Writing for an intermediate audience is hard, but Ken Youens-Clark has nailed it with Tiny Python Projects. This is a great book for those who have dabbled with a few beginner Python tutorials but still feel like they don't "get" programming. The projects in this book are short and simple; perfect for beginners who want to get experience with actual programs instead of just code snippets.

Read more...

This blog post examines different ways that Python lists and dictionaries can be used to represent a 2D data structure. I also write some test programs to measure the performance of each data structure.

Read more...

Here's a hint for programmers writing their resumes: "JavaScript" is spelled as one word, capital-J, capital-S, and no hyphen. But this isn't a blog post about programmers who make typos on their resumes, but about what a minefield of low-quality programming books that Amazon has become.

Read more...

Python has a more concise syntax that uses the in operator and the multiple values packaged in a tuple. To check if one of multiple variables is one of many values, you can use a list comprehension and the any() function.

Read more...

I was one of those kids in the 90s who taught themselves how to code by making video games in the BASIC programming language. Later, I majored in computer science, moved to Silicon Valley, became a software engineer, started writing programming books including Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, and then quit my job to write full-time. I now wake up whenever I want and work from home or nearby cafes. I'm financially secure while being my own boss.

This is a completely true story.^*

Read more...

Here are 22 actual, runnable Python code for several recursive functions, written in a style to be understandable by beginners and produce debuggable output.

Read more...

Generators in Python (also called generator functions) are used to create a series of values one at a time. Let's learn how they work by re-creating the built-in range() function.

Read more...

This post has the Python code for the infamously recursive Ackermann function, but without using recursion.

Read more...

The source code and compiled binary for a Windows terminal command I created to copy the current working directory to the clipboard. I find myself using this all the time.

Read more...

I created the bitfielddraw Python module so that you could turn math formulas into .png image files.

Read more...