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The Perfect Crab Introduction to Programming

Welcome!

This is a series of exercises designed to help you learn the fundamentals of programming necessary to succeed in the Makers coding assessment. We'll be using Python, but the ideas will apply to any language.

How do I get started?

Note
If you like videos, follow this replit video guide to get set up. Otherwise, keep reading below.

To get started:

  1. ✅ Open up the replit space. If you're reading this, you've already done this and you can move on to the line below.
  2. Click the 'Fork & Run' button on the right. This will open up the programming interface you will use to learn.
  3. Sign up for a new replit account, or log in if you have one already.
  4. Replit will open this file again in your own account.
  5. After this, keep reading down the file for further instructions.

⚠️ If you encounter any 404 errors after you've signed up, please follow this process:

  1. Sign up and sign in to replit. You can tell you are signed in because it won't say 'Log in' in the top right.
  2. Click this link. Make sure you click it, don't just press the back button or assume you're on it already.
  3. Click the green 'Fork & Run' button on the right.

⚙️ If you prefer to use your own local development setup

If you're confident using your own local development setup and you have Python 3 installed, you can instead clone this repository and work through it that way. However only do this if you are sure you know what you're doing.

How do I use the replit interface?

The interface is made by an organisation called replit. We will call it the IDE.

You will need to engage with three parts of it:

  • The file panel on your left, working from this file downwards.
  • The code panel (if you're on replit now, that's this one) where you'll read and write code.
  • The shell panel to the right, where you'll run code.

To set up and learn how to use the interface, please follow the replit IDE setup video. This video has subtitles.

You may find the default replit theme hard to read. We have created two themes which combine good contrast and readability. I would recommend you use one of them:

When you're done setting it up, it should look something like this:

A screenshot of the replit interface with the files on the left, the code in the middle, and the shell on the right. It shows good contrast as the Makers theme is being used.

How to read the material

The learning materials are files of code. They look a bit like this:

def just_return_it(num):
  return num

# This is a function. A function is a reusable block of code.

The first two lines are code. This is what you will be learning how to create.

That last line starting with a # is a comment. We will talk you through the ideas behind the code using comments.

You should work through each file sequentially, starting with 010_comments.py. You should work through each file top to bottom.

At the end of the material there are four optional files. You don't need to complete these to be ready for the assessment, but they might help.

What if I would prefer to watch than to read?

There are video alternatives for each file that you can follow along with. You can find them as a link at the top of each file.

I have some feedback about the material

We would receive it with gratitude. You can give us feedback here.