92 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI BEGINNER'S GUIDE
N
amed after the Monty Python comedy troupe, Guido van Rossum’s Python has
grown from a hobby project first released to the public in 1991 to the much-loved
programming language powering a wide range of projects. Unlike the visual
environment of Scratch, Python is text based: you write instructions, using a simplified
language and specific format, which the computer then carries out.
Python is a great next step for those who have already used Scratch, offering increased
flexibility and a more ‘traditional’ programming environment. That’s not to say it’s difficult to
learn, though: with a little practice, anyone can write Python programs for everything from
simple calculations through to surprisingly complicated games.
This chapter builds on terms and concepts introduced in Chapter 4, Programming with
Scratch. If you haven’t worked through the exercises in that chapter yet, you’ll find this chapter
easier to follow if you go back and do so first.Chapter 5
Now you’ve got to grips with Scratch,
we’ll show you how to do text-based
coding with Python