriate.

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Pillow: Edit
images easily
You can save time and effort by using Python to tweak your images in bulk.

begin your code by importing the Pillow modules you want to

use, such as:
from PIL import Image
You can now open an image with the Image.open
method. Launch the Python interpreter and type:
>>> from PIL import Image
>>> im = Image.open("screenshot.png")
This opens an image file named screenshot.png. If the
file cant be read, an IOError is raised; otherwise, it returns an
instance of class Image. Remember to specify the
appropriate path to an image on your system as an argument
to the Image.open method. The open() function determines
the format of the file based on its contents.
Now when you have an Image object, you can use the
available attributes to examine the file. For example, if
you want to see the size of the image, you can call the
format attribute.
>>> print (im.size, im.mode, im.format)
(1366, 768) RGB PNG
The size attribute is a 2-tuple that contains the images
width and height in pixels. RGB is the mode for true colour
images. For saving an image, use the save method of the
Image class. Again, make sure you replace the following string
ythons multimedia prowess extends to images and with an appropriate path to your image file.

P includes mechanisms for manipulating snapshots in a

variety of ways. While it can be done manually, using
Python enables you to automate the process by easily writing
>>> im.save(changedformat.jpg)
Use the show method to view the image. To view the new
image, remember to open it up first:
scripts to act on a disk full of images and carry out extensive >>> newImage = Image.open (changedformat.jpg)
modifications based on a complex set of rules. >>> newImage.show()
The Python Image Library, commonly referred to as PIL,
was a popular and powerful Python library for handling Basic image manipulation
images. But it hasnt been updated for over half a decade, and So now that we know how to open and save images, lets
doesnt support Python 3. Pillow is a fork of PIL thats based modify them. The resize method works on an image object
on the PIL code, and has evolved to be a better, modern and and returns a new Image object of the specified dimensions.
more friendly version of PIL. With Pillow, you can open, The method accepts a two-integer tuple for the new width
manipulate and save in all the popular image file formats. One and height:
of the best advantages of Pillow for existing PIL users is the >>> width, height = im.size
similarity of the API between the two. Many of the existing PIL >>> reducedIM = im.resize((int(width/2), int(height/2)))
code that youll find on the internet will work with Pillow with >>> reducedIM.save(reduced.png)
minimal or even no modifications. >>> reducedIM.show()
To get started, you need to install the library with sudo pip In the interactive Python shell, we first assign the size and
install Pillow . The library has a bunch of modules. Many of width of the image by extracting them from the tuple into
the commonly used functions are found in the Image module. more logically named variables. We then divide these by 2 to
You can create instances of this class in several ways, either reduce both values by half, while calling the resize method.
by loading images from files, processing other images, or The result is an image thats half the size of the original. Note
creating images from scratch. As with all Python libraries, that the resize method accepts only integers in its tuple

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argument, which is why weve wrapped the reduced
dimensions in an init() call.
You can similarly change the orientation of the image by
rotating it by a specified degree with the rotate method. The
rotate method takes a single argument (either integer or
float), which is the number of degrees to rotate the image by
and, just like resize , returns a new Image object.
>>> im.rotate(180).show()
>>> im.rotate(230.5).show()
>>> im.rotate(90).save(OnItsSide.png)
The first statement rotates the image by 180 degrees, the
second by 230.5 degrees, and the third by 90 degrees. Weve
saved ourselves some effort by calling show() directly in the
first two statements to view the image, and save() in the third
to save the rotated image. Note that if the image is rotated to
any angle besides 90 or 270, Pillow maintains its original
dimensions. When rotated at these two angles, the image With datetime.datetime.now().strftime(%A, %d %B %Y %I:%M%p) weve used
Pythons datetime module to timestamp an image.
swaps its width and height. You can also create a mirror
version of the image, using the transpose method:
>>> im.transpose(Image.FLIP_LEFT_RIGHT).show() For more advanced image enhancement, you can use the
>>> im.transpose(Image.FLIP_TOP_BOTTOM).show() methods in the ImageEnhance module. The module returns
Also, just like the previous example, replace the call to an image object and can be used to make various
the show method with the save method, together with the adjustments, including changes to contrast, sharpness and
name of a new image file, to save the flipped image. Another colour balance, without modifying the original image.
common trick is to create thumbnails:
>>> size=(128,128) Dressing up images
>>> im.thumbnail(size) Begin by importing the ImageEnhance module with:
>>> im.show() >>> from PIL import ImageEnhance
>>> im.save(thumbnail.png) You can now use it to, for example, increase the brightness
We start by defining a tuple with the dimensions of the by 20% with:
thumbnail, and then use it to create the thumbnail in place. >>> ImageEnhance.Brightness(im).enhance(1.9).show()
Remember that unlike the previous methods, thumbnail Or, perhaps reduce contrast and save the results:
changes the original image itself. >>> newImage=ImageEnhance.Contrast(im).enhance(-1.5)
In addition to the more common image-editing >>> newImage.save(reducedContrast.jpg)
techniques, Pillow also includes a number of methods and Yet another common image-editing task is cropping
modules that can be used to enhance your images. To begin portions of an image. Pillows crop method can help you
with, lets take a look at the ImageFilter module, which describe the coordinates of the image youre interested in
contains several enhancement filters. To use this module, you and discard the rest, such as:
will first have to import it with: >>> width, height = im.size
>>> from PIL import ImageFilter >>> left = int(width/4)
You can now use the various filters of the ImageFilter, such >>> top = int(height/4)
as blur to apply a Gaussian blur effect to the image: >>> right = int(3 * width/4)
>>> im.filter(ImageFilter.BLUR).show() >>> bottom = int(3 * height/4)
>>> im.filter(ImageFilter.BLUR).save(blurred.jpg) >>> im.crop((left,top,right,bottom)).show()

Image processing 101

To manipulate images effectively, you should component, whereas the value 0 represents the the total number of bits needed to represent a
understand how computers read and display total absence of that component. So black has distinct colour value is 24.
them. The display area of the monitor is made an RGB value of 0,0,0, green is 0,255,0, grey is When an image is loaded, a computer maps
up of coloured dots called pixels. Each pixel 127,127,127 and yellow is 255,255,0. the bits from the file into a rectangular area of
represents a colour, and the RGB system is the The total number of RGB colour values is coloured pixels. The coordinates range from
most common scheme for representing colour. equal to all the possible combinations of three (0, 0) at the upper-left corner of an image to
RGB stands for the colour components of red, values: 256 * 256 * 256, or 16,777,216. Because (width - 1, height - 1) at the lower-right, where
green and blue, to which the human retina is of its wide range of colours, RGB is known as the width and height are the images dimensions in
sensitive. These are mixed together to form a true colour system. In the old days of black and pixels. An image consists of a width and a height,
unique colour value. The computer represents white monitors, only a single bit of memory was accessible by (x, y) coordinates; and a colour
these values as integers, which the display required to represent the two colour values. value consists of the tuple (r, g, b).
hardware translates into the colours we see. Early colour monitors could support the display Image.new(RGB, (100, 200), white) creates
Each colour component can range from 0 of 256 colours, so 8 bits were needed to a new white image thats 100 pixels wide and
through 255. The value 255 represents the represent each colour value. Each colour 200 pixels long. You can now draw all kinds of
maximum saturation of a given colour component of an RGB colour requires 8 bits, so lines and shapes on this new image with Pillow.

