TYCS - Programming - 1.1 Getting Started, 1.2 Elements of Programming

Let's Teach Ourselves Computer Science - Programming!
We will follow John DeNero's book "Composing Programs" (NOT the one on the picture, that's just a stock photo).

You can find it for free here: https://www.composingprograms.com/

The book is in the tradition of "The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (SICP), but uses Python instead of Scheme. It tries to teach "deeper" programming principles and wants you to understand them more fully. There is a strong focus on functional programming, a less well-known programming paradigm than, e.g. procedural or object-oriented programming.

For this session, please read Chapters 1.1 (Getting Started) and 1.2 (Elements of Programming) before the meeting. We will then discuss any questions we have about the content of these sections.

From what it appears to me, the book starts slow but gets into interesting territory quickly, so be patient if this seems not that interesting yet!

If you like video lectures: John DeNero has put many (all?) of his lectures online, even though they are a bit unorganised: https://www.youtube.com/@JohnDeNero/playlists