Programming Foundations: Fundamentals

Prepare to learn the fundamental concepts, practices, and terminology of programming in this introductory course.

Introduction

• The fundamentals of programming
• Following along with the course

1. Programming Basics

• What is programming?
• What is a programming language?
• Writing source code
• Running your code
• Using an IDE

2. Programming Syntax

• Why Python?
• Installing Python on a Mac
• Installing Python on Windows
• Running Python on the command line on Mac
• Running Python on the command line on Windows
• Installing Visual Studio Code on a Mac
• Installing Visual Studio Code on Windows
• Running Python in an IDE
• Basic statements and expressions
• Troubleshooting issues

3. Variables and Data Types

• Introduction to variables and data types
• Variables across languages
• Working with numbers
• Working with strings
• Properly using whitespace
• Working with comments
• Challenge: What's the output?
• Solution: What's the output?

4. Conditional Code

• Making decisions in code
• Exploring conditional code
• Working with simple conditions
• Conditionals across languages
• Challenge: Guessing game
• Solution: Guessing game

5. Modular Code

• Introduction to functions
• Creating and calling functions
• Setting parameters and arguments
• Returning values from functions
• Functions across languages
• Challenge: Favorite cities
• Solution: Favorite cities

Conclusion

• Exploring languages
• Next steps