Not sure whether you’re only meant to get a single shot at an #introduction, but I’ll extend on mine a bit now that I’m starting to find my feet here

My main focus is on communicating about #programming, specifically #Python. That includes teaching!

However, my first career was as a physicist

After studying #Maths and #Physics and then getting my PhD in Physics from Imperial College, London, I went down the normal route of a few postdocs, an academic fellowship, and then a lectureship.

Most of my science work centred around novel retinal imaging technology with the primary aim of early disease diagnosis, plus a bit more about the optics of the eye.

I learnt to code as part of my PhD work and then relied on programming (mostly MATLAB, at the time, before the Python-era) for all of my research work, from simulation and modelling, to running the lab experiments, to analysing the data.

When I left academia, I decided to focus on teaching programming to both children and adults.

I spend a lot of time creating learning content, including The Python Coding Book and regular articles on the blog.

I also run codetoday which runs live lessons for children from age 7 to learn coding in Python (only Python, no kids-platforms. Yes, starting from age 7, you’d be surprised how well they pick the basics up)

I’ll be sharing bits on content regularly here too, typically aimed at intermediate learners (including those aiming to move from beginners to intermediate), including steering towards scientific programming and related fields.

OK, I’ve abused #QOTO’s longer character limit too much, so I’d better stop!

#newbie question: Is a private toot the same as followers-only?

It’s nice to be able to post using markdown - it will also make posting code more natural

print("Hello, Mastodon!")

Although I’ve noticed that on the iOS app I’m using (the official one), markdown is not rendered. It is on the web platform.

Not sure about other apps…

PS: I believe this is not a feature on all servers…

3D Solar System Using Matplotlib

The 3D version uses #matplotlib for the animation

Here’s the article: Simulating a 3D Solar System In Python Using Matplotlib

#python #animation #simulation #planets #matplotlib

Using Python to create a solar system

If anyone is looking for a fun exercise to flex their #Python #coding fingers…

Using just gravitational attraction between bodies, you can create your own 2D solar system with as many stars and planets as you want. Here’s a binary star system with some relatively stable planets

Here’s the article, including a detailed step-by-step tutorial, if you want to read more: Simulating Orbiting Planets in a Solar System Using Python

#Python #simulation #animation

…and there’s also a 3D version (next post)

We'll return to the Python functions series tomorrow!

/11

They're easy to miss and ignore. But if you've read documentation, you will definitely have seen a * or a / in many function signatures

Now, when you see them next, you'll know perfectly well what they are and what they do

/10

Or maybe you use Matplotlib? Here's `plt.scatter()`

Wait for it

scatter(x, y, s=None, c=None, marker=None, cmap=None, norm=None, vmin=None, vmax=None, alpha=None, linewidths=None, *, edgecolors=None, plotnonfinite=False, data=None, **kwargs)

Did you spot the lone * ?

/9

Maybe you use NumPy a lot? Positional-only and keyword-only arguments appear very often in the NumPy codebase

Here's just one example, NumPy's `mean()` method:

a.mean(axis=None, dtype=None, out=None, keepdims=False, *, where=True)

/8

Let's check:

>>> "hello".replace("l", '-')
'he--o'

>>> "hello".replace(old="l", new='-')
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: str.replace() takes no keyword arguments

/7

How about `str.replace()`? You've used that too?

Here's the signature:

replace(self, old, new, count=-1, /)

`old`, `new`, and `count` are all positional-only

/6

`key` and `reverse` are keyword-only in `list.sort()`

/5

>>> numbers = [4, 6, 7, 2]
>>> numbers.sort(reverse=True)
>>> numbers
[7, 6, 4, 2]

All fine here. But try to use a positional argument instead:

>>> numbers.sort(True)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: sort() takes no positional arguments

/4

Have you ever used `list.sort()` with the `key` or `reverse` parameters?

I bet you have!

Here's the signature for `list.sort()`

sort(self, /, *, key=None, reverse=False)

/3

Why do we need them? Are they even ever used?

I bet you've seen them many times and ignored them. I'll go further and bet you've used them, too, without knowing

/2