SETUP

1. Download the linux file
2. Download the VirtualBox Installer for Windows
3. Follow this guide
4. Download this file and place in your home folder

WRITING CODE

Metasyntactic variables: foo, bar, baz, and qux are placeholder names commonly used by programmers.

1. Open your terminal by searching for it in the startbar
2. To create or open a python file, type nano foo.py
3. You are now in a editor called nano. Simply type your program in here and use arrow keys to move.



Shortcut Keys:

• Home key - moves you to the start of a line
• End key - moves you to the end of a line
• pg up and pg dn - moves you up or down a page
• ctrl-s - saves your work
• ctrl-q - quits nano (be sure to save first)
• ctrl-x - cuts the line of text you are on
• ctrl-c - copies the line of text you are on
• ctrl-v - pastes the line of text where your cursor is
• ctrl-z - undo
• ctrl-y - redo
• ctrl-f - search for a word
• ctrl-n - move to next matching word from a search



4. Read the book "Think Python" Do the exercises for chapters 1 to 14
5. For an "aha moment", take exercise 3.3 from chapter 3 and find a way to make the same grid drawing program that can now take user input to determine how many rows and columns the printed grid will have
6. Text me for any questions or clarification. More help offered during meetups.

Once you have the fundamentals down, you will learn a more powerful text editor and helpful tools along with a more powerful programming language and more advanced concepts