Books with author Al Sweigart

If you’ve ever spent hours renaming files or updating hundreds of spreadsheet cells, you know how tedious tasks like these can be. But what if you could have your computer do them for you?In Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, you’ll learn how to use Python to write programs that do in minutes what would take you hours to do by hand—no prior programming experience required. Once you’ve mastered the basics of programming, you’ll create Python programs that effortlessly perform useful and impressive feats of automation to:–Search for text in a file or across multiple files–Create, update, move, and rename files and folders–Search the Web and download online content–Update and format data in Excel spreadsheets of any size–Split, merge, watermark, and encrypt PDFs–Send reminder emails and text notifications–Fill out online formsStep-by-step instructions walk you through each program, and practice projects at the end of each chapter challenge you to improve those programs and use your newfound skills to automate similar tasks.Don’t spend your time doing work a well-trained monkey could do. Even if you’ve never written a line of code, you can make your computer do the grunt work. Learn how in Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.Note: The programs in this book are written to run on Python 3.

A hands-on introduction to coding that teaches you how to program bots to do cool things in the game you love--Minecraft! This book takes the robotic "turtle" method, and extends it to the 3D, interactive world of Minecraft.You've mined for diamonds, crafted dozens of tools, and built all sorts of structures--but what if you could program robots to do all of that for you in a fraction of the time?In Coding with Minecraft®, you'll create a virtual robot army with Lua, a programming language used by professional game developers. Step-by-step coding projects will show you how to write programs that automatically dig mines, collect materials, craft items, and build anything that you can imagine. Along the way, you'll explore key computer science concepts like data types, functions, variables, and more. Learn how to:- Program robots that make smart decisions with flow control- Reuse code so that your robots can farm any crop you want, including wheat, sugar cane, and even cacti!- Program a factory that generates infinite building supplies- Design an algorithm for creating walls and buildings of any size- Code yourself a pickaxe-swinging robotic lumberjack!- Create a robot that digs mine shafts with stairs so you can explore safelyBonus activities in each chapter will help you take your coding skills to the next level. By the end of the book, you'll understand how powerful coding can be and have plenty of robots at your beck and call.

Scratch, the colorful drag-and-drop programming language, is used by millions of first-time learners, and in Scratch Programming Playground, you’ll learn to program by making cool games. Get ready to destroy asteroids, shoot hoops, and slice and dice fruit!Each game includes easy-to-follow instructions, review questions, and creative coding challenges to make the game your own. Want to add more levels or a cheat code? No problem, just write some code.You’ll learn to make games like:–Maze Runner: escape the maze!–Snaaaaaake: gobble apples and avoid your own tail–Asteroid Breaker: smash space rocks–Fruit Slicer: a Fruit Ninja clone–Brick Breaker: a remake of Breakout, the brick-breaking classic–Platformer: a game inspired by Super Mario Bros.Learning how to program shouldn’t be dry and dreary. With Scratch Programming Playground, you’ll make a game of it!Uses Scratch 2

If you’ve ever spent hours renaming files or updating hundreds of spreadsheet cells, you know how tedious tasks like these can be. But what if you could have your computer do them for you?In Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, you’ll learn how to use Python to write programs that do in minutes what would take you hours to do by hand—no prior programming experience required. Once you’ve mastered the basics of programming, you’ll create Python programs that effortlessly perform useful and impressive feats of automation to:–Search for text in a file or across multiple files–Create, update, move, and rename files and folders–Search the Web and download online content–Update and format data in Excel spreadsheets of any size–Split, merge, watermark, and encrypt PDFs–Send reminder emails and text notifications–Fill out online formsStep-by-step instructions walk you through each program, and practice projects at the end of each chapter challenge you to improve those programs and use your newfound skills to automate similar tasks.Don’t spend your time doing work a well-trained monkey could do. Even if you’ve never written a line of code, you can make your computer do the grunt work. Learn how in Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.Note: The programs in this book are written to run on Python 3.

Scratch, the colorful drag-and-drop programming language, is used by millions of first-time learners, and in Scratch Programming Playground, you’ll learn to program by making cool games. Get ready to destroy asteroids, shoot hoops, and slice and dice fruit!Each game includes easy-to-follow instructions, review questions, and creative coding challenges to make the game your own. Want to add more levels or a cheat code? No problem, just write some code.You’ll learn to make games like:–Maze Runner: escape the maze!–Snaaaaaake: gobble apples and avoid your own tail–Asteroid Breaker: smash space rocks–Fruit Slicer: a Fruit Ninja clone–Brick Breaker: a remake of Breakout, the brick-breaking classic–Platformer: a game inspired by Super Mario Bros.Learning how to program shouldn’t be dry and dreary. With Scratch Programming Playground, you’ll make a game of it!Uses Scratch 2

A hands-on introduction to coding that teaches you how to program bots to do cool things in the game you love--Minecraft! This book takes the robotic "turtle" method, and extends it to the 3D, interactive world of Minecraft.You've mined for diamonds, crafted dozens of tools, and built all sorts of structures--but what if you could program robots to do all of that for you in a fraction of the time?In Coding with Minecraft®, you'll create a virtual robot army with Lua, a programming language used by professional game developers. Step-by-step coding projects will show you how to write programs that automatically dig mines, collect materials, craft items, and build anything that you can imagine. Along the way, you'll explore key computer science concepts like data types, functions, variables, and more. Learn how to:- Program robots that make smart decisions with flow control- Reuse code so that your robots can farm any crop you want, including wheat, sugar cane, and even cacti!- Program a factory that generates infinite building supplies- Design an algorithm for creating walls and buildings of any size- Code yourself a pickaxe-swinging robotic lumberjack!- Create a robot that digs mine shafts with stairs so you can explore safelyBonus activities in each chapter will help you take your coding skills to the next level. By the end of the book, you'll understand how powerful coding can be and have plenty of robots at your beck and call.

A project-filled introduction to coding that shows kids how to build programs by making cool games. Based on Scratch 3, the world's most popular drag-and-drop programming language developed by the MIT Lifelong Kindergarten Group.Kids learn to code by making fun computer games with the Scratch programming language. Games include things like a timed maze, a snake game, asteroids, and more. By combining colorful Scratch programming blocks of code, kids quickly learn computer programming concepts, like loops, strings, and variables, without having to master the cryptic syntax found in most programming languages. Easy-to-follow, full color instructions allow immediate results with minor supervision. Review questions and coding challenges reinforce learning and aid classroom use and the development of lesson plans.

A project-filled introduction to coding that shows kids how to build programs by making cool games. Based on Scratch 3, the world's most popular drag-and-drop programming language developed by the MIT Lifelong Kindergarten Group.Kids learn to code by making fun computer games with the Scratch programming language. Games include things like a timed maze, a snake game, asteroids, and more. By combining colorful Scratch programming blocks of code, kids quickly learn computer programming concepts, like loops, strings, and variables, without having to master the cryptic syntax found in most programming languages. Easy-to-follow, full color instructions allow immediate results with minor supervision. Review questions and coding challenges reinforce learning and aid classroom use and the development of lesson plans.