COSC2429 Introduction to Programming
Python Turtle Graphics and
Python Modules
Outline
• Hello, little turtles! turtle program
• Our first turtle program • The range() function
o More turtle program • A few more turtle methods
• Instances and observations
• The for loop • Modules
o Flow of execution of o math
the for loop o random
• Iteration simplifies our
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Python modules
• There are many modules in Python that provide very
powerful features that we can use in our own programs.
o Some can send email or fetch web pages.
o Others allow us to perform complex math
calculations.
• A module is a Python file containing definitions and
statements.
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Hello, little turtles! 1
• We now introduce a module that allows us to create a
data object called a turtle that can be used to draw
pictures.
o A turtle can follow simple commands such as go
forward and turn right.
o As the turtle moves around, if its tail is down
touching the ground, it will draw a line (leave a trail
behind) as it moves.
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Hello, little turtles! 2
o If you tell your turtle to lift up its tail it can still move
around but will not leave a trail.
o You will be able to make some pretty amazing
drawings with these simple capabilities.
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Our first turtle program
• Let’s try to create a new turtle and start drawing a
simple figure like a rectangle.
import turtle # allows us to use the turtles module
win = turtle.Screen() # creates a graphics window
tito = turtle.Turtle() # creates a turtle named tito
tito.forward(150) # ask tito to move forward 150 pixels
tito.left(90) # ask tito to turn left 90 degrees
tito.forward(75) # complete the second side of a rectangle
…
• Does the program run too fast? No problem, add the following line after
creating the graphics window:
win.delay(100) # delay each action that tito performs by 100 ms
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More turtle
• An object can have various methods — things it can do
— and it can also have attributes (sometimes also
called properties). For example:
o Each turtle has a color attribute that can be set to a
specific color.
o It is similar with the turtle pensize or the window’s
bgcolor.
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More turtle - program
import turtle
# Setup a window and a turtle object to draw
win = turtle.Screen()
win.bgcolor("lightgreen")
tess = turtle.Turtle()
tess.color("blue")
tess.pensize(3) # tess and tito will be conventional turtle
# instance names in this course
# Draw an angle
tess.forward(80)
tess.left(120)
tess.forward(80)
win.exitonclick() # wait for the user to click on the canvas
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Instances 1
• Just like we can have many different integers in a
program, we can have many turtles. Each of them is an
independent object and we call each one
an instance of the Turtle type (class).
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Instances 2
• Each instance has its own attributes and methods
• So tito might draw with a thin black pen and be at some
position, while tito might be going in her own direction
with a fat pink pen.
• The following program is what happens when tito draws
a square and tess draws a triangle:
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Instances - program
import turtle
# Setup a window and two turtles to
draw # tess draws an equilateral triangle
win = turtle.Screen() tess.forward(80)
win.bgcolor("lightgreen") tess.left(120)
tito = turtle.Turtle() tess.forward(80)
tess = turtle.Turtle() tess.left(120)
tess.color("hotpink") tess.forward(80)
tess.pensize(5) tess.left(120)
# tito draws a square
tito.forward(150) win.exitonclick()
tito.left(90)
tito.forward(150)
tito.left(90)
tito.forward(150)
tito.left(90)
tito.forward(150)
tito.left(90)
#continues on the right
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Iteration
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Problem: iterating over and over
• When we drew the square, it was quite tedious.
• We had to move then turn, move then turn, etc. four
times.
• If we were drawing a polygon with 42 sides, it would
have been a nightmare to duplicate all that code.
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Solution: the for loop
• It would be nice to be able to repeat some code over
and over again.
• We refer to this repetitive idea as iteration.
• In Python, the for statement allows us to write iteration.
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The for loop - example
• As a simple example, let’s say we have some friends,
and we’d like to send each of them an email inviting
them to our party.
o At the moment, we don’t quite know how to send
email yet, so we’ll just print a message for each
friend.
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The for loop - example
loop variable list
for name in ["Joe", "Amy", "Brad", "Angelina", "David", "Vivian", "Paris"]:
__print("Hi", name, "Please come to my party on Saturday!")
indentation (4 spaces or 1 tab) loop body
• It goes like this
For each name in the list of names, print out Hi [value of
name] please come to my party on Saturday!
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The for loop – flow execution
for loop_variable in list:
loop_body_stmts
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Iteration simplifies our turtle program 1
import turtle
# Set up a window and a turtle
win = turtle.Screen()
win.bgcolor("lightgreen")
tito = turtle.Turtle()
tito.pensize(5)
# Draw a side 4 times to make a square
for i in [0, 1, 2, 3]: # i is a common abbreviation for integer
tito.forward(150)
tito.left(90)
win.exitonclick()
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Iteration simplifies our turtle program 2
• Actually, it’s more important that we found a repeated
pattern rather than saving a few lines of code
• We could use another kind of list to do the same thing
import turtle
# Set up a window and a turtle
win = turtle.Screen()
win.bgcolor("lightgreen")
tito = turtle.Turtle()
tito.pensize(5)
# Draw a side 4 times to make a square
for a_color in ["yellow", "red", "purple", "blue"]:
tito.forward(150)
tito.left(90)
win.exitonclick()
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Iteration simplifies our turtle program 3
• Now, let’s add one more line of code to make the
square more beautiful
import turtle
# Set up a window and a turtle
win = turtle.Screen()
win.bgcolor("lightgreen")
tito = turtle.Turtle()
tito.pensize(5)
# Draw a side 4 times to make a square
for a_color in ["yellow", "red", "purple", "blue"]:
tito.color(a_color)
tito.forward(150)
tito.left(90)
win.exitonclick()
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The range function
• Generating a list of integers is a very common thing to
do, especially when using for loop
• The range() function helps to generate a list of integers
very effectively
• For example, the following code will print 0, 1, 2, 3
for i in range(4): # range(stop)
print(i)
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The range function - example
• How’s about this?
