Captain Code

Ben Forta is, first and foremost, an educator who has been teaching in some capacity since he was a teenager (many centuries ago). He is Adobe's Senior Director of Education Initiatives, and has more than three decades of experience in the technology sector in product development, support, training, and product marketing. Ben is the award-winning author of more than 40 books, some of which have been translated into 16 languages, and many of which have become college textbooks. Through his books, lectures, lessons, and videos, Ben has taught coding skills to over a million people. Ben lives in Oak Park, MI, with his wife Marcy and their children. He welcomes your emails at ben@forta.com and invites you to visit him online at http://forta.com/. Shmuel Forta is an engineer, coder, maker, tinkerer, and teacher. He is a software developer at General Motors and has years of programming experience, including both writing and instruction of code. He has been teaching Python coding to middle school students for more than five years. Shmuel has a Master's Degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan and has published research work in IEEE. Shmuel lives in Oak Park, MI, with his wife Chana Mina. He would be happy to respond to any questions or comments via email at shmuel@forta.com.

" This is the book I needed that I did not know I needed. Having taught myself Python and having taught students, there are still some gaps in my knowledge that Captain Code quickly filled. The overall design of the book is wonderful and easy to read. All of the questions I have normally had when it comes to Python are answered on the pages. The code is cleanly written and the ability to scan a QR code so you can copy the code digitally is a major time-saver. What is most evident about this book is that it has been written by people that have worked with students. Too often books are written for students by people who have never taught and it never translates well on the pages. Captain Code is accessible for students and teachers and I think it is a must have for any classroom that is exploring Python. I know I will keep one at home for me and a few more in the classroom." ---Nicholas Provenzano, TheNerdyTeacher, MACUL OutstandingTechnology Using Teacher of the Year, and ISTE Outstanding Teacher of the Year

• Introduction     xv PART I:  IT'S ALL FUN AND GAMES     1 Chapter 1  Getting Started     3 Understanding Computer Programming     4 What is a computer?     4 How do we talk to computers?     5 What is Python?     8 Setting Things Up     9 Installing Python     9 Installing and Configuring Visual Studio Code     10 Creating a Work Folder     13 Writing Your First Python Program     15 Selecting Your Work Folder     16 It's Coding Time!     17 Summary     19 Chapter 2  Mad Libs     21 Understanding Functions     22 Using Variables     23 Creating a Variable     24 Using a Variable     24 Some Important Variable Rules     25 Variables, More Variables, and Even More Variables     26 Getting User Input     28 Playing Mad Libs     30 Write Your Story     30 Add Variables     30 Get User Input     32 Summary     33 Chapter 3  Roll the Dice     35 Using Libraries     36 The random Library     36 Generating Random Numbers     37 Choosing a Random Item     38 “3” Is Not 3     41 Commenting Your Code     43 One Die, Two Dice     45 Summary     49 Chapter 4  Calculate the Day     51 Working with Dates     52 The datetime Library     52 Using the datetime Class     55 Making Decisions     56 The if Statement     56 What else?     58 if Revisited     59 Testing for Other Options     61 Using in     62 Beating the Mathematician     63 Handling Numeric Inputs     63 Putting It All Together     64 An Alternate Solution     67 Summary     67 Chapter 5  Rock Paper Scissors     69 More Strings     70 Game Time     72 Handling User Input     72 The Game Code     74 One Last Tweak     76 Summary     77 Chapter 6  Secret Codes     79 Lists     80 Creating Lists     80 Accessing List Items     82 Changing List Items     83 Adding and Removing Items     84 Finding Items     85 Sorting     86 Loop-de-Loop     89 Looping Through Items     90 Looping Through Numbers     92 Nested Loops     93 Cracking the Code     95 Encrypting Characters     96 Modulus Math     97 Encryption Code     98 Decryption Code     102 Summary     104 Chapter 7  Guess the Number     105 Conditional Loops     106 Game Time     111 The Basic Game     111 Putting It All Together     116 Summary     120 Chapter 8  Becoming a Coder     121 How Coders Code     122 Have a Plan     122 Think Small     123 Game Components     124 Restricting User Input     125 Storing User Guesses     128 Displaying Lists     129 Masking Characters     131 Summary     136 Chapter 9  Hangman     137 Game Time     138 So How Does It Work?     141 Summary     148 Chapter 10  Keep Going     149 Birthday Countdown     150 Program Requirements     150 Program Flow     150 Some Tips     151 Tip Calculator     152 Program Requirements     152 Program Flow     153 Some Tips (Pun Intended)     153 Password Generator     154 Program Requirements     154 Program Flow     155 Some Tips     155 Summary     159 PART II:  ON AN ADVENTURE     161 Chapter 11  Getting Func-ky     163 Functions Revisited     164 Creating a Function     165 Passing Arguments     167 Returning Values     171 Summary     175 Chapter 12  Exploring     177 Game Concept     178 Game Structure     179 Prompting for Options     181 Processing Options     182 Create a Work Folder     183 Game Time     184 Test It     189 Summary     191 Chapter 13  Cleanup Time     193 Optimizing Your Code     194 String Externalization     196 Creating the Strings File     196 Using Externalized Strings     200 Summary     201 Chapter 14  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refactor     203 Understanding Refactoring     204 Identifying Refactoring Opportunities     205 Creating a User Choice Component     207 Designing a Reusable Component     208 Creating the User Options Function     213 Updating Your Code     218 Summary     221 Chapter 15  Carrying (and Using) Stuff     223 Planning the Inventory System     224 Creating a Dictionary     225 Working with Dictionaries     226 Lists of Dictionaries     228 The Inventory System     229 Creating an Inventory     230 Plugging In the Inventory System     232 Using the Inventory System     233 Displaying the Inventory     238 Summary     239 Chapter 16  Keeping It Classy     241 The Player System     242 Creating a Player Class     243 Creating the Class     243 Defining Properties     244 Creating Methods     247 Initializing the Class     250 Using Our New Class     251 Summary     255 Chapter 17  Color Your World     257 Installing Third-Party Libraries     258 Using Colorama     259 Importing and Initializing the Library     259 Coloring Your Output     260 Summary     264 Chapter 18  Keep Going     265 Health and Lives     266 Shopping for Items     271 Random Events     275 Battling Enemies     277 Saving and Restoring     280 Summary     282 PART III:  RACING AROUND     283 Chapter 19  Crazy Driver     285 Introducing Pygame     286 Prepping the Game     286 Game Concept     286 Installing Pygame     288 Creating Work Folders     288 Obtaining Images     289 Getting Started     289 Initializing Pygame     290 Displaying Stuff     294 The Game Loop     295 Summary     300 Chapter 20  Image-ine the Possibilities     301 Files and Folders     302 Setting the Background     305 Placing the Cars     310 Summary     317 Chapter 21  We Like to Move It     319 Moving the Enemy     320 Moving the Player     323 Summary     327 Chapter 22  Crash, Bang, Boom     329 You Crashed, Game Over     330 Tracking Score     332 Increasing Difficulty     334 Summary     336 Chapter 23  Finishing Touches     337 Game Over Revisited     338 Pause     341 Varying Enemies     343 Ice Cubes     348 Summary     351 Chapter 24  Keep Going     353 Splash Screen     354 Scores and High Scores     354 Oil Slick     356 Multiple Enemies     357 And Then     358 Summary     359 What Next?     361 There's a Lot More to Python     362 Web Development     362 Mobile App Development     364 Game Development     364 And Then     365 Index     367 Bonus Online Chapter 25  Tinkering, Testing, and Debugging Revisited     (Online Only)