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= INVESTIGATION 3: WRITING A PYTHON SCRIPT =
During this investigation we will start writing our very first python scripts. These will be very basic and help us practice syntax and foundational foundation skills, such as: outputing outputting text to the screen, storing data inside variables, and using math operators.
=== PART 1 - PRINTING Common Introductory Python Functions === ====Printing Text====
Lets start IPython interpreter and start writing some python code.
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:::Our first python code we will write is the print function. A function is code that has been defined in another location. Functions can take arguments, use these arguments in some way, and then usually return a result. The first function we will use is the "print()" functions, it's sole purpose is to output information to the screen.
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:::You will notice that nothing happened when we ran this "print()" function. This is because we didn't pass any arguments to it, lets try again.
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:::This time we should now see that the python function "print()" has outputted to the screen the words 'hello world'. In python a word or a bunch of characters like 'hello world' is called a 'string'. So what we did above is, passed a '''string''' as a '''argument''' to the print '''function'''. These words are important for understanding and talking about different aspects of code.
=== PART 2 - HELLO WORLD =Creating the introductory "Hello World" Script====
Next, we will make our first script with the above function. Open a new text file called "lab1a.py".
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This course is designed with a unit testing suite, which can be used to look at the scripts you write and give real-time feedback. This feedback is not perfect, however it may offer some hints if you get stuck with a error. It can also be used to make sure you are on the write track, and show progress.