for i in range(1, 5): # range(start, stop)
print(i)
• And this?
for i in range(1, 20, 2): # range(start, stop, step)
print(i)
• Quick check: what is the command to generate [2, 5, 8]?
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A few more turtle methods and
observations
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A few more turtle methods and
observations 1
• A turtle’s tail can be picked up or put down. This allows
us to move a turtle to a different place without drawing a
line.
tito.up() # ask tito to pick her tail up, i.e. no draw after that
tito.forward(100) # this moves tito, but no line is drawn
tito.down() # ask tito to put her tail down
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A few more turtle methods and
observations 2
• Every turtle can have its own shape. The ones
available “out of the box” are arrow, blank,
circle, classic, square, triangle, turtle.
...
tito.shape("turtle")
...
• You can speed up or slow down the turtle’s animation
speed. Speed settings can be set between 1 (slowest)
to 10 (fastest).
tito.speed(10)
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A few more turtle methods and
observations 3
• A turtle can “stamp” its footprint onto the canvas, and
this will remain after the turtle has moved somewhere
else. Stamping works even when the pen is up.
• Let’s do an example that shows off some of these new
features.
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A few more turtle methods and
observations - example
import turtle
win = turtle.Screen()
win.bgcolor("lightgreen")
tess = turtle.Turtle()
tess.color("blue")
tess.shape("turtle")
tess.up()
for size in range(5, 60, 2): # start with size = 5 and grow by 2
tess.stamp() # leave an impression on the canvas
tess.forward(size) # move tess along
tess.right(24) # and turn her
win.exitonclick()
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*** Summary of turtle methods ***
Method Parameters Description All the info are at
https://docs.python.
Turtle None Creates and returns a new turtle object org/3/library/turtle.ht
ml
forward distance Moves the turtle forward
backward distance Moves the turle backward
right angle Turns the turtle clockwise
left angle Turns the turtle counter clockwise
up None Picks up the turtles tail
down None Puts down the turtles tail
color color name Changes the color of the turtle’s tail
fillcolor color name Changes the color of the turtle will use to fill a polygon
heading None Returns the current heading
position None Returns the current position
goto x, y Move the turtle to position x, y
begin_fill None Remember the starting point for a filled polygon
end_fill None Close the polygon and fill with the current fill color
dot None Leave a dot at the current position
stamp None Leaves an impression of a turtle shape at the current location
shape shapename Should be ‘arrow’, ‘classic’, ‘turtle’, or ‘circle’
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Modules 1
• A module is a file containing Python definitions and
statements intended for use in other Python programs.
• There are many Python modules that come with Python
as part of the standard library and you can write your
own modules too if you want.
• We have already used one of these modules
extensively - the turtle module.
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Modules 2
• Once we import a module, we can use things that are
defined inside that module.
import turtle
• The Python Documentation site for Python 3.7 is an
extremely useful reference for all aspects of Python.
• You should browse through the sections in this site to
get familiar with the information that it provides.
• The “Quick search” function in this site is very handy.
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The math module 1
• The math module contains the math functions you
would typically find on your calculator and some math
constants like π and e
import math
print(math.pi)
print(math.e)
print(math.sqrt(2.0))
print(math.sin(math.radians(90))) # sin of 90 degrees
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The math module 2
• Notice another difference between this module and our
use of turtle. In turtle we create objects
(either Turtle or Screen) and call methods on those
objects.
• Math functions do not need to be constructed. They
simply perform a task. They are all housed together in a
module called math.
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The random module
• We often want to use random numbers in programs.
Here are a few typical uses:
o To play a game of chance where the computer needs
to throw some dice, pick a number, or flip a coin
o To shuffle a deck of playing cards randomly
o To randomly allow a new enemy spaceship to appear
and shoot at you
• Python provides a module random that helps with tasks
like this. You can take a look at it in the documentation.
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The random module - example
• Here is an example of the key things we can do with the
random module.
import random
# get a random floating number in [0.0, 1.0)
prob = random.random()
print(prob)
# return a random integer in [1, 7)
dice_value = random.randrange(1, 7)
print(dice_value)
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Exercise
Write a program that generates and prints out a random
value of a dice. The program should do this five times and
then exits.
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Early Feedback Exercises
• Assessment introduction
• Examples
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