A 3 day introduction to writing computer programs for staff with no experience using programming languages. This course covers basic programming concepts such as variables, data types, expressions, lists, arrays, dictionaries, flow control and functions. The course uses Python as the primary teaching language but includes examples in other languages such as Basic, C Family (C++/C#/Java/JavaScript), Fortran and R.

Prerequisites

This course is designed for staff with no prior experience with developing software programs who are expecting to undertake programming as part of their job role.

Learning Objectives

The course will help staff understand the basic principles of writing programs, specifically:

• What is a computer program
• Different language syntax and semantics
• Working with different data types
• Specifying literal values (constants)
• Writing expressions
• Working with scalar data
• Using flow control with conditional and loop statements
• Handling lists and arrays of data
• Defining and calling functions
• Simple plotting libraries
• Reading and writing files

Delivery

This course comprises a mix of theory, demonstrations and hands on exercises. Approximately 60% of the time is hands-on.