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 WorldMags.net
>>> im.crop((left,top,right,bottom)).save(croppedImage.png) from PIL import Image
The crop method takes a tuple and returns an Image
object of the cropped image. The above statements help cut logoIm = Image.open(logo.png)
out the outside edges of the image, leaving you with the logoWidth, logoHeight = logoIm.size
centre of the original image. The cropped images dimensions
end up being half of the original images dimensions. For os.makedirs(withLogo, exist_ok=True)
example, if the image youre cropping is 100 x 100, the left Here weve imported the required library, opened our logo
and top variables will both be set to 25, and the right and image and extracted its dimensions into a variable. The last
bottom variables to 75. Thus, you end up with a 50 x 50 statement creates a directory called withLogo, which is
image, which is the exact centre of the original image. The where well house the logo-fied images.
int() wrapper makes sure the returned values of the Next well loop over all the images in the current directory
dimensions are integers and not floats. with a for loop:
Then theres the paste method, which as you have for filename in os.listdir(.):
probably guessed, pastes an image on top of another one. if not (filename.endswith(.png) or filename.endswith(.
Remember, however, that the paste method doesnt return jpg)):
an Image object, and instead modifies the image in place. So continue
its best to make a copy of your image and then call paste on The additional if statement ignores files that dont end
that copy: with a .png or .jpg. Modify the statement to include other
>>> im=Image.open(screenshot.png) image formats, or perhaps even drop it if you dont have
>>> copyIM=im.copy() anything but image files in the directory. Now load the image
Now that we have a copy of our screenshot, well first crop and extract its size information:
a smaller bit from the image, just like we did in the previous im = Image.open (filename)
section: IMwidth, IMheight = im.size
>>> width, height = im.size Thats all the info we need to paste the logo and save the
>>> left = int(width/4) resulting image in the directory weve just created:
>>> top = int(height/4) print ('Adding the logo to %s %(filename))
>>> right = int(3 * width/4) im.paste(logoIm, (IMwidth - logoWidth, IMheight -
>>> bottom = int(3 * height/4) logoHeight))
>>> croppedIM=copyIM.crop((left,top,right,bottom)) im.save(os.path.join(withLogo, filename))
The cropped thumbnail image is in croppedIM, which Weve used the paste method to place the logo in the
were going to paste over the copied image: bottom-right corner of the image. To determine the
>>> copyIM.paste(croppedIM, (400,500)).show() coordinates of the top-left corner for placing the logo, we
>>> copyIM.paste(croppedIM, (200,0)).show() subtract the width and height of the logo image from the real
>>> copyIM.save(pastedIM.png) image. In case we want to place the logo in the bottom-left
The paste method takes the X and Y coordinates as the corner, the coordinates will be 0 for the X axis, and the Y axis
two arguments thatll determine the location of the top-left would be the height of the image minus the height of the logo.
corner of the image being pasted (croppedIM) into the main In Python terms, its expressed as:
image (copyIM). After pasting the thumbnails twice at im.paste(logoIm, (0, IMheight - logoHeight))
different locations, we save the image as pastedIM.png. Similarly, we can also place a textual watermark over the
images. This, however, is done via the ImageDraw module,
Add a watermark which is useful for annotating images. First, modify the script
Perhaps the most popular use of the paste method is to to import additional libraries:
Tkinter is a watermark images. With a simple script, you can paste a from PIL import ImageDraw, ImageFont
wonderful toolkit custom watermark or logo over all the images youve ever
to quickly cook up shot in a matter of minutes. draw = ImageDraw.Draw(im)
a lightweight user
import os font = ImageFont.truetype(DroidSans.ttf, 24)
interface for your
print (Adding watermark to %s % (filename))
Python scripts.
draw.text((150, 150),All Rights Reserved,fill=(128,255,128))
The first statement creates an object that will be used to
draw over the image. The font option specifies which font.
PIL can use: bitmap fonts or OpenType/TrueType fonts. To
load a OpenType/TrueType font, we use the truetype
function in the ImageFont module. Finally, we use the draw.
text function to draw a string at the specified position that
points to the top-left corner of the text ( 150x150 in our
script). The fill option gives the RGB colour for the text.

Simple image editor

There are several other uses for the Pillow library. You can, for
example, use its various functions and methods to modify
and apply filters to any image. For ease of use, you can go a
step further and wrap the script in a rudimentary interface
cooked up with Pythons de-facto GUI library Tkinter. Tkinter

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 WorldMags.net
is covered in detail on page 142, so we wont go into details executes the associated custom function when the menu
about it here. To start constructing our basic image item is clicked.
manipulation app, import the required libraries: However, before we define the custom functions for
import tkinter as tk editing the images, we have to open the image:
import tkinter.filedialog def onOpen(self):
import PIL ftypes = [(Image Files, *.jpg *.png, *.gif')]
from PIL import Image, ImageTk, ImageOps, ImageEnhance, dlg = tkinter.filedialog.Open(self, filetypes = ftypes)
ImageFilter filename = dlg.show()
import numpy as np self.fn = filename
Besides Tkinter and PIL, weve imported the NumPy self.setImage()
package for its superior arithmetic skills. Now lets create the Here weve defined the parameters for the Open dialog
main class thatll initialise the graphical interface: box to help us select an image. Next comes the setImage
class ImageEditor(tk.Frame): function that displays the image in our Tkinter interface:
def __init__(self, parent): def setImage(self):
tk.Frame.__init__(self, parent) self.img = Image.open(self.fn)
self.parent = parent photo = ImageTk.PhotoImage(self.img)
self.initUI() self.label1.configure(image = photo)
Flip to the Tkinter tutorial on page 142 for a detailed self.label1.image = photo # keep a reference!
explanation of the methods and functions weve used here. Using PhotoImage we convert the PIL image into a
The initUI() function will draw the actual interface: Tkinter PhotoImage object, so that we can place it on to the
def initUI(self): canvas, which we do in the next line. Remember to keep a
self.parent.title(Simple Photo Editor) reference to the image object, as we did in the last line. If you
self.pack(fill = tk.BOTH, expand = 1) dont, the image wont always show up.
self.label1 = tk.Label(self, border = 25) Moving on, as a nice convenience feature, we can program
self.label1.grid(row = 1, column = 1) our editor to resize the image window according to the size of
menubar = tk.Menu(self.parent) the image weve asked it to open. This feature can be added
filemenu = tk.Menu(menubar, tearoff=0) by adding the following bit of code in the setImage function
The above code gives the app window a title and then uses before placing the image on to the canvas:
the Pack geometry manager that helps pack widgets in rows self.I = np.asarray(self.img)
and columns. The fill option makes sure the widgets fill the l, h = self.img.size
entire space by expanding both horizontally and vertically. geo = str(l)+x+str(h)++0+0
The expand option is used to ask the manager to assign self.parent.geometry(geo)
additional space to the widget box. This will help us resize the Here weve used NumPy to help calculate the size of the
window to accommodate larger images. We then create a image being opened and reset the geometry of the window
pull-down menu: accordingly. The geometry method sets a size for the
filemenu.add_command(label=Open, command= self. window and positions it on the screen. The first two
onOpen) parameters are the width and height of the window. The last
filemenu.add_command(label=Save) two parameters are x and y screen coordinates.
filemenu.add_command(label=Close) Now that we have opened and placed an image on the
filemenu.add_separator() canvas, lets define a custom function to modify it:
filemenu.add_command(label=Exit, command=self.quit) def onRot (self):
menubar.add_cascade(label=File, menu=filemenu) im = self.img.rotate(45) ##rotate an image 45 degrees
photo2 = ImageTk.PhotoImage(im)
editmenu = tk.Menu(menubar, tearoff=0) self.label1.configure(image=photo2)
editmenu.add_command(label=Rotate, command=self. self.label1.image = photo2
onRot) self.label1.grid(row=1, column=3)
editmenu.add_command(label=Trace Contours, self.img = photo2
command=self.onCont) You can similarly create the onCont function by replacing
menubar.add_cascade(label=Simple Mods, the rotate command with this:
menu=editmenu) im = self.img.filter(ImageFilter.CONTOUR)
As usual, to begin execution, well use Pythons if __
helpmenu = tk.Menu(menubar, tearoff=0) name__ == __main__ trick :
helpmenu.add_command(label=Help Index) def main():
helpmenu.add_command(label=About...) root = tk.Tk()
menubar.add_cascade(label=Help, menu=helpmenu) ImageEditor(root)
root.geometry(300x200)
self.parent.config(menu = menubar) root.mainloop()
The add_command method adds a menu item to the
menu, add_seperator adds a separator line, and the add_ if __name__ == __main__:
cascade method creates a hierarchical menu by associating main()
a given menu to a parent menu. Normally, Tkinter menus can The complete script is available on our GitHub at https://
be torn off. Since we dont want that feature, well turn it off by github.com/geekybodhi/techmadesimple-pillow. Use it
setting tearoff=0 . We can add menu options as we expand as a framework to flesh out the image editor as you learn new
our app. Each menu option has a command= option, which tricks and get familiar with the Pillow library. Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 131

