Who Is This Book For?

Python Playground is written for anyone curious about how to use programming to understand and explore ideas. The projects in this book assume that you know basic Python syntax and basic programming concepts and that you’re familiar with high-school level mathematics. I’ve done my best to explain in detail the math you need for all projects.

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This book is not intended to be your first book on Python. I won’t walk you through the basics. I will, however, show you how to use Python to solve a variety of real-world problems in a series of nontrivial projects. As you work through the projects, you’ll explore the nuances of the Python programming language and learn how to work with some popular Python libraries. But perhaps even more importantly, you’ll learn how to break down a problem into parts, develop an algorithm to solve that problem, and then implement a solution from the ground up using Python. It can be difficult to solve real-world problems because they are often open-ended and require expertise in various domains. But Python offers the tools to facilitate problemsolving. Overcoming difficulties and finding solutions to real problems is the most important part of your journey on the way to becoming an expert programmer.

What’s in This Book?

Let’s take a quick tour through the chapters in this book.

Part I: Warming Up

Chapter 1 will show you how to parse iTunes playlist files and gather useful information from them, such as track lengths and common tracks. In Chapter 2, we use parametric equations and Turtle graphics to draw curves like the ones generated by a Spirograph.

Part II: Simulating Life

This part is about using mathematical models to simulate phenomena. In Chapter 3, you’ll learn how to implement the Conway’s Game of Life algorithm to generate dynamic patterns that create other patterns as a sort of simulation of artificial life. Chapter 4 will show you how to create realistic plucked string sounds using the Karplus-Strong algorithm. Then, in Chapter 5, you’ll learn how to implement the Boids algorithm to simulate the flocking behavior of birds.

Part III: Fun with Images

This part will introduce you to reading and manipulating 2D images with Python. Chapter 6 shows you how to create ASCII art from an image. In Chapter 7, you’ll make a photomosaic, and in Chapter 8, you’ll learn how to generate autostereograms, which create the illusion of a 3D image.

Part IV: Enter 3D

The projects in this part use the OpenGL 3D graphics library. Chapter 9 introduces the basics of using OpenGL to create simple 3D graphics. In Chapter 10, you’ll create a particle simulation—a fountain of fireworks that uses math and OpenGL shaders for computation and rendering. Then in

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Chapter 11, you’ll use OpenGL shaders to implement a volume ray casting algorithm to render volumetric data—a technique commonly used for medical imaging such as MRI and CT scans.

Part V: Hardware Hacking

In the final part, you’ll use Python to explore the Arduino microcontroller and the Raspberry Pi. In Chapter 12, you’ll use the Arduino to read and plot sensor data from a simple circuit. In Chapter 13, you’ll combine Python with an Arduino to control two rotating mirrors and a laser to produce a laser show that responds to sound. In Chapter 14, you’ll use the Raspberry Pi to build a web-based weather monitoring system.