Hello World Second Edition
This year we have been working on an update to Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners. The Second Edition hit bookstore shelves in late December 2013.
The first thing you’ll notice about the new edition is that it’s in full color, including the code listings, which have syntax coloring. Here are some of the other changes:
- We added a section on Python Dictionaries
- We added a chapter explaining in detail how the Chapter 10 Skier program works
- We added a chapter about making an AI (Artificial Intelligence) robot that competes against another AI in a simple battle game.
- We switched from using PythonCard for GUIs to using PyQt. The developers of PythonCard stopped working on it quite a while ago, and it’s no longer supported. Qt (and the Python implementation, PyQt) is widely used.
- We added notes throughout the book on the differences between Python 2 and Python 3.
One of the things that didn’t change is that we are still using Python 2. Although Python 3 has been out for a few years, many programmers are still using Python 2. Also, much of the existing Python code in the world is Python 2, and there are still a lot more 3rd-party modules that support Python 2. For learning programming, it doesn’t make much difference what language you use, or what version of a particular language. If using Python 3 is really important to you, the notes throughout the book (and an Appendix that summarizes the most obvious differences) should help you modify the examples in the book to work with Python 3.
We hope you enjoy the Hello World! Second Edition.