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 WorldMags.net
PyAudio: Detect
and save audio
Discover how Python can be used to record and play back sound.

While initialising the stream, well also define a number of

properties that can be altered to influence how the data is
captured and recorded.
p = pyaudio.PyAudio()
stream = p.open (format=pyaudio.paInt16,
channels=1,
rate=44100,
input= True,
input_device_index = 0,
frames_per_buffer = 1024)
The pyaudio.PyAudio class is used to initiate and
terminate PortAudio, access audio devices, and open and
close audio streams. The real audio processing happens in
the pyaudio.Stream class, where the stream is opened with
several parameters. The pyaudio.paInt16 parameter sets the
bit depth to 16 bits, which indicates that you are reading the
data as 16-bit integers; channels can be set to 1 for mono or
2 for stereo; rate defines the sampling frequency, which is
usually 44.1 kHz. The input=True parameter asks PyAudio to
use the stream as input from the device, which is mentioned
with the input_device_index parameter.
Frames_per_buffer is an interesting parameter, which

A
udio is an important means of communication and, we use to define the length of the audio buffer. The data
truth be told, working with multimedia is fun. captured in this buffer can then either be discarded or saved.
However, working with audio is a challenging task PyAudio uses chunks of data, instead of a continuous amount
because it involves handling a variety of devices, standards of audio, for a couple of reasons. For one, reading data in
and formats. There are several libraries that you can use chunks helps use resources efficiently. Recording a
with Python to capture and manipulate sound, and make continuous flow of data from the microphone would just eat
interactive apps. One of the better platform-independent up the processor and may lead to memory leaks on devices
libraries to make sound work with your Python application is such as the Raspberry Pi, which has a limited amount of
PyAudio. The library can help you record audio as well as play RAM. Another advantage of reading data in chunks, as we will
back sounds without writing oodles of code. see later on, is that it enables us to analyse the data and only
The PyAudio library provides Python bindings for the save those relevant bits that meet our criteria, and discard
popular cross-platform PortAudio I/O library. It can be the rest.
easily installed with a simple pip install pyaudio command. In a real program, youll want to define these parameters
As with all programs, you need to begin any PyAudio program in variables, because theyll be used in other places in the
by importing the library. PyAudio is generally complemented program as well. Along with the above, we will also define
with the WAV library to capture (or play) audio in the lossless two variables:
WAV format: record_seconds = 10
import pyaudio output_filename = Monoaudio.wav
import wave Now comes the code that does the actual audio capture:
print ( Now recording audio. Speak into the microphone. )
Capture audio frames = [ ]
Once youve imported the libraries, you can quickly cobble
together the code to open the PyAudio recording stream. for i in range(0, int(rate / chunk * record_seconds)):

134 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net
data = stream.read(chunk)
frames.append(data)
We first print a line of text that notifies the start of the
recording, and then define a list variable named frames . The
for loop handles the task of recording the audio. It brings in
the data in correctly sized chunks and saves it into a list
named frames . The for loop helps determines how many
samples to record given the rate, the number of bytes a
recording should have, and the recording duration. In our
case, the loop makes 430 iterations and saves the captured
audio data in the frames list. We will now close the audio
recording stream:
print ( Done recording audio. )
stream.stop_stream()
stream.close()
p.terminate()
The above code first terminates the audio recording, then You can safely ignore all messages (except Exception errors) that appear
whenever you run a PyAudio script its simply the library discovering the
closes the stream, and finally terminates the PyAudio session.
audio hardware on your machine.
Now that we have the audio data as a string of bytes in the
frames list, well transform it and save it as a WAV file using
the wave module: break up the tasks into various smaller tasks and write a class
wf = wave.open(output_filename, wb) for each. In such a case, the code that begins the execution
wf.setnchannels(channels) would look something like:
wf.setsampwidth(p.get_sample_size(format)) if __name__ == __main__:
wf.setframerate(rate) rec = Recorder(channels=1)
wf.writeframes(b .join(frames)) with rec.open(capture.wav, wb) as recfile:
wf.close() recfile.record(duration=10.0)
This is where the data is actually written to an audio file. We discuss Pythons if __name__ == __main__ trick for
Python opens the file in the write-only mode, as defined by writing reusable code in the Tweepy tutorial (see page 138).
the wave module. This is followed by a bunch of wave write The above code is executed when the program is run directly.
objects, such as setnchannels, which sets the number of Now, when the with statement is executed, Python
channels (mono in our case), and setframerate, which sets evaluates the expression, and calls the magic __enter__
the frame rate (44.1kHz in our case). The setsamwidth object method on the resulting value (which is called a context
sets the sample width and is derived from the format using guard), and assigns whatever __enter__ returns to the
PyAudios get_sample_size() function. Finally, the variable given by as . Python then executes the code body
b .join() method combines the bytes in a list, which in our and, irrespective of what happens in that code, it calls the
case is named frames, before closing the file. guard objects __exit__ method. The __enter__ and
If you run the program, youll first notice a string of __exit__ methods make it easy to build code that needs
warnings. You can safely ignore these because they are the some setup and shutdown code to be executed for
result of PyAudios verbose interactions with the audio example, to close the file in our case:
hardware on your computer. What you should watch out for def __exit__(self, exception, value, traceback):
are any Python exceptions that point to actual errors in the self.close()
code and must be ironed out. After executing the program, The Recorder class opens a recording stream and defines
youll have a 10-second WAV file named Monoaudio.wav in its parameters:
the current directory. class Recorder(object):
While the above code will work flawlessly and helps def __init__(self, channels=1, rate=44100, frames=1024):
demonstrate the ease of use of the PyAudio library, this isnt self.channels = channels
how youd program it in the real world. In a real project, youd self.rate = rate

