In Class: Week 1, Thursday


Run update21 to download class files. Then cd into this week's directory.
$ update21                           # download updates
$ cd                                 # go to home directory
$ cd cs21                            # go to the cs21 directory
$ pwd	          
  /home/your_user_name/cs21

$ cd class                           # go to the class directory 
$ pwd		
  /home/your_user_name/cs21/class

$ cd week01                          # go to this week's directory
$ pwd           
  /home/your_user_name/cs21/class/week01

You should see three files in the directory

$ ls
add.py  firstProg.py  loop.py

  1. We are going to start by looking at the firstProg.py program together, so go ahead and open it in vim:
    $ vim firstProg.py  
    
    This is the command to run the program in the python interpreter:
    $ python firstProg.py
    

  2. Try modifying the firstProg.py in vim to print out a different string, and run it.

  3. Next we will look at add.py. This program follows the general pattern that all (most) programs follow:
    1. input phase: get data values for program variables
    2. compute phase: do something with the program's data (some operations on variables and values)
    3. output phase: display the results to the user

  4. Finally, we will look at loop.py. This is an example of a program that uses a for loop. A loop construct tells the python interpreter to repeat a set of instructions some number of times.

Running Python Programs

You can run your python program in the python interpreter two different ways (we will use the first way most of the time):
  1. Have the interpreter run your program to completion:
    $ python firstProg.py
      Hello There
    $
    
  2. Run the interpreter in interactive mode on your program (the python interpreter will continue to run after running your program, and you can enter new python commands at the prompt >>>:
    $ python -i firstProg.py
      Hello there
      >>> print "I love computer science!"
      I love computer science!
      >>> print 13 + 7 + 11
      31
      >>>
    
To exit the python interpreter hold down the control and the D keys together (CNTL-D)

You can also just start the python interpreter in interactive mode without giving it a python code file to run:

  $ python
  >>>