I’m Learning Python!

Prior to the holidays, Justin and I signed up to take an online Intro course to Python.

Offered through O’Reilly, we’ve been at it for about two weeks now, tackling a few lessons each week. The course we’re in now is an introduction to the language, and is one of four courses in total. If you complete all four, you get a certificate from the University of Illinois.

So far, it’s been pretty good. I’m not crazy about the interface (we remote desktop in to a Windows environment, and do all our work in an Eclipse environment). It’s a little clunky, but it gets the job done. It took more time to get a handle on the interface than it did to understand the first few lessons.

But that grumbling aside, I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty coding again. It’s a bit daunting, as this is new territory for me, and more of a programming language than I’ve ever attempted before. Having Justin alongside will definitely be a big help, in the event I get stuck later on down the line.

It’s a pricey program, and I’m not certain whether I’ll continue on to finish all four courses. We’ll see how this goes. Right now, we’re still in the intro phases (learning about basic stuff like while and for loops). I’m hoping that in another few weeks, we’ll start to see some new/interesting stuff, and I’ll get motivated to keep on going.

This is my first ever online course, and so far it’s been decent. I get good feedback from the instructor (who comments on my homework and quizzes), and he’s definitely been of a help so far. I’m still a bit hung up on the interface portion (and expected a bit more from O’Reilly), but I’m getting more and more used to it as the weeks go on.

I’m finished with Lesson 4, but have to complete the project and take the quiz. It’s weird to have reading and quizzes and homework again, after all this time.

But weird in a good way.