Managing a PyAudio stream

Weve used some of the parameters that you weve used paInt16 format, which sets the bit used to fetch information from a sound file while
can use with the pyaudio.Stream class. Heres a depth to 16 bits, indicating that you are reading initialising a stream. The get_input_latency()
list of the other popular ones. The stream, which the data as 16-bit integers. In addition to this, function returns the float value of the input
can either be an input stream, an output stream other formats include paInt8, paInt24, latency, while get_time() returns the streams
or both, is initialised with the __init__ function. paInt32 and paFloat32. Audiophile developers time. For managing the stream, besides the
You can pass several parameters to the stream are advised to spend some time with the start_stream() and stop_stream() functions,
while creating it, as weve done. The popular PortAudio documentation to understand the theres also the is_active() and is_stopped()
ones are the sampling rate, the number of nuances of these different formats before functions, which return a Boolean value
channels, the number of frames per buffer, and selecting one for their application. Moving on, depending on whether the stream is active
the sampling size and format. In the tutorial, there are several other parameters that can be or stopped.

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 135

 WorldMags.net
self.frames_per_buffer = frames getsampwidth()),
channels=wf.getnchannels(),
def open(self, fname, mode=wb): rate=wf.getframerate(),
return RecordingFile (fname, mode, self.channels, self.rate, output=True)
self.frames) If a filename is provided, its opened in read-only mode
The class defines the necessary parameters and then and its contents are transferred to a variable named wf. Then
passes them to another class, named RecordingFile, which the PyAudio library is initialised. Unlike the open() function
defines the record function that opens the stream, captures we used earlier to define the parameters of the stream, when
the audio, and then writes the files using the for loop, as reading a WAV file, well use functions to extract details from
described earlier. the file. For instance, the getsampwidth method fetches the
sample width of the file in bytes. Similarly, the getnchannels
Vocalise recordings method returns the number of audio channels, and
You can easily adapt the code to play back the file. In addition getframerate returns the sampling frequency of the wave
to pyaudio and wave, well import the sys module for audio file.
accessing system-specific functions and parameters. # read data
import pyaudio data = wf.readframes(1024)
import wave
import sys # play stream (3)
while len(data) > 0:
if len(sys.argv) < 2: stream.write(data)
print( The script plays the provided wav file.\n data = wf.readframes(1024)
Proper usage: %s filename.wav % sys. Once we have all the details from the file, we extract the
argv[0]) frames in chunks of 1,024 bytes. As long as there are chunks
For more
sys.exit(-1) of data, the while loop writes the current frame of audio
accurate results,
The script will play any provided WAV file. If one isnt data to the stream. When all the frames have been streamed,
calculate the RMS
value for a group
provided, the above code comes into action and prints the well then terminate the stream and close PyAudio with:
of sound frames proper usage information before exiting. stream.stop_stream()
to decide what wf = wave.open(sys.argv[1], rb) stream.close()
level is considered p = pyaudio.PyAudio() p.terminate()
to be silence. stream = p.open(format=p.get_format_from_width(wf.
Auto recorder
In the scripts above, weve seen how to use PyAudio to record
from the microphone for a predefined number of seconds.
With a little bit of wizardry, you can also train PyAudio to start
recording as soon as it detects a voice, and keep capturing
the audio until we stop talking and the input stream goes
silent once again.
To do this, well initiate the script as usual with the
if __name__ == __main__': trick to print a message and then
call the function to record the audio, such as:
print(Start talking into the mic)
record_to_file(capture.wav)
print(Alrighty, were done. Recorded to capture.wav)
The record_to_file function receives the name of the file
to record the sound data to, and contains the code to record
data from the microphone into the file after setting up the
stream parameters. It also calls the record() function, which

Other popular Python sound libraries

Python has some interesting built-in multimedia PyMedia is a popular open source media library playback to video playback, recording, streaming
modules for working with sound, as well as a that supports audio/video manipulation of a and editing.
bunch of external ones. We used the wave wide range of multimedia formats including WAV, One of the best features of the Pyglet
module to read and write audio files in the WAV MP3, OGG, AVI, DivX, DVD and more. It enables multimedia and windowing library is that it needs
audio format. Theres also the built-in audioop you to parse, demutiplex, multiplex, decode and nothing else besides Python, simplifying
module, used for manipulating the raw audio encode all supported formats. Theres also installation. Its popular for developing games
data. It can be used to perform several Pydub, which is a high-level audio interface that and other visually rich applications. It can also
operations on sound fragments. For example, uses FFMPEG to support formats other than work with AVbin to play back audio formats such
you can find the minimum and maximum values WAV. The GStreamer Python bindings allow as MP3, OGG/Vorbis and WMA, and video
of all the samples within a sound fragment. developers to use the Gstreamer framework to formats such as DivX, MPEG-2, H.264, WMV and
There are also several third-party open source develop applications with complex audio/video Xvid. Another popular library is Pygame, which
multimedia frameworks with Python bindings. processing capabilities, from simple audio adds functionality on top of the SDL library.

136 | Coding Made Simple WorldMags.net

 WorldMags.net Websites such
as Program
Creek help you
find sample
code for Python
modules like
PyAudio.

among other things, checks the captured data for silence. elif not silent and not snd_started:
def record(): snd_started = True
p = pyaudio.PyAudio()
stream = p.open(format=FORMAT, channels=1, rate=RATE, if snd_started and num_silent > 100:
input=True,frames_per_buffer=CHUNK_ break
SIZE) If the captured data is above the threshold of silence and
we havent been recording yet, well set the snd_started
num_silent = 0 variable to True to begin recording sound. But if weve been
snd_started = False recording sound and the captured data is below the silence
threshold, well increment the num_silent variable. Moving
r = array(h) on, well stop recording if weve been recording but its been
100 frames since the last word was spoken.
while 1: Next, well call another function to manipulate the
snd_data = array(h, stream.read(CHUNK_SIZE)) recording and pad the audio with 1.5 seconds of blank sound.
Adding silence is simple. Well just read the recorded data into
if byteorder == big: an array and then extend it by adding blank frames.
snd_data.byteswap() def add_silence(snd_data, seconds):
r.extend(snd_data) r = array('h, [0 for i in range(int(seconds*RATE))])
The function records words from the microphone and r.extend(snd_data)
returns the data as an array of signed shorts. We next check r.extend([0 for i in range(int(seconds*RATE))])
whether this recorded data contains silence by calling the return r
is_silent function with silent = is_silent(snd_data) . Weve The complete script is on our GitHub at https://github.
defined the is_silent (snd_data) function elsewhere in the com/geekybodhi/techmadesimple-pyaudio/. When you
script. It uses the max(list) method, which returns the execute it, it will detect and start capturing audio frames but
elements from a list (snd_data in this case) with the discard them until it detects a voice. From here on, itll save all
maximum value. This function will return True if the snd_data consequent frames until it detects a period of silence.
is below the silence threshold. The threshold intensity defines The script also contains comments to help you extend it
the silence-to-noise signal. A value lower than the threshold by writing a trim function thatll trim the silent portion from
intensity is considered silence. Once the is_silent function the end and even from the start, if it exists. Although there are
returns a value (either True or False), well then subject it to several other Python libraries for playing sound, PyAudio is
further tests: one of the easiest to use with third-party audio toolkits that
if silent and snd_started: you can use to capture and manipulate sound, so have fun
num_silent += 1 playing around with your sound! Q

