Non-Programmer's Tutorial for Python 2.6/Induction

Simple Programs Python is such a simple language even a non-programmer could understand it. Here are some examples: print "Hello, World!" This program prints "Hello, World!" on the screen. Even longer programs can be easily understood # Stuff after number signs are comments that have no functionality # They are useful for explaining how things work though. name = raw_input("What is your name?") # Asks the person using the program what their name is if name == "John": # If the person types John and presses enter print "Hello, John! How are you?" # The program prints Hello, John! How are you? elif name == "Teddy": # If the person types Teddy and presses enter print "Go away!" # The Program prints Go Away! else: # If the person types any thing else and the presses enter print "Good day," , name # The Program prints Good day followed by what the person typed Weird Features Some weird features of Python include the fact that grouping is shown by how indented a line is. For example, if value == input: do this is not the same as: if value == input: do this Instead, some languages prefer to have everything written like this: {if value == input[d o this ] In other languages, you can organize it in any way you want. It's different in Python.