If you use the book in the order it is laid out, you’ll begin your exploration in Python by understanding the key differences between Python 3 and the previous versions of the language. From there, you’ll set up a programming environment for your relevant local or server- based system, and begin by learning general Python code structure, syntax, and data types. Along the way, you’ll gain a solid grounding in computational logic within Python, which can help you learn other programming languages. While the beginning of the book focuses on scripting in Python, the end of the book will take you through object- oriented coding in Python, which can make your code more modular, flexible, and complex without repetition. By the end of the book, you’ll learn how to debug your Python code and finally how to port Python code across versions.

When you are done with the book, we encourage you to look at project-based tutorials to put your knowledge into play while creating projects that can help you solve problems. While you are working on these projects, you can continue to refer to the chapters in this book as reference material.

As part of your learning process and once you feel comfortable, we recommend that you contribute to an open-source project to improve programs and drive greater access via software and technical documentation pull requests or repository maintenance. Our community is bigger than just us and building software together can make sure that everyone has an opportunity to participate in the technology we use every day.