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 137

 WorldMags.net
Tweepy: Create
Twitter trends
With some Python know-how, you can tap into the collective consciousness
and extract valuable information from it.

strings listed alongside API Key, API Secret, Access Token and
Access Token Secret.
Youre now all set to access Twitter with Python. To access
the tweets, you need to import the following libraries in your
Python script:
import tweepy
from tweepy.streaming import StreamListener
from tweepy import OAuthHandler
from tweepy import Stream
Next you need to paste in the API and Access tokens, and
use these to connect to Twitter, such as:
consumer_key = ENTER YOUR API KEY
consumer_secret = ENTER YOUR API SECRET
access_token = ENTER YOUR ACCESS TOKEN
access_secret = ENTER YOUR ACCESS TOKEN SECRET

auth = OAuthHandler(consumer_key, consumer_secret)

auth.set_access_token(access_token, access_secret)

api = tweepy.API(auth)
From this point forward, we can use the api variable for
interacting with Twitter. For example, you can read your own
time with the following loop:

T
witter is a wonderful tool if you want to get a feel for for status in tweepy.Cursor(api.user_timeline).items():
what the world is thinking. The visible 140-character print(status.text)
social network is powered by a wonderful API that The code will print all status updates in groups of 20 from
enables users to drink from the firehose and capture all the your own timeline. We use Tweepys Cursor interface, which
raw data passing over the network. Once captured, you can supports several different types of objects. Here we have
use this data to mine all kinds of meaningful information. You used the items method to iterate through our timeline. To
can, for example, find trends related to specific keywords or limit the number of tweets you wish to print, you can also
gauge sentiments during events. change the statement to something like tweepy.Cursor(api.
Tweepy is one of the easiest libraries that you can use to user_timeline).items(10) , which will only print the 10 most
access the Twitter API with Python. In this tutorial, well be recent tweets.
using Tweepy to capture any tweets that mention OggCamp,
and then well mine the data to print a list of the most Capture tweets
frequently used hashtags. As you can see, interacting with Twitter via Python is
You can easily install Tweepy with pip install tweepy . reasonably straightforward. Twitter also offers a set of
Quick Tweepy accesses Twitter via the OAuth standard for streaming APIs, however, and by using these, you can access
tip authorisation. For that, youll first have to head over to Twitters global stream of tweets. The public streams work
Scroll through http://apps.twitter.com and sign in with your regular really well for following specific topics and mining data. Well
Tweepys
Twitter credentials. Now press the Create New App button import and modify Tweepys StreamListener class to fetch
documentation
(http://docs. and fill in all the fields except for the Callback URL, which you the tweets.
tweepy.org/ can leave blank, and then click on the Create button. Once the from tweepy import Stream
en/latest/api. app has been created, you can hop over to the Keys and from tweepy.streaming import StreamListener
html) for a list of Access Tokens tab and create an OAuth token. This might from tweepy import OAuthHandler
supported methods.
take a minute or two. Once its done, make a note of the

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auth = tweepy.OAuthHandler(consumer_key, consumer_
secret)
auth.set_access_token(access_token,access_secret)
api = tweepy.API(auth)

class StdOutListener(StreamListener):

def on_status(self, data):

print(data)
return True

def on_error(self, status):

print(status)
return False
The Twitter streaming API is used to download Twitter
messages in real time. It is useful for obtaining a high volume
of tweets, or for creating a live feed using a site stream or user
stream. Tweepy establishes a streaming session and routes All that gobbledygook is just one tweet!
messages to the StreamListener instance.
Here we begin by creating a class that inherits from
StreamListener. StreamListener has several methods. Of this inside an if condition. The if __name__ == __main__:
these, on_data() , on_status() and on_error() are the most trick exists in Python, so our Python files can act as reusable
useful ones. The on_data() method handles replies to modules or as standalone programs. Every module has a
statuses, warnings, direct messages and so on, and passes name, and statements in a module can find out the name of
data from status to the on_status() method. its module. When the Python interpreter reads a source file, it
When youre interacting with Twitter via its API, you have executes all the code found in it. Before executing the code, it
to be mindful of rate limiting. If you exceed the limited defines a few special variables. For example, if the Python
number of attempts to connect to the streaming API within a interpreter is running the source file as the main program, it
window of time, the connect will error out. Repeated attempts sets the special __name__ variable to have a value __
will only aggravate Twitter and it will exponentially increase main__ . If this file is being imported from another module,
your wait time. To avoid such a situation, use Tweepys on_ __name__ is set to the modules name. In our case, as the
error() method to print the error messages and terminate defined __name__ is __main__ it tells Python the module
execution. is being run standalone by the user and we can do
listener = StdOutListener() corresponding appropriate actions.
twitterStream = Stream(auth, listener) You can modify the above to filter your results based on
Once weve authenticated with Twitter, we can now start multiple keywords. For instance, using twitterStream.
the stream listener. The modified StreamListener class is filter(track=[LXF, tuxradar, LinuxFormat]) will get tweets
used to create a listener instance. This contains the that contain any of the three words specified: LXF, tuxradar
information about what to do with the data once it comes or LinuxFormat.
back from the Twitter API call. Similarly, if you wish to follow a particular Twitter account,
if __name__ == __main__: youll first have to find out its Twitter ID using a web service
twitterStream.filter(track=[oggcamp]) such as Twitterid.com. Once you have discovered the
Here we use our stream class to filter the Twitter stream to Twitter ID, you can modify the above to say twitterStream.
fetch only tweets that contain the word oggcamp. The track filter(follow=[255410383]) , which will display any new tweet
parameter is an array of search terms to stream. We place by @LinuxFormat. You can also filter results by combining

Anatomy of a tweet
The 140 characters of the tweet that are visible representation of the user who has contributed used (you) has marked the tweet as favourite or
on your timeline are like the tip of the iceberg. A to the tweet. Then comes the text field, which retweeted it. Then there are the favorite_count
complete tweet in its JSON form contains a lot weve used extensively in the tutorial this and retweet_count fields, which contain the
more information and attributes in addition to contains the actual text of the status update. number of times the tweet has been favourited
the tweet itself. A knowledge of the important Weve also use the entities field, which contains and retweeted respectively.
ones will help you extract the relevant data. information that has been parsed out of the text Also important is the lang field, which
The JSON string begins with the created_at of the tweet, such as URLs and hashtags. contains the two-character language identifier of
field, which lists the UTC time when the tweet Besides these, theres the favorited and the tweet, such as en or de. The place and geo
was created. It is followed by the id and the retweeted fields, Boolean fields that indicate fields contain information that points to the
id_str fields, which are the integer and string whether the user whose credentials are being geographic location of the tweet.

