Title: Course Description and Information
Course: Basic scripting and programming

Introduction

For automating standard procedures or writing of specific (pre-) processing routines additional programming skills are required. A common used application for this purpose is the Python programming language. Python is a general-purpose open-source computer programming language used around the world in areas as diverse as spatial modelling, internet scripting, user interfaces, product customization, etc. With its straightforward syntax and insightful command structure, the language is generally regarded as probably the easiest general programming language to learn. It is also recognized as an extremely powerful language, with more and more industrial-quality extension modules becoming available. Finally, it is one of the most suitable languages to use in hybrid contexts of databases, GIS, image processing and web applications. This makes it an ideal language for scripting and rapid application development in many areas across a variety of platforms. The course provides a working knowledge (understanding and skills) of programming in Python, introduces various features of the Python language and system through examples, starting with simple expressions, statements and data types, through functions and modules, etc. Participants have to demonstrate their achievements by providing a case study, demonstrating their spatial processing skills.

The table below shows the overall course curriculum. Total course duration is 40 hrs, guidance by the lecturer will be for 6 weeks as from the start of the course. This entails that an average weekly effort of about 6 to 7 hours is expected to conduct the course.

By the end of the course, if all assignments are provided and well evaluated, a certificate of attendance will be provided.

Table 1: Course Curriculum

Main topic | Sub topic(s) | Type of study material | Study load (hours)
Course description | Overall course guide | Document | 1
Lesson 1: Installing and starting Python
- Download and installation of the Python software
- Getting familiar with the Python interface and interpreter
Documents, links to www and exercises
5
Lesson 2: Introduction to programming using Python
- First steps towards programming
- Variables, expressions and statements
Documents, links to www and exercises
5
Lesson 3: Statements and functions in Python
- if , for, break, continue, pass Statements
- Defining functions and using range Function
- Fruitful functions
Documents, links to www and exercises
5
Lesson 4: Conditionals, recursion and iterations
- Conditions
- Recursions
- Iterations, applying else clauses on loops
Documents, links to www and exercises
6
Lesson 5: Stings, tuples, lists and dictionaries in Python
- Strings
- Tuples and Lists
- Dictionaries
- Files
Documents, links to www and exercises
6
Lesson 6: Classes and objects of and in Python | - Classes and objects | Documents, links to www and exercises | 6
Lesson 7: Python and Spatial Data | - Python and spatial data | Documents, links to www and exercises | 6

Prerequisites

To conduct the course, the following prerequisites are expected from the participants:

- Working knowledge of English
- Proficiency using computers and capability to install some software used
- Online access

The course is set-up in such a way that there is no need to be online all the time. You can download the documents, exercise descriptions, software tools used as well as the data-sets, the study of the materials and to conduct the assignments can be done off-line. For upload of your results you should be online again. For eventual questions, you can also use the email address provided of the lecturer.

In order to ensure successful completion, please adhere to the overall course schedule as indicated in the final chapter of this course guide.

Overall course schedule

As from the start of course please take into consideration the expected progress for the duration of the course, to ensure successful completion. Please plan your time schedule over the next 6 weeks in such a way that you can adhere to this proposed schedule.

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3
Course guide, Lesson 1 and 2 | Lesson 3 | Lesson 4
Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6
lesson 5 | Lesson 6 | Lesson 7

During and after completion of the course the exercise results (total of 7 assignment(s), for lessons 1-7) should be uploaded into the LMS.