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various parameters. For example, twitterStream.filter
(location=[51.5073509,-0.12775829999998223], track=[linux]) def on_data(self, data):
will fetch any tweets that originate in London and contain the self.tweet_data.append(data)
word linux. Take a look at Twitters official API documentation saveFile = io.open(oggcampTweets.json, w,
(https://dev.twitter.com/streaming/overview/request- encoding=utf-8)
parameters) for a list of all the supported streaming request saveFile.write(u[\n)
parameters. saveFile.write(,.join(self.tweet_data))
The StreamListener will remain open and fetch tweets saveFile.write(u\n])
based on the specified criteria until you ask it to stop by saveFile.close()
terminating the script. The large blobs of text on your screen return True
are the tweets fetched by the streamlistener in the JSON Instead of printing the tweets to the screen, the above
format (see box below). block will import the io library and use it to append the data
flowing from the StreamListener into a file named
Process tweets for frequency oggcampTweets.json. It opens the output file, writes the
Before you can process the tweets, you will have to save them opening square bracket, writes the JSON data as text
to a file. separated by commas, then inserts a closing square bracket,
import io and closes the document.
Alternatively, you can simply redirect the output of
class StdOutListener(StreamListener): the StreamListener to a file. For example, python fetch_
oggcamp.py > oggcampTweets.json will save all tweets with
def __init__(self): the word oggcamp to a file named oggcampTweets.json.
self.tweet_data=[] We can now use the oggcampTweets.json file to mine all
kinds of data. For example, lets analyse this data to list the 10
most frequently used hashtags. Begin by importing the
relevant libraries:
import sys
import json
import operator
Now well pass the .json file to the script from the
command line.
if __name__ == __main__:
if len(sys.argv) == 2:
main(sys.argv[1])
else:
print(Usage: python top_tweets.py file-with-tweets.json)
The following code analyses the number of parameters
passed from the command line. If it finds a pointer to the
JSON containing the tweets file, its forwarded to the main()
function. Else the script prints the proper usage information if
the user has forgotten to point to the JSON file.
Head over to http://apps.twitter.com and register a new app to get yourself def main(tweetsFile):
some API keys and access tokens. tweets_file = open(tweetsFile)

Save tweets to database

Instead of collecting tweets inside a JSON file, use the following code to import the required class StdOutlistener(StreamListener):
you can also directly connect to and save them Python libraries and connect to the database: def on_data(self, data):
inside a MySQL database. The MySQL database import mysql.connector all_data = json.loads(data)
provides a connector for Python 3 that you can import json if text in all_data:
easily install by using pip3 install mysql- tweet = all_data[text]
connector-python . After installing the connector, connect = mysql.connector. username = all_data[user][screen_name]
you can create a database and table for saving connect(user=MySQLuser, Once weve extracted the information from a
the tweets with: password=MySQLpassword, host=localhost, tweet in the stream, we can write these to the
CREATE DATABASE tweetTable; database=tweetTable) table, and also print the values on the screen.
USE tweetTable; db=connect.cursor() db.execute(INSERT INTO tweets (username,
CREATE TABLE tweets (username Once were connected, well create a tweet) VALUES (%s,%s),(username, tweet))
VARCHAR(15),tweet VARCHAR(140)); StreamListener, just like we have done in the connect.commit()
This creates a database called tweetTable main tutorial. Well then scan each tweet for text,
with a table named tweets that has two fields to and extract the tweet along with the username print((username,tweet))
store the username and the tweet. You can now and screen name from the tweets: return True

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These are the

tweets_hash = {} increment its occurrence frequency. Else, well add it to the top hashtags
for tweet_line in tweets_file: dictionary and record the occurrence. that people used
if tweet_line.strip(): sortedHashTags = dict(sorted(tweets_hash.items(), while tweeting
tweet = json.loads(tweet_line) key=operator.itemgetter(1), reverse=True)[:10]) about privacy.
if entities in tweet.keys():
hashtags = tweet[entities][hashtags] print(\nHashtag - Occurrence\n)
for ht in hashtags: for count,value in sorted(sortedHashTags.items(),
if ht != None: key=lambda kv: (kv[1],kv[0]),reverse=True):
if ht[text].encode(utf-8) in tweets_hash.keys(): print(#%s - %d times % (count.decode(utf-8), value))
tweets_hash[ht[text].encode(utf-8)] += 1 Youll need to familiarise yourself with data structures and
else: dictionaries in Python to make sense of the above code. Each
tweets_hash[ht[text].encode(utf-8)] = 1 key is separated from its value by a colon (:), the items are
The above might look like a mouthful but its actually really separated by commas, and the whole thing is enclosed in
simple. To start with, the JSON file is received as the curly braces. Keys are unique within a dictionary. To access
tweetsFile variable, which is then read by the tweets_file dictionary elements, you can use the familiar square brackets
variable. We then define a dictionary variable named along with the key to obtain its value.
tweets_hash that will house the hashtags and their The above code comes into play after we have gone
occurrence frequencies. We then initiate a loop for every through the entire JSON file and scavenged data from all the
individual tweet in the file. Well first convert the JSON string tweets. The code block will filter the top 10 tweets based on
into a dictionary object, and save it in a variable named the descending order of their occurrence, and print the
tweet . If the tweet has a tag named entities, well extract the results. The complete code for this tutorial is available in our
hashtag value. Next, well check whether the hashtag is GitHub repository at: https://github.com/geekybodhi/
already listed in our dictionary. In case it is, well just techmadesimple-tweepy. Q

Pythons package management

Just like your Linux distribution, Python also Of the two distributions, Miniconda is the smaller install Miniconda, grab the installer from
ships with a package management system, which one, and it includes Conda and Conda-build, and http://conda.pydata.org/miniconda.html
helps install complex packages, libraries and also installs Python. You can use Miniconda to and install it with:
extensions. Pythons package management install over 200 scientific packages and their bash Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh
system is called Conda, and it can be used for dependencies with the conda install command. Then close and re-open the terminal window for
installing multiple versions of software packages. Anaconda, on the other hand, includes Conda, the changes to take effect. Now use the conda
Conda isnt available as a standalone Conda-build, Python, and also over 100 packages list command to list the installed packages. You
application and instead ships with all Python and libraries that it installs automatically. Like can now install packages such as matplotdb
distributions, such as Anaconda and Miniconda. Miniconda, you can install over 200 packages. To with conda install matplotdb .

WorldMags.net Coding Made Simple | 141

 WorldMags.net
Tkinter: Make a
basic calculator
Why not use Pythons default graphical toolkit to build a simple yet
easily extensible visual calculator?

Heres a more practical example that creates a window with

a title and two widgets, one of which quits the application
when clicked:
import tkinter as tk

class App(tk.Frame):
def __init__(self, master=None):
tk.Frame.__init__(self, master)
self.pack()
self.createWidgets()

def createWidgets(self):
self.hi = tk.Label(self)
self.hi[text] = Hello World
self.hi.pack(side=top)

self.EXIT = tk.Button(self, text=EXIT, fg=red,

command=root.destroy)
self.EXIT.pack(side=bottom)

root = tk.Tk()
app = App(master=root)
app.master.title(Sample Application)

P
ython provides various options for developing app.master.geometry(250x70+550+150)
graphical user interfaces, such as wxPython, JPython app.mainloop()
and Tkinter. Of these, Tkinter is the standard GUI Well explain the individual elements of the code as we
library that ships by default with Python. Tkinter is the Python build our calculator. For now, its important to note that weve
interface to Tk, the GUI toolkit for Tcl/Tk. Tk was developed explicitly created an instance of Tk with root = tk.Tk() .
as a GUI extension for the Tcl scripting language in the early Tkinter starts a Tcl/Tk interpreter behind the scenes, which
1990s. One of the reasons for its popularity is that its easier then translates Tkinter commands into Tcl/Tk commands.
to learn than other toolkits. The main window of an application and this interpreter are
Tkinter provides a powerful object-oriented interface to intrinsically linked, and both are required in order for a Tkinter
the Tk GUI toolkit. To use Tkinter, you dont need to write Tcl application to work. Creating an instance of Tk initialises
code, because Tkinter is a set of wrappers that implement the this interpreter and creates the root window. If you dont
Tk widgets as Python classes. explicitly initialise it, one will be implicitly created when you
Creating a GUI application using Tkinter is an easy task. create your first widget. While this is perfectly fine, it goes
Quick We begin by first importing the Tkinter module, which is then against the spirit of Python, which states that explicit is
tip used to create the graphical apps main window. Next we add better than implicit.
one or more of the supported widgets (see box on page 143)
The code in this
tutorial is based on
to the main window, before entering the main event loop to Graphical calculator
vegaseats Updated take action against each event triggered by the user. For As you can see, it doesnt take much effort to drape a Python
Tiny Tkinter example, the following code will display a window: app with a graphical interface. Well use the same principles
Calculator, listed import tkinter as tk to write our graphical calculator. Well add various widgets to
on DaniWeb.com window = tk.Tk() our calculator, including an editable display, which can be
(http://tinyurl.
# Insert code to add widgets used to correct mistakes and to enter symbols and
com/h3eotvf).
window.mainloop() hexadecimals not on our calculators keypad. For example, if

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 WorldMags.net Tkinter makes
it relatively
easy to build a
basic graphical
calculator
in Python.

you enter 0xAA, itll print the decimal equivalent, that is 170. variables with the __init__ method in the class body. This
Similarly, the editable display can also be used to manually method is executed automatically when a new instance of the
type in functions that arent represented on the keypad but class is created. Python passes the instance as the first
are defined in Pythons math module, such as the logarithmic argument, and it is a convention to name it self. In other
and trigonometric functions. Furthermore, our calculator will words, the __init__ method is the constructor for a class in
also have the ability to temporarily store and retrieve a result Python. The basic idea is that it is a special method, which
from its memory bank. is automatically called when an object of that class is created.
The complete code for the calculator is available online. So when you call Calculator() , Python creates an object for
Lets dissect individual elements to get a better grasp of the you, and then passes it as the first parameter to the __init__
Tkinter library and its interactions with Python. method.
import tkinter as tk The self variable and the __init__ method are both OOP
from math import * constructs. The self variable represents the instance of the
from functools import partial object itself. Most object-oriented languages pass this as a
hidden parameter to the methods defined on an object, but
class Calculator(tk.Tk): Python does not. You have to declare it explicitly. When you
def __init__(self): create an instance of the Calculator class and call its
tk.Tk.__init__(self) methods, it will be passed automatically. It is important to use
We begin by importing the various libraries and functions the self parameter inside an objects method if you want to
for our calculator. Besides the Tkinter toolkit, well also need persist the value with the object.
the math library to handle the calculations. The partial
function from the functools module helps us write reusable Define the layout
code. Well explain how weve used it later in the tutorial. The first order of business is to create the graphical interface
After importing the libraries, we begin defining the for the calculator. In this section we define different
Calculator class. To begin with, we initialise the instance parameters for the positioning and appearance of our

Commonly used Tkinter widgets

The Tkinter toolkit supports over a dozen types multiline and non-editable object that displays scrollbars on Entry widgets. The Canvas widget
of controls or widgets that you can use in your texts. creates an area that can be used to place
graphical application. Here are some of the most Then theres the Menubutton, which creates graphics, text or other widgets.
commonly used ones. the part of a drop-down menu that stays on the All these widgets have the same syntax:
The Button widget is used to create buttons screen all the time. Every menubutton is w = <widgetname> (parent, option1=value,
that can display either text or images. You can associated with a Menu widget, which can option2=value, ... )
define a function for a button, which is called display the choices for that menubutton when Similarly, they also share several options,
automatically when you click the button. The the user clicks on it. The Menu widget can create such as the ones to define background colour
Checkbutton widget is used to display a number different types of menus, including pop-up, top- ( bg ), the type of border ( relief ), and the size of
of options to a user as toggle buttons, and can level and pull-down. the border ( bd ). Refer to the Tkinter
also display images in place of text. Similarly, the The Scrollbar widget provides a slide documentation (http://infohost.nmt.edu/
Listbox widget is useful for displaying a list of controller that is used to implement vertical tcc/help/pubs/tkinter/web/index.html) for
items from which a user can select multiple scroll bars on other widgets, such as Listbox, a list of all the options supported by each of
options. The Message widget provides a Text and Canvas. You can also create horizontal these widgets.

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calculator. Arranging widgets on the screen includes
determining the size and position of the various components.
function or method to call when the button is pressed using
the command parameter. In our code, we call the partial
Widgets can provide size and alignment information to function to pass the button number. The partial function,
geometry managers, but the geometry manager always has which is part of the functools module, helps write reusable
the final say on positioning and size. code. The partial function makes a new version of a function
self.title(Simple Demo Calculator) with one or more arguments already filled in. Furthermore,
self.geometry(350x140+550+150) the new version of a function documents itself.
self.memory = 0 The relief style of the button widget defines the 3D effect
self.create_widgets() around the boundaries of the button. By default, a button
While Tkinter supports three geometry managers appears raised and changes to a sunken appearance when it
namely, Grid, Pack and Place well use the Place manager, is pressed. Because this setting doesnt suit our calculator,
which is the simplest of the three and allows precise weve used the ridge constant, which creates a raised
positioning of widgets within or relative to another window. boundary around the individual buttons.
We use the geometry function to define the size and After creating the button, we increment the position of the
position of the calculators window it accepts a single string column and check if weve created four columns. If we have,
as the argument in the format: width x height + xoffset + then we reset the column variable and update the row
yoffset . The real string doesnt contain any spaces, which variable, and draw the next row of buttons. Else, we just print
have been added here for easier readability. You can also just the label and move on to the next button. This process is
set the position of the window by only defining the x and y repeated until the entire keypad has been drawn.
offset coordinates. self.entry = tk.Entry(self, width=33, bg="green")
def create_widgets(self): self.entry.grid(row=0, column=0, columnspan=5)
btn_list = [ The last bit of the calculators visual component is the
7, 8, 9, *, C, editable display, which we create using the Entry widget. The
4, 5, 6, /, Mem >, Entry widget is a standard Tkinter widget used to enter or
1, 2, 3, -, > Mem, display a single line of text. The width option specifies the
0, ., =, +, Neg ] length of the display and bg its background colour. In the
next line, the entry.grid method helps us place the widget in
r=1 the defined cell and define its length.
c=0
for label in btn_list: Define the special keys
tk.Button(self, text=label, width=5, relief=ridge, Our calculator is now visually complete. If you call on the
command=partial(self.calculate, label)).grid(row=r, column=c) Calculator class with MyApp().mainloop() it draws the
c += 1 keypad of the calculator. However, dont forget to remove
if c > 4: the command parameter from the tk.Button function. The
c=0 command parameter refers to the self.calculate function,
r += 1 which does the actual calculation but hasnt been defined yet.
Once weve defined the look of the calculator window, the Once youve perfected the look and feel of your calculator,
above code defines and creates the individual calculator you can define the calculate function.
buttons. The create_widgets() method contains code to def calculate(self, key):
create the layout for the calculator. The btn_list array lists if key == =:
the buttons youll find in a typical calculator keypad. They are result = eval(self.entry.get())
listed in the order theyll appear on the keypad. self.entry.insert(tk.END, = + str(result))
Next we create all buttons with a for loop. The r and c elif key == C:
variables are used for row and column grid values. Within the self.entry.delete(0, tk.END)
loop, well first create a button using the Button function. In the above calculation code, we use several Entry widget
The Button widget is a standard Tkinter widget used to methods. To add a value to the widget, we use the
implement various kinds of buttons. Buttons can contain text insert method, while the get method is used to fetch the
or images, and you can associate a Python function or current value. We use a combination of these to calculate and
method with each button. When the button is pressed, display the result whenever the equal to (=) key is pressed.
Tkinter automatically calls that function or method. The calculation is handled by the eval function, which parses
In our code, we implement a plain button, which is pretty the passed expression as a Python expression. In simpler
straightforward to use. All you have to do is to specify the terms, this means that the eval function makes a string with
button contents (text from the array, in our case) and what integers in it, a mathematical equation. The return value is the

Popular Tkinter extensions

While the Tkinter toolkit is fairly extensive, it can several widgets such as buttonboxes, notebooks, and rotation. Furthermore, it also provides
be extended to provide even more widgets. The comboboxes, dialog windows and more. Then functions from OpenGL, such as anti-aliasing
most popular Tkinter extension is the tkinter.tix theres the TkZinc widget, which is very similar and more. You can find some of these widget
library, which provides several modern widgets to the standard Canvas widget in that it can be extensions in the repositories of popular
that arent available in the standard toolkit, such used to implement items for displaying graphical distributions. If they arent available in your
as a ComboBox and more. components. However, unlike the Canvas widget, distro, grab and compile them following the
Another popular toolkit is the Python the TkZinc widget can structure the items in a straightforward instructions on their respective
megawidgets, also known as Pmw. It includes hierarchy and comes with support for scaling websites.

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result of the evaluated expression. To clear the current entry,
we use the delete method. For better control, the Entry
widget also allows you to specify character positions in a
number of ways. END corresponds to the position just after
the last character in the Entry widget. We use these to clear
the contents of the editable display at the top whenever the C
button is pressed.
elif key == > Mem:
self.memory = self.entry.get()
if = in self.memory:
val = self.memory.find(=)
self.memory = self.memory[val+2:]
self.title(Memory = + self.memory)
elif key == Mem >:
self.entry.insert(tk.END, self.memory)
In this part of the code, we define the actions for saving
Thanks to
and retrieving a calculated value from the calculators
Tkinters
memory banks. The current value in the buffer is the to extend and improve the code. For instance, if you wish to extensibility, you
complete equation. When the button labelled > Mem is make the code compatible with the older Python 2, you can can add more
pressed, the code scans the equation and only saves the replace the lines at the top to import the Tkinter library with functions to your
numbers after the equal to (=) sign. Secondly, after the following code block: calculator so
committing a value to the memory, it changes the title of the try: its capable of
calculator window to reflect the contents of the memory. import Tkinter as tk more advanced
Conversely, when the code detects that the key labelled Mem except ImportError: calculations.
> has been pressed, it copies the number saved in its buffer import tkinter as tk
to the editable display. This code block will first attempt to import the Tkinter
elif key == Neg: library, which is how it was referred to in Python 2. If this
if = in self.entry.get(): operation throws an ImportError, then Python will attempt to
self.entry.delete(0, tk.END) import the library with its Python 3 name.
try: Another weak point in the code is its use of the eval()
if self.entry.get()[0] == -: function. The risk with eval() is well documented and has to
self.entry.delete(0) do with the fact that it evaluates everything passed to it as
else: regular Python code. So if the user enters a valid Python shell
self.entry.insert(0, -) string into the function, itll be executed on the server and can
except IndexError: wreck havoc.
pass To get an idea of what happens, run the calculator and in
else: the display field, instead of a number, write __import__('os').
if = in self.entry.get(): getcwd() . When you press the = key, the eval() function will
self.entry.delete(0, tk.END) execute this command on the web server and print the
self.entry.insert(tk.END, key) current working directory. The __import__ function accepts
a module name ( os in this case) and imports it. We then use
app = Calculator() the imported module to run commands on the underlying
app.mainloop() operating system.
The conditions in the above listed code block are a little To prevent such exploitations of the eval() function,
tricky. The code at the top of this code block comes into play you can insert the following code while defining the
when the key labelled Neg is pressed. If theres an equal to calculate function:
(=) sign in the display, pressing the key labelled Neg will clear if _ in self.entry.get():
the contents of the display. If the value already contains a self.entry.insert(tk.END, Nice try, schmuck! Stick to
negative number, pressing the Neg button will remove the calculations.)
negative sign. If, however, both the above two conditions This code is triggered when it detects an underscore (_) in
arent met, then the key will insert a negative sign to the the display field. Instead of passing the contents of the field to
beginning of the value. the eval command, the code displays a warning.
This brings us to end of our code and the Else condition, Another way to extend the calculator is to add more
which is triggered when none of the previously mentioned functions. For example, you can easily add a key to calculate
conditions are met. In this case, if theres an equal to (=) sign the square root of a number. First add a key labelled sqrt in
in the Entry widget, then that means a calculation has been the btn_list array. Then scroll down to where you define the
completed and the result has been displayed. This means we calculate function and enter the following just above the final
can now clear the entry and start a new calculation as soon else condition:
as a number is punched. elif key == sqrt':
result = sqrt(eval(self.entry.get()))
Add more functionality self.entry.insert(tk.END,sqrt= +str(result))
The above code implements a functional graphical calculator. When the code is triggered, itll calculate the square root
But as it is with every piece of code written for demonstration of the number in the display field and print the results. You
purposes, theres always scope for improvement. The good can similarly extend the calculator by implementing other
thing about Python and Tkinter is that they make it very easy maths functions as well. Q

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